Thanks very much.  Spent a lot of time today with the Smith papers at the NYPL
and I expect your suggestion is going to cut through a lot of extraneous
matter.  Interestingly enough, Stokes backs up your comment re how long the
ban pertained.  Apparently other writers on the period claimed that it
persisted through the colonial period, but Stokes's Iconography Vol IV  has a
long digression expressing the opinion that it did not (right of
naturalization granted in the colonies but denied in England probably being
the underlying legal precedent).  One gets the impression that this was purely
a political tactic rather than an attack on the small NY Jewish community as
such.  Makes a change anyway.
Thanks again.

Beverly Martin

Milton M Klein wrote:

>         Read William Smith, Jr.'s HISTORY OF THE PROVINCE OF NEW YORK, 2
> vols., which Michael Kammen edited in a new version for the Harvard
> University Press, has an account of the incident.  The ban on Jews was not
> observed for very long.
>
> Milton M. Klein                       |   phone: (423) 974-2806
> University of Tennessee, Knoxville    |   email: [log in to unmask]
>
> On Fri, 17 Jul 1998, Beverly Martin wrote:
>
> > Re the contested election to the House between Phillipse and Van Horn in
> > 1738:
> >
> > In his capacity as council for Van Horne a lawyer named William Smith
> > denied the right of Jews to be electors (i.e. to vote) and is said to
> > have spoken so eloquently on the subject that the Jews of NY of the time
> > were said to be happy to be merely disenfranchised (as they were) and to
> > avoid slaughter in the streets.  I'm looking for more info on Smith and
> > on his speech.
> >
> > Any wisdom to offer?
> >
> > Many thanks,
> > Beverly Martin
> >