SCHOMBERG

SCHOMBERG, English family. MEYER LOEW SCHOMBERG (1690–1761), born in Fetzburg, Germany, was one of the first Jews to be accepted at a German university, receiving a degree in medicine from the University of Giessen (1710). He subsequently settled in London, and became a member of the Royal College of Physicians (1722) and a Fellow of the Royal Society (1726). Appointed physician to the Great Synagogue, he built up a fashionable clientele. He wrote Emunat Omen in 1746, criticizing the English Jewish community for its mean outlook and defending his own unorthodox way of life. His sons ceased to be identified with Judaism. ISAAC SCHOMBERG (1714–1780), the eldest, became (after some initial difficulties) censor of the College of Physicians. His twin, RAPHAEL or RALPH SCHOMBERG (1714–1792), was a notary public as well as a physician. He tried his hand at literature and published volumes of poetry and plays which were of poor quality. HENRY SCHOMBERG (c. 1715–1755) rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel in the army. Meyer's youngest son, SIR ALEXANDER SCHOMBERG (1720–1804), commanded the ship which covered Wolfe's landing at Quebec in 1759 during the British conquest of Canada. He served as the model for Hogarth's painting A Naval Officer and was knighted in 1777. He was the father of Admiral SIR ALEXANDER WILMOT SCHOMBERG (1774–1850), naval writer, and probably of ISAAC SCHOMBERG (1753–1813), commissioner and deputy comptroller of the navy (1808–13) and editor of Naval Chronology (1802). Members of the family continued to be prominent in British life, particularly in the navy and army, until recently. However, they had no Jewish associations. This family was unrelated to another family of British Schombergs, the Dukes of Schomberg and their descendants, who were gentiles from Germany. They were also prominent in British public life and military affairs in the 18th and 19th centuries. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: A. Rubens, Anglo-Jewish Portraits (1935), 109–11, 155; P. Emden, Jews of Britain (1943), 83–85; B.G. Sack, History of the Jews in Canada, 1 (1945), 44–45, 250; C. Roth, History of the Great Synagogue London, 1690–1940 (1950); Samuel, in: JHSET, 20 (1964), 83–100; D.M. Little and G.M. Kahrl (eds.), Letters of David Garrick, 3 vols. (1963), index. ADD. BIBLIOGRAPHY: ODNB online; Katz, England, 232–33. (Cecil Roth)