Sir Manasseh Masseh Lopes, 1st Baronet (27 January 1755 – 26 March 1831), of

Maristow Maristow House in the parish of Bickleigh (formerly Tamerton Foliot), Devon, England, is a large country house set in landscaped parkland, on the River Tavy to the north of Plymouth. It was built in about 1560, rebuilt in the mid-18th century a ...

in the parish of

Tamerton Foliot Tamerton Foliot is a village and former civil parish situated in the north of Plymouth, in the Plymouth district, in the ceremonial county of Devon, England. It also lends its name to the ecclesiastical parish of the same name. Situated near t ...

Devon Devon ( ; historically also known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel to the north, Somerset and Dorset to the east, the English Channel to the south, and Cornwall to the west ...

, was a British Member of Parliament and borough-monger.

Early life

Lopes was born in

Jamaica Jamaica is an island country in the Caribbean Sea and the West Indies. At , it is the third-largest island—after Cuba and Hispaniola—of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean. Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, west of Hispaniola (the is ...

on 27 January 1755 into a family of rich Portuguese

Sephardic Jews Sephardic Jews, also known as Sephardi Jews or Sephardim, and rarely as Iberian Peninsular Jews, are a Jewish diaspora population associated with the historic Jewish communities of the Iberian Peninsula (Spain and Portugal) and their descendant ...

, who allegedly made their fortune as sugar planters and slave-owners in Jamaica before he migrated to

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-west coast of continental Europe, consisting of the countries England, Scotland, and Wales. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the List of European ...

. His parents were Mordecai Rodriguez Lopes and Rebecca Pereira (a daughter of Manasseh Pereira of Jamaica). In 1798 he acquired

Maristow House Maristow House in the parish of Bickleigh (formerly Tamerton Foliot), Devon, England, is a large country house set in landscaped parkland, on the River Tavy to the north of Plymouth. It was built in about 1560, rebuilt in the mid-18th century a ...

near Roborough in

, as a new family seat, from the estate of

James Modyford Heywood James Modyford Heywood (c1729 – 22 March 1798) was an English Member of Parliament for Fowey, plantation owner in Jamaica, and Lord of the Admiralty. Early life Heywood was the only son of James Heywood (c1684–1738), of Maristow (near Rob ...

. He also had a

town house A townhouse, townhome, town house, or town home, is a type of terraced housing. A modern townhouse is often one with a small footprint on multiple floors. In a different British usage, the term originally referred to any type of city residen ...

Fitzroy Square Fitzroy Square is a Georgian architecture, Georgian garden square, square in London, England. It is the only one in the central London area known as Fitzrovia. The square is one of the area's main features, this once led to the surrounding di ...

Westminster Westminster is the main settlement of the City of Westminster in Central London, Central London, England. It extends from the River Thames to Oxford Street and has many famous landmarks, including the Palace of Westminster, Buckingham Palace, ...

. He had also for many years been investing part of his fortune in acquiring influence in a number of

parliamentary borough A borough is an administrative division in various English language, English-speaking countries. In principle, the term ''borough'' designates a self-governing walled town, although in practice, official use of the term varies widely. History ...

Parliamentary career

By the law as it stood at that period, no member of the Jewish religion could be elected to Parliament. (Many Christian denominations were similarly prohibited.) In 1802, Lopes converted to Christianity, and later the same year he entered Parliament as

Tory A Tory () is an individual who supports a political philosophy known as Toryism, based on a British version of traditionalist conservatism which upholds the established social order as it has evolved through the history of Great Britain. The To ...

member for

New Romney New Romney is a market town in Kent, England, on the edge of Romney Marsh, an area of flat, rich agricultural land reclaimed from the sea after the harbour began to silt up. New Romney, one of the original Cinque Ports, was once a sea port, w ...

. He subsequently also represented

Evesham Evesham () is a market town and Civil parishes in England, parish in the Wychavon district of Worcestershire, in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands region of England. It is located roughly equidistant between Worcester, England, Worceste ...

from 1807 and

Barnstaple Barnstaple ( or ) is a river-port town and civil parish in the North Devon district of Devon, England. The town lies at the River Taw's lowest crossing point before the Bristol Channel. From the 14th century, it was licensed to export wool from ...

from 1812. In 1810, he bought control of the pocket borough of Westbury from

Montagu Bertie, 5th Earl of Abingdon Montagu Bertie, 5th Earl of Abingdon (30 April 1784 – 16 October 1854), styled Lord Norreys until 1799, was an English peer. Background Bertie was the third son of Willoughby Bertie, 4th Earl of Abingdon, and Charlotte Warren, a daughter of Pe ...

when the latter sold the manor of Westbury. Westbury was a

burgage Burgage is a medieval land term used in Great Britain and Ireland, well established by the 13th century. A burgage was a town ("borough" or "burgh") rental property (to use modern terms), owned by a king or lord. The property ("burgage tenement ...

borough where the right to vote was attached to the ownership of certain properties; Lopes had bought all but two of these "burgage tenements", giving him the absolute power to name both of Westbury's MPs. (Unlike bribery, transactions of this sort were perfectly legal.) Between 1814 and 1819, he gave one of those seats to his nephew and heir, Ralph Franco. Meanwhile, Lopes was exerting his influence in various boroughs on behalf of the government, and in 1805 he was created a

baronet A baronet ( or ; abbreviated Bart or Bt) or the female equivalent, a baronetess (, , or ; abbreviation Btss), is the holder of a baronetcy, a hereditary title awarded by the British Crown. The title of baronet is mentioned as early as the 14th ...

, with a special

remainder In mathematics, the remainder is the amount "left over" after performing some computation. In arithmetic, the remainder is the integer "left over" after dividing one integer by another to produce an integer quotient ( integer division). In a ...

to his nephew Ralph Franco, son of his sister Esther. (Ralph, who inherited the baronetcy on his death, later changed his surname to Lopes). In 1810 he was appointed

High Sheriff of Devon The High Sheriff of Devon is the Kings's representative for the County of Devon, a territory known as his/her bailiwick. Selected from three nominated people, they hold the office for one year. They have judicial, ceremonial and administrative f ...

. In 1819, Sir Manasseh was discovered to have bribed the voters in two separate constituencies at the previous year's general election. Such corruption was common, but reformers were looking for a ''cause celebre'' to give prominence to their campaign, and it seems likely that, as a foreign Jew, Lopes was seen as an ideal villain for the purpose. In his own

constituency, he was alleged to have spent £3000 on bribing the voters, and after investigation his election was declared void. Meanwhile, at

Grampound Grampound () is a village and former civil parish, now in the parish of Grampound with Creed, in the Cornwall (district), Cornwall district, in the ceremonial county of Cornwall, England. It is at an ancient crossing point of the River Fal and ...

Cornwall Cornwall (; or ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is also one of the Celtic nations and the homeland of the Cornish people. The county is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, ...

, although no official protest had been entered against the election result, proceedings had been taken under the criminal law and Lopes was convicted, fined £1000 and jailed for two years. As a result of the scandal, the already notoriously corrupt borough of Grampound was permanently deprived of its right to return MPs. Lopes' sentence was remitted in September 1820, and he put himself into Parliament at Westbury in a by-election in November. In 1829, the Duke of Wellington's

government decided to legislate for Catholic Emancipation, a policy which was heretical to their own

Ultra-Tory The Ultra-Tories were an Anglican faction of British and Irish politics that appeared in the 1820s in opposition to Catholic emancipation. The faction was, in the twenty-first century, called the " extreme right-wing" of British and Irish polit ...

supporters. The

Home Secretary The secretary of state for the Home Department, more commonly known as the home secretary, is a senior minister of the Crown in the Government of the United Kingdom and the head of the Home Office. The position is a Great Office of State, maki ...

Robert Peel Sir Robert Peel, 2nd Baronet (5 February 1788 – 2 July 1850), was a British Conservative statesman who twice was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (1834–1835, 1841–1846), and simultaneously was Chancellor of the Exchequer (1834–183 ...

, whose own

Oxford University The University of Oxford is a collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the second-oldest continuously operating u ...

constituency was one of the greatest strongholds of opponents of Catholic Emancipation, felt compelled to resign and fight a

by-election A by-election, also known as a special election in the United States and the Philippines, or a bypoll in India, is an election used to fill an office that has become vacant between general elections. A vacancy may arise as a result of an incumben ...

to receive a mandate for his change of policy, and was defeated. To allow Peel to return to the Commons in time to move the bill, Lopes vacated his own seat at Westbury and elected Peel in his place. This provoked considerable hostile comment, not least because the government had responded to the

Anglican Anglicanism, also known as Episcopalianism in some countries, is a Western Christianity, Western Christian tradition which developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the ...

establishment voting against them by acquiring a seat from a Jewish-born borough owner. Lopes reportedly expected to be rewarded for providing his seat at so vital a moment with a peerage, but he was disappointed. Although Peel had no need of the seat after the general election which came the following year, Lopes did not stand again.

Personal life

On 19 October 1795, Lopes married Charlotte Yeates, a daughter of John Yeates, with whom he had two daughters. Sir Manasseh died in 1831 aged 76. There is a memorial to him by

Richard Westmacott Sir Richard Westmacott (15 July 17751 September 1856) was a British sculptor. Life and career Westmacott studied with his father, also named Richard Westmacott, at his studio in Mount Street, off Grosvenor Square in London before going to R ...

in Bickleigh Church.

Arms

Lopes was granted a

coat of arms A coat of arms is a heraldry, heraldic communication design, visual design on an escutcheon (heraldry), escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the last two being outer garments), originating in Europe. The coat of arms on an escutcheon f ...

blazon In heraldry and heraldic vexillology, a blazon is a formal description of a coat of arms, flag or similar emblem, from which the reader can reconstruct an accurate image. The verb ''to blazon'' means to create such a description. The visual d ...

ed ''Azure, a chevron or charged with three bars gemelles gules between three eagles rising of the second on a chief of the second five lozenges of the first''.Montague-Smith, P.W. (ed.), Debrett's Peerage, Baronetage, Knightage and Companionage, Kelly's Directories Ltd, Kingston-upon-Thames, 1968, p.942

References

* ''Concise Dictionary of National Biography. Pt 1: From the beginnings to 1900''. London: Oxford U. P., 1906 * Brock, Michael (1973) ''The Great Reform Act''. London: Hutchinson, 1973 * Cannon, John (1973) ''Parliamentary Reform 1640-1832''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press * Oldfield, T. H. B. (1816), ''The Representative History of Great Britain and Ireland''. London: Baldwin, Cradock & Joy * *

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Lopes, Manasseh Masseh 1755 births 1831 deaths Lopes, Manasseh Masseh, 1st Baronet Converts to Anglicanism from Judaism Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for Barnstaple UK MPs 1802–1806 UK MPs 1807–1812 UK MPs 1812–1818 UK MPs 1818–1820 UK MPs 1820–1826 UK MPs 1826–1830 High sheriffs of Devon English people of Portuguese-Jewish descent Jewish British politicians Tory MPs (pre-1834)

Manasseh Manasseh () is both a given name and a surname. Its variants include Manasses and Manasse. Notable people with the name include: Surname * Ezekiel Saleh Manasseh (died 1944), Singaporean rice and opium merchant and hotelier * Jacob Manasseh ( ...

Jamaican emigrants to the United Kingdom People convicted of bribery Jamaican people of Portuguese descent English people of Portuguese descent