CARDOZO, AARON NUÑEZ

CARDOZO, AARON NUÑEZ (1762–1834), Gibraltar merchant. Cardozo, who was probably English-born, settled in Gibraltar and became an important local figure and consul for the beys of Tunis and Algiers. In 1798, when he and Judah Benoliel uncovered a conspiracy to betray the fortress to the French, Cardozo was publicly thanked for his services before a parade of the garrison. He acted as intermediary with the North African rulers during the Napoleonic Wars to keep Gibraltar supplied with water and provisions. Before the battle of Trafalgar (1805), he undertook a similar mission to the bey of Oran on behalf of Lord Nelson. Cardozo's mansion ultimately became the Gibraltar City Hall. mordecai manuel noah appointed him one of the European commissioners for implementing the Ararat scheme. He spent his last years in reduced circumstances in Lisbon. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: C. Roth, Essays and Portraits in Anglo-Jewish History (1934), 240f.; A.B.M. Serfaty, Jews of Gibraltar under British Rule (1934), 18f.; Letters written by the Duke of Kent … to Mr. Cardozo (Paris, May 22, 1822). (Cecil Roth)