LOPES

LOPES, English family whose assimilated descendants attained distinction in English life. MANASSEH LOPES (early 18th century), a prominent broker, made a fortune by speculation on false reports of Queen Anne's death. MANASSEH MASSEH (Massey) LOPES (1755–1831) was born in Jamaica, the son of the West Indian merchant MORDECHAI RODRIGUES LOPES (d. 1796). He converted to Christianity in 1802, becoming a member of parliament in that year, and was created a baronet in 1805. He was heavily fined and imprisoned in 1819 for corruption in a parliamentary election but was nevertheless later returned for Westbury. He resigned in 1829 in favor of Sir Robert Peel. Subsequently, he was recorder of Westbury. Lopes was among the earliest Jewish estate owners in England, spending over £100,000 on lands in Mairstow, Devon, and Plymouth. SIR RALPH LOPES (formerly Raphael Ralph Franco; 1788–1854), a descendant on the male side of the leghorn franco family , succeeded his uncle, Manasseh Masseh Lopes, in the baronetcy. SIR LOPES MASSEY LOPES (1818–1908), eldest son of Ralph Lopes, was a civil lord of the Admiralty from 1874 to 1880 in Disraeli's government. Sir HENRY CHARLES LOPES (Baron Ludlow; 1828–1899), third son of Ralph Lopes, was a lord justice of the Court of Appeal 1885–1897. The head of the family held the title of Baron Roborough from 1938. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: J. Picciotto, Sketches of Anglo-Jewish History (19503), 55, 209, 296–8, 407; A.M. Hyamson, Sephardim of England (1951), 201–4. ADD. BIBLIOGRAPHY: ODNB online. (Cecil Roth)