LINDO

LINDO, English family descended from ISAAC (LORENçO RODRIGUES) LINDO (1638–1712), who was born in Badajoz. After being penanced in 1656 as a Judaizer by the Inquisition in the canary islands , he settled about 1670 in London, where he became an elder of the synagogue and was a signatory of the ascamot of 1694. He was one of the earliest "Jew Brokers" of the city (1697). His descendants continued in that capacity until the 19th century and the entire series of their brokers' medals is preserved. Other members of the family included MOSES (1712–1774) who immigrated in 1756 to South Carolina and became inspector general and surveyor of indigo, drugs, and dyes. He experimented scientifically with dyes and was responsible for some ambitious projects. ABRAHAM ALEXANDER, formerly of Jamaica, wrote pamphlets on the affairs of the island, and, in England, against the Reform movement. He delivered an address in the Sephardi Synagogue on the death of William IV in 1837. DAVID ABARBANEL (1772–1852), an active English communal worker, was at one time president of the elders of the Sephardi community. He was connected by marriage to the Disraeli family, and was the mohel of benjamin disraeli . His daughter ABIGAIL (1803–1848) wrote Hebrewand English and English and Hebrew Vocabulary, also Hebrew and English Dialogues (1837; other eds. 1842, 1846) which displayed considerable learning as well as awareness of the potentialities of Hebrew as a spoken language. ELIAS hAYYIM (1783–1865) settled in London after a mercantile career in St. Thomas (West Indies) where he was president of the Jewish community. He published an English translation of manasseh ben israel 's Conciliador (1842), A History of the Jews of Spain and Portugal (1848), and a Jewish Calendar for Sixty-four Years (1838) containing much historical information. Some of his unpublished translations of Jewish classics are in the library of Jews' College, London. The Lindos were closely related to many other Sephardi "cousinhood" families of note in Britain, including the mocattas and the montefiores . -BIBLIOGRAPHY: Roth, Mag Bibl, index; A.M. Hyamson, Sephardim of England (1951), index; B.A. Elzas, Jews of South Carolina (1903), 47–67; L. Wolf, Jews in the Canary Islands (1926), index; Abrahams, in: JHSEM, 3 (1937), 80–94; J.A.P.M. Andrade, Record of the Jews in Jamaica (1941), passim; C. Reznikoff and U.Z. Engelman, Jews of Charleston (1950), 23–34; C. Rabin, in Leshonenu la-Am, 137 (1963). ADD. BIBLIOGRAPHY: ODNB online; Katz, England, 375–76; J. Ranston, The Lindo Legacy (2000). (Cecil Roth)