“Direct the Eyes of the Jews to England”: The Jerusalem Bishopric Controversy, 1840–1841

Crome, Andrew

doi:10.1007/978-3-319-77194-6_6

Andrew Crome⁴

Part of the book series: Christianities in the Trans-Atlantic World ((CTAW))

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Abstract

This chapter examines the use of restorationist prophecy in discussions surrounding the Anglican bishopric at Jerusalem. The first section details developments in Judeo-centric ideas from 1795, concentrating particularly on the formation of the London Society for Promoting Christianity Amongst the Jews. The chapter then traces the focus on Isaiah 18 as a prophecy of an English-led restoration of the Jews prior to their conversion. The final section examines the controversy surrounding the establishment of the Jerusalem bishopric. In particular, it examines the interplay between prophecy, politics, and providence in the work of supporters in the London Society and Lord Ashley.

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Notes

1.
A prediction of the restoration of God’s people to Palestine. Verse 8: “they will say, ‘As surely as the Lord lives, who brought the descendants of Israel up out of the land of the north and out of all the countries where he had banished them.’ Then they will live in their own land”.
2.
John Rylands Methodist Archive, MAM FL 4.2/8. All spellings as in original.
3.
Bar-Yosef, Holy Land, pp. 18–60; Gribben, Evangelical Millennialism, pp. 71–76; Oliver, Prophets and Millennialists, pp. 42–67; Smith, More Desired, pp. 144–145.
4.
The most forceful statement of this position has been Boyd Hilton, The Age of Atonement: The Influence of Evangelicalism on Social and Economic Thought 1785–1865 (Oxford: Clarendon, 1988). For recent debate on this see Ralph Brown, “Victorian Anglican Evangelicalism: The Radical Legacy of Edward Irving”, Journal of Ecclesiastical History 58:4 (2007), pp. 675–704; and Martin Spence, “The Renewal of Time and Space: The Missing Element of Discussions about Nineteenth-Century Premillennialism”, Journal of Ecclesiastical History 63:1 (2012), pp. 81–101. Hilton defended his position in “Evangelical Social Attitudes: A Reply to Ralph Brown”, Journal of Ecclesiastical History 60:1 (2009), pp. 119–125.
5.
Nabil I. Matar, “The Controversy over the Restoration of the Jews: From 1754 until the London Society for Promoting Christianity among the Jews”, Durham University Journal, 82:1 (1990), pp. 42–43; Sizer, Christian Zionism, pp. 60–66.
6.
Ashley, Entry for August 1 1840 in Southampton Broadlands SHA/PD/2, f. 27v.
7.
Madden, Paddington Prophet, pp. 261–291.
8.
On Southcott see Matthew Niblett, Prophecy and the Politics of Salvation in Late Georgian England: The Theology and Vision of Joanna Southcott (London and New York: I.B. Tauris, 2015); James Hopkins, A Woman to Deliver Her People: Joanna Southcott and English Millenarianism in an Era of Revolution (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1982); Philip Lockley, Visionary Religion and Radicalism in Early Industrial England: From Southcott to Socialism (Oxford: OUP, 2013), pp. 1–25; Juster, Doomsayers, pp. 216–258; Harrison, Second Coming, pp. 86–134; Garrett, Respectable Folly, pp. 213–223.
9.
Niblett, Prophecy and the Politics of Salvation, pp. 139–150.
10.
Joanna Southcott, The Third Book of Wonders (London: W. Marchant, 1814), sects 9 and 25.
11.
Downing, “Prophets Reading Prophecy”, pp. 221–225. Bar-Yosef, on the other hand, argues that Southcott was ambiguous about the location of the true Jerusalem (Holy Land, pp. 48–51).
12.
Niblett, Prophecy and the Politics of Salvation, pp. 171–180.
13.
Lockley, Visionary Religion, pp. 82–99.
14.
Harrison, Second Coming, pp. 121–134.
15.
Madden, Paddington Prophet, p. 281.
16.
Lockley, Visionary Religion, pp. 88–91. The report to Lord Sidmouth was alarmist and recognised as such upon further investigation.
17.
Lockley, Visionary Religion, pp. 108–110.
18.
Lockley, Visionary Religion, pp. 110–124; Harrison argues that Ashton was seen as the New Jerusalem, a position disputed by Lockley (Harrison, Second Coming, pp. 137–147).
19.
Harrison, Second Coming, pp. 146–147. This incident was the basis of Jane Rogers’ historical novel Mr Wroe’s Virgins (London: Faber, 1991) and a BBC TV adaptation.
20.
The Southcottian movement continued, with the next notable prophet John “Zion” Ward believing he was the manifestation of Shiloh. He increasingly questioned the Bible’s historicity and God’s concern about righteousness. He was imprisoned for blasphemy in 1832. For more on Ward see Harrison, Second Coming, pp. 151–169.
21.
James Bicheno, The Signs of the Times, in Three Parts, a New Edition (London: Johnson, Matthews and Knott, 1799), p. iv.
22.
See Donald Lewis, Origins, pp. 40–42. For Scott’s restorationism see Thomas Scott, The Holy Bible, Containing the Old and New Testaments: With Original Notes and Practical Observations (London: Bellamy and Robarts, 1792), Vol. 3, pp. 505–510; Vol. 4, p. 739.
23.
George Stanley Faber, Two Sermons Preached Before the University of Oxford, Feb. 10 1799 (Oxford: OUP, 1799), pp. 35–38.
24.
Faber, Two Sermons, p. 7.
25.
George Stanley Faber, A Dissertation on the Prophecies that Have Been Fulfilled (London: F.C. and J. Rivington, 1806), Vol. I, p. 161.
26.
Gribben, Evangelical Millennialism, pp. 76–77. Not all commentators were so enamoured: the ultra-Tory George Croly described Mede’s work as “singularly strained, obscure, and gratuitous” (The Apocalypse of St John [Philadelphia: E. Littell, 1827], p. 7).
27.
See, for example: Henry Kett, History, the Interpreter of Prophecy (Oxford: Hanwell and Parker, 1799), Vol. II, p. 201; Faber, A Dissertation, Vol. II, pp. 47–95; James Hatley Frere, A Combined View of the Prophecies of Daniel, Esdras, and St. John (London: J. Hatchard, 1815), pp. 41–42
28.
Advertisement placed in Basilicus [Lewis Way], Thoughts on the Scriptural Expectations of the Christian Church (London: Andrew Panton, 1828), p. 106.
29.
Joshua Brooks, A Dictionary of Writers on the Prophecies (London: Simpkin, Marshall and co., 1835).
30.
On the widespread use of the Revolution as a date-setting tool see David Hempton, “Evangelicalism and Eschatology”, Journal of Ecclesiastical History 31:2 (1980), pp. 179–183; Earnest Sandeen, The Roots of Fundamentalism: British and American Millenarianism, 1800–1930 (Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 1970), pp. 4–7. While most commentators agreed on the Revolution’s importance, not all dated the “fatal head wound” of Revelation 13 to 1798, or even agreed on their identifications of who the beast was. Faber, for example, focused on France’s turn to infidelity rather than the capture of Rome, but left the 1260 days to expire in 1866 (Faber, Dissertation, Vol. 1, pp. 3–59). Frere, on the other hand, dated the end of the 1260 days to 1792 (James Hatley Frere, A Combined View of the Prophecies of Daniel, Esdras, and St. John [London: J. Hatchard, 1815], pp. 49–53).
31.
Bar-Yosef, Holy Land, pp. 45–49.
32.
For the full text of the declaration see Franz Kobler, Napoleon and the Jews (Jerusalem: Massada Press, 1976), pp. 55–60. Initial reports of the call, and the supposed arming of “great numbers” of Jews appeared in The Times, 17th May 1799.
33.
Salisbury and Winchester Journal, 13th May 1799, p. 4.
34.
For example: St James’s Chronicle, 14th July 1798, p. 2; Evening Mail, 15th June 1798, p. 1; The Star, 22nd June 1798, p. 2. Franz Kobler accepted the letter as genuine. However, Jeremy D. Popkin has suggested, more plausibly, it was part of a French government disinformation campaign around Napoleon’s voyage (“Zionism and the Enlightenment: The ‘Letter of a Jew to His Brethren’”, Jewish Social Studies 43:2 (1981), pp. 113–120).
35.
Lloyd’s Evening Post, 25th June 1798, p. 3.
36.
Morning Post and Gazetteer, 9th July 1798, p. 2.
37.
Although called in April 1806, the Sanhedrin did not meet until February 1807.
38.
Thomas Ussher, Napoleon’s Last Voyages, Being the Diaries of Admiral Sir Thomas Ussher (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1906), p. 102.
39.
As Bob Tennant has noted, missionary societies were not entirely new in the period. The venerable Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge (SPCK, 1698) and Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts (SPG, 1701) both continued to be active in this period (see Corporate Holiness: Pulpit Preaching and the Church of England Missionary Societies [Oxford: OUP, 2013], pp. 1–15). The chairman of the SPCK had discussed Jewish conversion with the German missionary Stephen Schultz in 1749, where he had affirmed “there were many laymen in London zealous for the conversion of the Jews” (quoted in W.T. Gidney, The History of the London Society for Promoting Christianity Amongst the Jews, From 1809 to 1908 [London: LJS, 1908], p. 11).
40.
On the pre-eminent position of postmillennialism see Lewis, Origins of Christian Zionism, pp. 36–66.
41.
Yaakov Ariel has claimed that it did—see “From the Institutum Judaicum to the International Christian Embassy: Christian Zionism with a European Accent”, in Göran Gunner and Robert O. Smith (eds), Comprehending Christian Zionism: Perspectives in Comparison (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2014), pp. 204–207. Lewis, however, argues that the “fascination with the physical restoration of the Jews was not a pietist distinctive” (Lewis, Origins, p. 54). For more on the Institute in general see Yaakov Ariel, “A New Model of Christian Interaction with the Jews: The Institutum Judaicum and Missions to the Jews in the Atlantic World”, Journal of Early Modern History 21 (2017), pp. 116–136.
42.
See, for example, Edward Bickersteth, The Restoration of the Jews to their Own Land, in Connection with their Future Conversion and the Final Blessedness of our Earth Second Edition (London: R.B. Seeley and W. Burnside, 1841), p. lxxvii; M. Brock, “Love of Christians to Jews the Signal of God’s Returning Mercy”, in Israel’s Sins and Israel’s Hopes, Being Lectures Delivered During Lent, 1846, at St. George’s, Bloomsbury (London: James Nisbet and Co., 1846), pp. 261–263.
43.
For an exposé of Frey’s methods and adultery see M. Sailman, The Mystery Unfolded: Or, an Exposition of the Extraordinary Means Employed to Obtains Converts of the London Society (London: Published for the Author, 1817).
44.
The official early history of the LJS is W.T. Gidney, The History of the London Society for Promoting Christianity Amongst the Jews, From 1809 to 1908 (London: LJS, 1908). For more recent examinations see Scult, Millennial Expectations, pp. 90–123; Lewis, Origins, pp. 49–66; Sizer, Christian Zionism, pp. 34–38. On Way see Stanley and Munro Price, The Road to Apocalypse: The Extraordinary Journey of Lewis Way (London: Notting Hill Editions, 2011).
45.
Gidney, History of the London Society, p. 35.
46.
Eitan Bar-Yosef, “Christian Zionism and Victorian Culture”, p. 25.
47.
Sandeen, The Roots of Fundamentalism, p. 12. For the view that the LJS’s restorationism has been overplayed see Nancy Stevenson, “The Jews as a Factor in Mission: Scottish and English Motive into Action 1795-c.1840”, Position Paper 81, Currents in World Christianity Project (Cambridge Centre for Christianity Worldwide, 1997).
48.
Jemima M.S. Jarman, “Uncovering the Narrative of a Forgotten Library Through the Analysis of Its Catalogue Records: The Case of the London Society for Promoting Christianity Amongst the Jews’ Missionary Library” (Unpublished MA Thesis: UCL, 2016), pp. 25–30; 50–52.
49.
Clyde Binfield, “Jews in Evangelical Dissent: The British Society, the Herschell Connection and the Pre-Millenarian Thread”, in Michael Wilks (ed.), Prophecy and Eschatology. Studies in Church History 10 (Oxford: Blackwell, 1994), pp. 240–245.
50.
London Society for Promoting Christianity Amongst the Jews, The Eleventh Report of the Committee of the London Society for Promoting Christianity Amongst the Jews (London: A. Macintosh, 1819), p. 12.
51.
London Society for Promoting Christianity Amongst the Jews, The Thirteenth Report of the Committee of the London Society for Promoting Christianity Amongst the Jews (London: A. Macintosh, 1821), p. 33.
52.
David Bebbington, The Dominance of Evangelicalism: The Age of Spurgeon and Moody (Dowers Grove: IVP Academic, 2005), pp. 148–183; For the specific application of this to premillennialism see Bebbington, Evangelicalism, pp. 84–86.
53.
Bebbington, Evangelicalism, p. 80.
54.
Frere, A Combined View, p. 141. Bebbington argues that Frere held to a spiritual coming (Evangelicalism, pp. 82–83).
55.
Lewis, Origins of Christian Zionism, pp. 72–75.
56.
On Albury see Lewis, Origins, pp. 80–87; Sandeen, Roots, pp. 20–25; Mark Rayburn Patterson, “Designing the Last Days: Edward Irving, The Albury Circle and the Theology of the Morning Watch” (Unpublished PhD Thesis: King’s College London, 2001), pp. 47–62.
57.
Sandeen, Roots of Fundamentalism, pp. 62–67; Sizer, Christian Zionism, pp. 50–55; Smith, More Desired, pp. 158–161.
58.
Hilton makes this point in his response to Ralph Brown. See Boyd Hilton, “Evangelical Social Attitudes”, pp. 119–121.
59.
Boyd Hilton, The Age of Atonement, pp. 13–17.
60.
Ralph Brown, “Victorian Anglican Evangelicalism”, pp. 686–690.
61.
Martin Spence, Heaven on Earth: Reimagining Time and Eternity in Nineteenth-Century British Evangelicalism (Eugene, OR: Pickwick, 2015), pp. 146–203.
62.
Martin Spence, “The Renewal of Time and Space”, pp. 81–101.
63.
Ralph Brown, “Evangelical Social Thought”, Journal of Ecclesiastical History 60:1 (2008), pp. 128–129; Spence, Heaven on Earth, pp. 213–216.
64.
Markku Ruotsila, “The Catholic Apostolic Church in British Politics”, Journal of Ecclesiastical History 56:1 (2005), pp. 75–91.
65.
Ruotsila, “Catholic Apostolic Church”, p. 80. I discuss this issue further at the end of this chapter.
66.
Frere, Combined View, p. 303.
67.
“God himself has directed the use of means; our duty is obedience to His commands. This is that which He regards, not the success which attends our efforts”. James Haldene Stewart, Thoughts on the Importance of Special Prayer, Fourth Edition (London: Edward Page, 1827), p. 8.
68.
Matar, “Controversy…From 1754”, pp. 31–33; Vreté, “The Restoration of the Jews”, pp. 3–50; Smith, More Desired, pp. 145–146; Lewis, Origins, pp. 42–47. This is against Michael Ragussis’s assumption that conversion remained a prerequisite for their return (Figures of Conversion, pp. 90–92). Sizer, in his analysis of covenantal premillennialism in the nineteenth century, also presumes that proponents saw the Jews returning as a converted nation (Sizer, Christian Zionism, pp. 34–41). As the remainder of the chapter shows, restorationists were keen to point out that this was not the case, allowing for new political as well as theological interpretations of the Jewish return.
69.
Samuel Horsley, Critical Disquisitions on the Eighteenth Chapter of Isaiah (London, 1799), pp. 102–105. See also William Cuninghame, A Dissertation on the Seals and Trumpets, Second Edition (London: T. Cadell and W. Davies, 1817), pp. 337–340, which returns to the idea of a partial conversion prior to restoration.
70.
James Bicheno, The Restoration of the Jews, the Crisis of All Nations (London: Bye and Law, 1800), pp. 65–70.
71.
Henry Kett, History the Interpreter of Prophecy, Or, a View of Scripture Prophecies (Oxford: Hanwell and Parker, 1799), Volume III, pp. 217–218.
72.
Lewis, Origins, pp. 40–42.
73.
David Bogue, “The Duty of Christians to Seek the Salvation of the Jews”, in Four Sermons, Preached in London at the Twelfth General Meeting of the Missionary Society (London: T. Williams, 1806), pp. 89–91.
74.
Scott, The Jews: A Blessing, p. 26.
75.
Faber, General and Connected View, pp. 91–97.
76.
A Presbyter of the Church of England, Obligations to Christians to Attempt the Conversion of the Jews, Fourth Edition (London: B.R. Goakman, 1813), p. 23.
77.
Way, The Latter Rain, pp. 31–40 (quote at p. 31). For more on the link between Jewish conversion and missionary success see Ragussis, Figures of Conversion, pp. 14–56.
78.
King’s reasoning was also rejected on historical grounds—he argued that “the land shadowing with wings” (Isa 18:1) referred to contemporary maps in which France was “winged” by Germany and Spain. Horsley argued that since the prophet had never seen a map, let alone an eighteenth-century one, it was somewhat unlikely that this was what Isaiah had in mind (Horsley, Disquisitions, pp. 28–33).
79.
Horsley, Disquisitions, pp. 44–48.
80.
Horsley, Disquisitions, p. 90.
81.
See, for example, a letter criticising the bishop in The Gentleman’s Magazine, in which Horsley’s work is said to evidence “his own latent sentiment, that the deliverance of the Jews… may possibly be effected by means of England” (The Gentleman’s Magazine, July 1799, p. 549).
82.
Vreté, “The Restoration of the Jews”, pp. 9–12.
83.
Lewis Way in The Ninth Report of the Committee of the London Society for Promoting Christianity Amongst the Jews, Read at the General Meeting, May 9, 1817 (London: A. Macintosh, 1817), pp. 10–11. A footnote in the text identifies the “venerable prelate” as Horsley.
84.
Faber, General and Connected View, pp. 103–108.
85.
Faber, Dissertation, Vol. 2, p. 134.
86.
Cuninghame, A Dissertation, p. 348.
87.
Kett, History the Interpreter of Prophecy, Vol. III, p. 229.
88.
Lewis Mayer, The Prophetic Mirror: Or, a Hint to England (London: Parsons and Son, 1803), p. 36.
89.
C.T. Maitland, A Brief and Connected View of Prophecy (London: J. Hatchard, 1814), p. 87.
90.
Reprinted in Leicester Journal, and Midland Counties General Advertiser, 31st August 1810, p. 2.
91.
Lewis Way, Palingenesia: The World to Come (London: Martin Bossanage, 1824), pp. 139, 268.
92.
Claudius Buchanan, Two Discourses Preached Before the University of Cambridge (London: T. Cadell and W. Davies, 1812), p. 109.
93.
Matar, “Controversy…from 1754”, p. 40; Clark, Allies for Armageddon, pp. 66–72.
94.
St James’s Chronicle, 19th July 1798, p. 3.
95.
St James’s Chronicle, 12th July 1798, p. 4.
96.
Faber, General and Connected View, p. 51.
97.
Bath Chronicle, 16th June 1803, p. 1.
98.
Bicheno, Restoration of the Jews, pp. 95–96.
99.
Faber, General and Connected View, pp. 28–97. The thirty years cover the period between the 1260 and 1290 days.
100.
Frere, Combined View, pp. 467–474.
101.
On this see Price and Price, The Road to Apocalypse, pp. 38–71. It was rumoured at the time that Way had addressed the conference on Jewish restoration. A letter to a Brussels newspaper from Way, reprinted in The Times set this straight: “my object was neither the conversion of the Jews, nor their restoration to Palestine, but a reasonable appeal to the justice and to the liberality of an enlightened age, relative to the amelioration of their moral and political condition under the several Governments of Europe”. (The Times, 17th December 1818, p. 2). A copy of the proclamation, and some of Way’s letters to Alexander, was printed in 1819. The letters directly refer to restoration. See Mémoires sur L’etat des Israélites, Dédies et Présentés, a leurs Majestés Impériales et Royales, Réunies au Congrès d’Aix-la-Chapelle (Paris: Firmin Didot, 1819).
102.
Lewis, Origins of Christian Zionism, pp. 63–66.
103.
Bicheno, Restoration of the Jews, pp. 70–71.
104.
Lewis Mayer, Restoration of the Jews: Containing an Explanation of the Prophecies, Third Edition (London: C. Stower, 1806), p. 3.
105.
Scott, The Jews: A Blessing, p. 3.
106.
Witherby, Vindication, p. 82.
107.
Presbyter, Obligations, p. 16.
108.
Witherby, Vindication of the Jews, p. 244.
109.
Way, Palingenesia, p. 139.
110.
Formed in 1826 in order to press for Jewish temporal relief in the face of supposed LJS inaction. Some members would be part of both societies. See Scult, Millennial Expectations, pp. 132–133.
111.
James Aquila Brown, The Jew, the Master-Key of the Apocalypse, in Answer to Mr. Frere’s ‘General Structure’ (London: Hatchard and Sons, 1827), p. xvi.
112.
Presbyeter, Obligations, p. 20.
113.
For more on this idea see Ragussis, Figures of Conversion, pp. 89–126 and Rubinstein and Rubinstein, Philosemitism, pp. 129–132.
114.
Scott, The Jews: A Blessing, p. 17.
115.
A Presbyter, Obligations, p. 14.
116.
LJS, Eleventh Report, p. 13.
117.
“State of the Jews”, London Review and Critical Journal 16:32 (1820), p. 360.
118.
Hilton, Age of Atonement, pp. 36–70.
119.
James Bicheno, The Probable Progress and Issue of the Commotions Which Have Agitated Europe Since the French Revolution (London, 1797), p. 68.
120.
Bicheno, Restoration of the Jews, p. 65.
121.
Oliver, Prophets and Millennialists, pp. 108–123. See also Ragussis, Figures of Conversion, pp. 90–92.
122.
Brown, “Evangelical Social Thought”, pp. 686–690.
123.
Witherby, Vindication of the Jews, p. 285.
124.
Lewis Way, The Latter Rain, With Observations on the Importance of General Prayer for the Special Outpouring of the Holy Spirit (London: John Hatchard, 1821), p. 54.
125.
Tuchman, Bible and Sword, pp. 107–205; Sarah Kochav, “Biblical Prophecy, the Evangelical Movement, and the Restoration of the Jews to Palestine 1790–1860”, in Britain and the Holy Land (London: UCL, 1989), pp. 14–20.
126.
Bar-Yosef, Holy Land, pp. 182–246.
127.
Nevill also funded churches for converts in Liverpool and Bristol, and was in correspondence with several Anglican bishops and officials in Ali’s government. See Philip Alexander, “Christian Restorationism in Ireland in the Early Nineteenth Century: The Strange Case of Miss Marianne Nevill”, Jewish Historical Studies 47:1 (2015), pp. 31–47.
128.
This is cited widely: e.g. Tuchman, Bible and Sword, p. 187; Bar-Yosef, Holy Land, pp. 186–187. The original anecdote is in Edwin Hodder, The Life and Works of the Seventh Earl of Shaftesbury (London: Cassell & Co., 1893), Vol. III, p. 139.
129.
Kochav, “Biblical Prophecy”, pp. 17–19.
130.
“State and Prospects of the Jews”, Church of England Quarterly Review 8:7 (1840), p. 135.
131.
The Times, 9th March 1840, p. 3.
132.
Woolmer’s Exeter and Plymouth Gazette, 25th April 1840, p. 4.
133.
Jewish Intelligence 7:6 (1840), p. 136.
134.
Bar-Yosef, Holy Land, pp. 194–195.
135.
Kochav, “Biblical Prophecy”, pp. 17–19; Ragussis, Figures of Conversion, pp. 14–56.
136.
Andrew Porter, “Religion, Missionary Enthusiasm, and Empire”, in Andrew Porter (ed.), Oxford History of the British Empire Vol. III: The Nineteenth Century (Oxford: OUP, 1999), p. 228.
137.
Lewis, Origins, pp. 137–141. Bar-Yosef has argued that the popularity of these texts has been exaggerated (Holy Land, pp. 66–73).
138.
Lewis, Origins, pp. 125–133.
139.
The special orders to protect Jews, while drawing on restorationist sympathies, were also an attempt to limit Russian influence. The Russian consul in Jaffa claimed the right to protect Jews, although this was rarely invoked. See R.W. Greaves, “The Jerusalem Bishopric, 1841”, English Historical Review 64: 252 (1949), p. 329. Palmerston’s policy in the mid-to-late 1830s was to frustrate Russian ambitions in the East, and this can be seen as part of that objective (see David Brown, Palmerston: A Biography [New Haven: Yale University Press, 2010], pp. 216–224).
140.
William Lewis, quoted in Lewis, Origins of Christian Zionism, p. 219. The missionary’s advice was apparently to tell them to look to the “King of Kings” instead (see Kelvin Crombie, For the Love of Zion [London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1991], p. 20).
141.
Young’s relation to the LJS is controversial. Mayir Vreté argues that Young had no link to the LJS and showed little interest in the Society even when honoured by them (“Why was a British Consulate Established in Jerusalem?”, English Historical Review 85:335 [1970], pp. 316–345). However, this does not explain Lord Ashley’s enthusiasm at his appointment (see his diary entry for 29th September 1838 in Southampton Broadlands SHA/PD/2 f.7v) or Alexander McCaul’s commendation of the vice-consul as “a gentleman professing great interest in the cause of Jewish conversion” in 1845 (The Jerusalem Bishopric [London: Hatchard and Son, 1845] p. 9). Moreover, Young’s own correspondence suggests restorationist sympathies. For example, in a letter to Palmerston in March 1839 he described Britain as the “natural protector” of Jews “unto whom God initially gave this land” (quoted in Crombie, For the Love of Zion, p. 25).
142.
Crombie, For the Love of Zion, p. 26.
143.
The fullest account is Jonathan Frankel, The Damascus Affair: ‘Ritual Murder’, Politics, and the Jews in 1840 (Cambridge: CUP, 1997). See also David Feldman, “The Damascus Affair and the Debate on Ritual Murder in Early Victorian Britain”, in Sander L. Gilman (ed.), Judaism, Christianity and Islam: Collaboration and Conflict in the Age of Diaspora (Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2015), pp. 131–151; and Rubinstein and Rubinstein, Philosemitism, pp. 3–13. Where most historians, including Frankel, have seen the response in Britain as evidence of strong opposition towards antisemitism, Feldman points out that press coverage at the time also published opinions that suggested the charges might be true. The LJS were consistently opposed to the charges. Fifty-six Jewish converts, including Michael Solomon Alexander, signed a statement condemning the blood libel. For full details on the LJS’s responses see Jewish Intelligence 6:8 (1840), pp. 209–259.
144.
This was reported from the early 1830s. See, for example, Monthly Intelligence of the Proceedings of the London Society 1: 6 (1830), p. 91 and 2:8 (1831), p. 130. One of the reasons for this belief was the prominence of Cambridge Hebraist Rabbi Joseph Crooll, whose focus on the date was well known (Francis Knight, “The Bishops and the Jews, 1828–1858”, in Wood (ed.), Christianity and Judaism, pp. 392–393). The theme was returned to in the early 1840s, with James Haldane Stewart recording a well-attended prayer meeting in Liverpool in 1840 as occurring in “the year when the Jews expect the coming of the Messiah” (Jewish Intelligence 6:6 [1840], p. 136). For both expectation and mass emigration see Alexander R.C. Dallas, “The Certainty of the Restoration of Judah and Israel”, in The Destiny of the Jews, and their Connexion with the Gentile Nations (London: John Hatchard & Son, 1841), pp. 435–437; and T.S. Grimshawe, “Introductory Lecture”, in William Robert Fremantle (ed.), Israel Restored: Or, the Scriptural Claims of the Jews upon the Christian Church (London: James Nisbet and Co., 1841), pp. 20–22. Even when their own missionaries reported low numbers of Jews in Jerusalem, the LJS were prone to dismiss their calculations. A letter from the medical missionary Pietitz reported “the number of Jews here is nothing like what you think in England. Mr. Nicolayson thinks it is, in all, 5000; and this is the highest number I have heard yet”. The Jewish Intelligence dismissed this by noting, “It is well known that the Jews are in the habit of studiously concealing their real numbers” (Jewish Intelligence 5:1 [1839], p. 8).
145.
Bickersteth, Restoration, p. 138. See also p. 257 for similar sentiments in an 1838 sermon. Bickersteth was rector of Watton, a former CMS secretary, and an important writer and philanthropic leader among evangelicals. His friendship with Lord Ashley was key in the latter’s growing interest in Jews. On Bickersteth see Kochav, “Biblical Prophecy”, pp. 10–14.
146.
Tuchmann, Bible and Sword, pp. 194–195.
147.
See, for example, reports in Jewish Intelligence 6:6 (1840), p. 134. On links with prophecy see Crawford Gribben, “Andrew Bonar and the Scottish Presbyterian Millennium”, in Crawford Gribben and Timothy Stunt (eds), Prisoners of Hope, pp. 186–189.
148.
Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, XLVII: 3 (March 1840), p. 357. I owe this reference to the approving quotation in Jewish Intelligence 6:5 (1840), p. 114.
149.
Ashley records the impact of the book in a diary entry for 3rd October 1838 (Southampton Broadlands SHA/PD/2, f.8r).
150.
[Ashley], “Review of Letters on Egypt, Edom, and the Holy Land by Lord Lindsay”, Quarterly Review 63 (1838), pp. 186–188.
151.
[Ashley], “Review”, pp. 188–189.
152.
[Ashely], “Review”, p. 189.
153.
Charles Longley, Fruits of the Fall and Fulness of the Jews (London: n.p., 1841), p. 12.
154.
Thomas Tattershall, A Sermon Preached at the Episcopal Jews’ Chapel… May 2, 1839 (London: A. Macintosh, 1839), pp. 24–25.
155.
Jewish Intelligence 6:11 (1840), p. 351.
156.
Ashley, Entry for 8th October 1838, Southampton Broadlands SHA/PD/2 f.10v.
157.
Kelvin Crombie, A Jewish Bishop in Jerusalem: The Life Story of Michael Solomon Alexander (Jerusalem: Nicolayson’s, 2006)
158.
Ashley, Entries for 31st July 1840 and 1st August 1840, Southampton Broadlands SHA/PD/2 ff. 26v-27v.
159.
Ashley, Entry for 23rd September and 25th September 1840, Southampton Broadlands SHA/PD/2, ff. 32r-33r.
160.
The memorandum is reprinted in Edwin Hodder, The Life and Works of the Seventh Earl of Shaftesbury Vol. 1 (London: Cassell & Co., 1893), pp. 168–169.
161.
Ashley, Entry for 24th August 1840, Southampton Broadlands SHA/PD/2, f. 28r.
162.
Crombie is therefore incorrect to describe restoration as an “official proposal” (For the Love of Zion, p. 33)—it had not, for example, been discussed in cabinet. Indeed, at the time Palmerston was fighting colleagues over his support for the Sultan and negativity towards Ali. There were worries that his position might lead to war with France; the Queen was apparently agitating to have him replaced as Foreign Secretary by the more pro-French Clarendon (see Brown, Palmerston: A Biography, pp. 230–232).
163.
Palmerston’s support for Ashley’s scheme, and for the later bishopric, has surprised historians. Palmerston had little concern with either religious matters or Jewish concerns. However, there were reasons why the scheme might be politically attractive. It is likely that the idea that a Jewish homeland supported by Britain would decrease French influence over Ali and Russian influence on the Sultan played a part in his decision. Likewise, Ashley’s emphasis on the generation of good will towards Britain in world Jewry, and especially in Russia (whose influence in the East he was keen to curb) were factors in the scheme’s favour. His close personal friendship with Ashley, on whom he later relied when Prime Minister for ecclesiastical advice, was perhaps the decisive reason for his support—indeed, this was Ashley’s own opinion (Entry for September 23, 1841, Southampton Broadlands SHA/PD/2 ff. 71v-72r). However, as John Wolffe has recently argued, Palmerston was not irreligious, had a personal faith and his own religious politics, and was quite capable of going against Ashley’s advice on religious matters (John Wolffe, “Lord Palmerston and Religion: A Reappraisal”, English Historical Review 120:488 [2005], pp. 907–936). While it is unlikely that Palmerston would have listened to such schemes had they not come from Ashley, he was likely convinced by the political reasoning behind them. Bar-Yosef has argued that he also hoped to gain political support from restorationists (Bar-Yosef, Holy Land, pp. 194–195). At a time when Melbourne’s government was in the process of collapse, this offers a plausible further motive for support, although it goes against Bar-Yosef’s own position that restorationism lacked national influence.
164.
For a full account of the crisis, including the rapidly changing positions of the powers, see Brown, Palmerston: A Biography, pp. 215–236.
165.
The account of the founding of the bishopric is condensed here due to space. For full accounts see Crombie, A Jewish Bishop; Greaves, “Jerusalem Bishopric”, pp. 328–352; P.J. Welch, “Anglican Churchmen and the Establishment of the Jerusalem Bishopric”, Journal of Ecclesiastical History 8:2 (1957), pp. 193–204.
166.
Ashley, Entry for 12th November 1841, Southampton Broadlands SHA/PD/2 f. 80v.
167.
Aberdeen was not keen on the scheme, telling Bunsen that although “it was a good plan for the conversion of the Jews”, it would achieve little except create trouble with the other powers and the Porte. He told the Prussian that he was bemused as to why Palmerston had embraced the plan so vigorously; as Ashley noted “I have been the instrument there […] What providence that Bunsen came while Palmerston was in office!” (Entry for 23rd September 1841, Southampton Broadlands SHA/PD/2 ff. 71v-72r).
168.
Quoted in Crombie, Jewish Bishop, p. 80.
169.
Lewis, Origins, pp. 59–60.
170.
“The Present State and Prospects of the Jews”, Fraser’s Magazine for Town and Country 129 (1840), p. 275.
171.
“The State and Prospect of the Jews”, p. 3.
172.
Lewis, Origins, pp. 58–60.
173.
Jewish Intelligence 4:3 (March 1838), p. 52.
174.
Ashley, “Review”, pp. 187, 191.
175.
M. Brock, “Love of Christians to Jews”, in William Marsh (ed.), Israel’s Sins and Israel’s Hopes, Being Lectures Delivered During Lent, 1846, at St. George’s, Bloomsbury (London: James Nisbet and Co., 1846), p. 289.
176.
See, for example: A Member of the Church of England, Examination of an Announcement Made in the Prussian State Gazette (Oxford: John Henry Parker, 1842); James R. Hope, The Bishopric of the United Church of England and Ireland at Jerusalem, Considered in a Letter to a Friend, Second Edition (London: C.J. Stewart, 1842); William Palmer, Aids to Reflection on the Seemingly Double Character of the Established Church, with Reference to the Foundation of a “Protestant Bishopric” at Jerusalem (Oxford: John Henry Parker, 1841).
177.
John Henry Newman, Apologia Pro Vita Sua (London: Longmans, 1908), pp. 142–146.
178.
John Middleton Hare (trans.), The Anglican Bishopric of Jerusalem: A Respectful Letter to Mons. William Howley…from a French Protestant (London: James Dinnis, 1843).
179.
See, for example, [Anon], The Anglo-Prussian Bishopric of St. James, in Jerusalem, to which are appended remarks on Dr. McCaul’s Sermon at the Consecration of Bishop Alexander by the Rev. W. Hoffman (London: Thomas Ward & Co., 1842). For more on the high church concerns over the bishopric see Welch, “Anglican Churchmen”, pp. 198–202.
180.
“It must be deeply gratifying to the friends of the London Society to know, that the whole of this glorious and all-important plan was suggested by the efforts which they have made to erect a church upon Mount Zion”. Jewish Intelligence VII: 11 (November 1841), p. 383.
181.
For an account of this, see Ashley, Entry for 3rd February 1842, Southampton Broadlands SHA/PD/2 f. 90v.
182.
Grimshawe, “Introductory Lecture”, p. 32.
183.
C.J. Goodhart, “The Covenant with David”, in Fremantle (ed.), Israel Restored, p. 144.
184.
“The Present State and Prospects of the Jews”, p. 274.
185.
Thomas Tattershall, “Rules to Be Observed in the Interpretation of the Prophetic Scriptures”, in Destiny of the Jews, pp. 42–63.
186.
Hugh McNeile, Popular Lectures on Prophecies Relative to the Jewish Nation (London: J. Hatchard and Son, 1830), p. 124.
187.
Bickersteth, Restoration of the Jews, pp. 46, 240.
188.
T.R. Birks, “On the Principles of Prophetic Interpretation”, in Fremantle (ed.), Israel Restored, p. 100.
189.
William Fremantle, “Old Testament Promises Confirmed by Zachariah’s Hymn”, in Destiny of the Jews, p. 336.
190.
Michael Solomon Alexander, Farewell Sermon, preached at the Episcopal Jews’ Chapel (London: B. Wertheim, 1841), p. 5.
191.
Charlotte Elizabeth [Tonna], Judah’s Lion (New York: M.W. Dodd, 1843).
192.
For more on this differentiation see Sizer, Christian Zionism, pp. 34–42.
193.
Bickersteth, Restoration of the Jews, p. xxiv.
194.
McNeile, Popular Lectures, p. 51.
195.
Birks, “Principles of Prophetic Interpretation”, p. 71.
196.
Bickersteth, Restoration of the Jews, p. xxvii. See also McNeile, Popular Lectures, p. 159; Alexander McCaul, The Jerusalem Bishopric (London: Hatchard and Son, 1845), p. 15; Jewish Intelligence 7:7 (1841), pp. 182–183.
197.
Ashley, “Review”, p. 170.
198.
The Times, 9th March 1840, p. 3. This was also widely reprinted in the local press.
199.
McCaul, Jerusalem Bishopric, p. 21.
200.
James Haldane Stewart, “Practical Improvement of the Whole Course”, in Destiny of the Jews, pp. 561–562.
201.
Dated 9th March 1841, and reprinted in Jewish Intelligence 7:5 (1841), p. 131.
202.
Jewish Intelligence 7:6 (1841), p. 136. An interesting element of this petition was the paper’s admission that along with the Protestant signatories, “Many Roman Catholics also, both clergy and laity, freely affixed their signatures”.
203.
Jewish Intelligence 7:5 (1841), pp. 124–125. The Orient believed that the LJS’s real motive for restoration was to set up a Jewish colony in which residents would be denied access to their co-religionists, and therefore offer easier targets for evangelisation.
204.
Quoted in Jewish Intelligence 7:8 (1841), p. 259.
205.
Andrew Porter notes a similar example in the 1841–1842 Niger Expedition, which was viewed by some as “recompense” for previous British mistreatment of Africans. See Porter, “Religion, Missionary Enthusiasm, and Empire”, p. 235.
206.
Jewish Intelligence 5:6 (1839), p. 128.
207.
Jewish Intelligence 6:6 (1840), pp. 136–137.
208.
W.R. Fremantle, “The Present Dispensation a Moral Warning to the Gentiles”, in W.R. Fremantle (ed.), Israel Restored, p. 280.
209.
Tattershall, “Rules to Be Observed”, p. 91.
210.
Stewart, “Practical Improvement”, in Destiny of the Jews, p. 562.
211.
Alexander Dallas, “The Restoration of Israel to be Anticipated from the Unchangeable Nationality of the Jews”, in Fremantle (ed.), Israel Restored, p. 357.
212.
Matar, “Controversy… From 1754”, p. 40; Clark, Allies for Armageddon, pp. 66–72.
213.
Jewish Intelligence 6:6 (1840), p. 142.
214.
“The State and Prospect of the Jews”, The Times, 24th January 1839, p. 3.
215.
Bickersteth, Restoration of the Jews, p. lxxxix.
216.
Bickersteth, Restoration of the Jews, p. lxxxv.
217.
Ashley, Entry for 1st August 1840, Southampton Broadlands SHA/PD/2 f.27v. Of course, Palmerston was well aware of Ashley’s prophetic interests—thus his comments to Ponsonby that promoting restorationism would make the religious public favourable towards the government.
218.
Quoted in Hodder, Life and Works, Vol. 1, p. 168.
219.
“Syria—Restoration of the Jews”, The Times, 17th August 1840, p. 3.
220.
Entry for 29th August 1840, Southampton Broadlands SHA/PD/2 f. 29v. The “excitement” saw speculation that Sir Moses Montefiore’s mission to aid the Jews of Damascus was a front for restoration (The Age, 30th August 1840, p. 279); denials of the plausibility of such a scheme (e.g. John Bull, 23rd August 1840, p. 403); a petition of January 1839 calling for the powers to restore the Jews to Palestine in fulfilment of prophecy, which Palmerston had passed on to the queen (The Times, 26th August 1840, p. 5); and reprints of the original Times article of 17th August in various local papers (e.g. Essex Standard, 21st August 1840; Newcastle Journal, 22nd August 1840; Woolmer’s Exeter and Plymouth Gazette, 29th August 1840).
221.
Jewish Intelligence 6:6 (1840), p. 140.
222.
Jewish Intelligence 6:6 (1840), p. 142.
223.
Jewish Intelligence 7:6 (1841), p. 135. In this, the writers echoed a popular theme. See, for example Monthly Intelligence 1:11 (1830)—“If we shirk from the work, the loss will be our own, and it may surely be said to each, ‘If thou altogether holdest thy peace at this time, then shall there enlargement and deliverance arise to the Jews from another place.’” (p. 166).
224.
Jewish Intelligence 5:6 (1839), p. 128.
225.
Henry Girdlestone, “The Last Tribulation of the Jews”, in Fremantle (ed.), Israel Restored, p. 414.
226.
Bickersteth, Restoration of the Jews, p. 104.
227.
Jewish Intelligence 5:6 (1839), p. 129.
228.
Ashley, Entry for 12th October 1841, Southampton Broadlands SHA/PD/2 f. 75v.
229.
Bickersteth, Restoration of the Jews, p. ii.
230.
Hugh McNeile, “The Glorious Advent”, in Destiny of the Jews, p. 505. For similar statements see M. Brock, “Love of Christians to Jews the Signal of God’s Returning Mercy”, in Marsh (ed.), Israel’s Sins and Israel’s Hopes, pp. 273–292; C.J. Goodhart, “The Covenant with David”, pp. 145–155.
231.
Jewish Intelligence 4:9 (1838), p. 209.
232.
Ashley, Entry for 18th November 1841, Southampton Broadlands SHA/PD/2 ff. 81r-82v.
233.
The term was first coined by John Gallagher and Ronald Robinson to refer to British policy focused on expanding free trade rather than territorial gains (“The Imperialism of Free Trade”, Economic History Review Second Series, 6 [1953], pp. 1–15). Martin Lynn notes the way in which the policy also focused on the idea that trade would spread “civilization”, although he suggests that the term “informal imperialism” fails to recognise the way in which local societies limited the success of these efforts. See “British Policy, Trade, and Informal Empire in the Mid-Nineteenth Century”, in Andrew Porter (ed.), Oxford History of the British Empire Volume III: The Nineteenth Century (Oxford: OUP, 1999), pp. 102–121.
234.
Abigail Green, “The British Empire and the Jews: An Imperialism of Human Rights?”, Past and Present 199 (2008), pp. 201–205.
235.
Tonna, Judah’s Lion, p. 405.
236.
Edward Swaine, Objections to the Doctrine of Israel’s Future Restoration to Palestine (London: Holdsworth & Ball, 1828), pp. 150–151.
237.
Ragussis, Figures of Conversion, p. 171.
238.
Tuchman, Bible and Sword, p. 178.
239.
Lewis, Origins, pp. 12–13.
240.
A point noted by the Rubinsteins. See Philosemitism, pp. 129–133.
241.
“Present State and Prospects”, p. 275.
242.
Lord Ashley to Michael Solomon Alexander, 9th November 1841, Lambeth Palace Mss 3997, ff. 146–147.
243.
For this argument, see Agnieszkla Jagodzińska, “‘For Zion’s Sake I will not Rest’: The London Society for Promoting Christianity Among the Jews and Its Nineteenth-Century Missionary Periodicals”, Church History 82:2 (2013), pp. 381–387 and Robert Michael Smith, “The London Jews’ Society and Patterns of Jewish Conversion in England, 1801–1859”, Jewish Social Studies 43: 3/4 (1981), pp. 280–282.
244.
Jewish Intelligence 6:7 (1840), pp. 196–208.
245.
Jewish Intelligence 7:1 (1841), pp. 1–34.
246.
Jewish Intelligence 7:7 (1841), pp. 220–225.
247.
There were notable exceptions to this. In particular, the first bill for Jewish emancipation in 1830 was introduced by Robert Grant in the Commons and Nicholas Vansittart (Lord Bexley) in the Lords. Both were committed members of the LJS and had spoken at its annual meetings; Bexley was a vice-patron. Both were also members of the Philo-Judean Society. On their involvement in emancipation, see Scult, Millennial Expectations, pp. 130–135 and Israel Finestein, “Early and Middle 19th-Century British Opinion on the Restoration of the Jews: Contrasts with America”, in Britain and the Holy Land 1800–1914 (London: UCL, 1989), pp. 80–83.
248.
Tuchman, Bible and Sword, pp. 188–189; Ragussis, Figures of Conversion, p. 171.
249.
Lewis, Origins, p. 172.
250.
Fremantle, “The Present Dispensation”, p. 279.
251.
Tonna, Judah’s Lion.
252.
Jewish Intelligence 4:6 (1838), p. 130.
253.
Bickersteth, Restoration of the Jews, p. xc. These arguments echoed those of Anglican bishops opposed to emancipation in parliamentary debates. See Knight, “The Bishops and the Jews”, pp. 387–390.
254.
Ashley, “Review”, p. 190.
255.
Bickersteth, Restoration of the Jews, p. 225.
256.
Jewish Intelligence 4:8 (1838), pp. 181–182.
257.
Ashley, Entry for 12th March 1841, Southampton Broadlands SHA/PD/2 f. 45v.
258.
Bernardini and Lucci, The Jews: Instructions for Use, pp. 9–12.
259.
For example, Grimshawe extolled the benefits of a neutral Jewish buffer state between the Pasha and Sultan at the 1841 LJS annual meeting (Jewish Intelligence 7:7 [1841], p. 173).
260.
Alexander Dallas, “Certainty of the Restoration”, p. 419.
261.
Ashley, Entry for 15th December 1845, Southampton Broadlands SHA/PD/3, f. 47r.

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Crome, A. (2018). “Direct the Eyes of the Jews to England”: The Jerusalem Bishopric Controversy, 1840–1841. In: Christian Zionism and English National Identity, 1600–1850. Christianities in the Trans-Atlantic World. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-77194-6_6

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