The Belmont-Belmonte Family, a Record of Four Hundred Years, Put

Gc 929.2 M. U B418g 1164967 GENEALOGY COLLECTION .'-'55'. 4'/^ THE BELMONT -BELMONTE FAMILY OF THIS BOOK ONE HUNDRED COPIES ONLY HAVE BEEN PRINTED FROM TYPE AND THE TYPE HAS BEEN DISTRIBUTED THE BELMONT-BELMONTE FAMILY A RECORD OF FOUR HUNDRED YEARS Put together from the Original Documents in the Archives and Libraries of Spain Portugal, Holland, England and Germany as well as from private sources RICHARD J. H. GOTTHEIL PROFESSOR IN COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY NEW YORK NEW YORK PRIVATELY PRINTED I9I7 TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE Introduction v I. The Problem i II. Documents Dealing with the Belmontes in Spain lo III. Documents Dealing with the Belmontes in Portugal 24 IV. Arrival in the Netherlands 35 V. Francois de Schonenberg 46 VI. The Second Branch in Amsterdam 83 VII. Manuel, Baron de Belmonte 92 VIII. The Family of Jacob Belmonte in Amsterdam 103 ^ IX. Stray Members of the Amsterdam Family in Holland, France, >• England, etc 119 a- X. The Belmontes in Hamburg 132 XI. Spanish and Portuguese Communities in Germany 143 I XII. The Belmonts in Alzey 158 "tJXIII. August Belmont 173 V APPENDICES -8 ORIGINAL DOCUMENTS I. El Conde de Velmontte 177 II. Juan de Pacheco, Senor of Velmonte 179 III. Joseph Manuel Ventimiglia, Principe de Belmonte 183 IV. Don Lorenzo Fernando de Cuenca Antolinez y Teruel 201 V. Don Juan Sanchez Belmonte Adam y Quadra 203 VI. Toledo Inquisition; Ines de Belmonte 207 VII. FRANgois DE Schonenberg 211 VIII. Baron Manuel de Belmonte 215 IX. The "Livro das Gerasoims" of the Family of Jacob Belmonte . 221 " " X. Extracts from the Civilstandsregister of the City of Alzey . 233 XI. Genealogical Tree of the Descendants of Don Iago y Sampayo . 237 XII. Genealogical . Tree of the Descendants of Jacob Belmonte . 239 XIII. Genealogical Tree of the Belmont Family in Alzey 241 XIV. Genealogical Tree of the Lancaster Family 243 INTRODUCTION HE STUDY OF GENEALOGIES IS A SCIENCE full of pitfalls. It is a part of the larger science of historiography, forming often the basis upon which the account of peoples and events is built up. But the idea that history must be written for the sake simply of depicting the march of events and of understanding the forces of which these events are the exponents is one of comparatively recent date. In former times history was written with a tendency. Its object was to exalt the one, to depreciate the other, whether these were men or combinations of men. In a similar manner genealogies were written for the purpose of proving something, of showing a line of descent in the interest of some one branch or other of a family, for upon such proof depended the right to bear a certain title, to enter into the ranks of a certain order. The real student, however, must have no such object in view. He must pick his way through the mazes and entangle- ments that surmount his path with the one object in mind, to get at the truth; and when actual proof fails and combinations and suppositions take its place, he must frankly state them to be such. Happily the student of to-day is placed in a more advantageous posi- tion than was his forerunner. Means are at his very elbows which were far removed and difficult of access in times gone by. Libraries are the passion of the day and seductively lure the searcher after truth. In olden times, it is true, family and state records were preserved, but often in an uncertain manner, in unprotected places and in indifferent copies. The spread of writing and printing, the daily mirror of events pictured in the press, will make the work of the future student more certain, even though it render it more arduous. Families are now more apt to seek and preserve a knowledge of their past. Municipalities and states treasure up their historical documents. The historian is so up to date that he is continually at the heel of time; the gap between events and their recording is, with few exceptions, a negligible quantit3^ vi INTRODUCTION In the present study, however, we are dealing with the past; and, in addition to the difficulties which face all students of history, genealogical science has some which are pecuhar and exceptional. In their infancy, few families consider their own history worth recording and preserving. It is only when some member or other has rendered them of importance that the idea presents itself that their early records may be of value to themselves and to the world at large. Then it is often too late to do more than gather up the scattered remnants which have been picked up along the wayside, the shreds and bones which have whitened in the sun and which a happy chance only has handed down to posterity. That which might have been the work of intelligent fore- thought has been left to the haphazard of chance; and chance, chary of her gifts, makes us feel at every step the wrong that has been done. Nor is chance the sole enemy of the genealogist. For one reason or other, human effort has often come to its aid. Famihes have as often had reason for actively suppressing information as they have been ne- glectful in treasuring it up. One branch of a family, one member even, may be actuated by jealousy or some other motive and blot out the record of a neighboring branch or of another member who towers too high above the ordinary. The genealogist must continually bear this in mind. He must pick up the twigs which have fallen during' the storms of centuries; he must gather the branches which have been ruthlessly cut off and thrown away ; and when he has brought together all that re- mains, he must reconstruct the tree and give it new life and semblance. In so doing there is one quality of mind that is well-nigh indispen- sable. No historian is in true command of his science who does not also command an active imagination. He may have gathered large masses of material, he may have expended most praiseworthy effort in so doing; but if history means simply the mechanical piecing together of dates and facts, the work of the historian would simply be that of an experienced mason and will necessarily fail at many a point. The true historian must be more than this; he must at the same time be an architect. He must not only be able to piece the various parts together with intel- ligence. He must bridge over hollow places, cover up fissures, supply missing links and make a consistent whole out of that which originally was nothing more than a jumble of stones. To do this, he must be able to see more than can the naked eye. He must look beyond his material and between its lines. He must recognize the reasonableness of INTRODUCTION vii historical sequence and the probability of human actions. A single straw must show him the way in which the wind is blowing and in- dicate the route along which the thread of events is drawn. Not every theory is susceptible of absolute proof and this applies to historical and genealogical studies as it does to other departments of human enquiry. The vaunted conclusions of physical science are no more than wide generalizations based upon what is considered to be suffi- cient evidence and the doctrine of probabilities. The world accepts these conclusions as working hypotheses and is satisfied that the trained imagination of the scientist leads him rightly to suspect where he cannot prove. The student of Jewish genealogies has to face certain conditions which do not present themselves elsewhere. A peculiar people, the Jews have a history that is not only peculiar but difficult to follow and understand. That, at an early time, they preserved documentary evidence of their past is to be assumed as probable in view of the distinct assertions in the biblical records.^ Not only did the kings of Israel and Judah have their official annalists; the chief families in the land had a care for their genealogies, evidences of which are not uncommon in later history. This care was necessary for several reasons, but chiefly because in a hierarchic state, such as the Jewish one was, certain classes of the population had definite rights and definite duties in matters con- cerning the public cult. Notable examples are the priests and the Le- vites, who were bound by certain marriage regulations and to whom definite service was appointed in the Temple regime. Even among the Levites as a class there were certain distinctions, the Temple duties being apportioned to definite famihes who handed down from one gen- eration to another occult knowledge of the manner in which these duties were to be performed. Events since the destruction of the last Temple in 70 A.D. have dealt ruthlessly with these subdivisions, so that a knowledge of their later development escapes our ken. Yet, strange to say, the grand divisions of the people have persisted. Not only is the distinc- tion between priests (Cohen, Cohanim), Levites and ordinary Israelites preserved in the ritual that is still used in all orthodox and conservative congregations, e.g., in the summoning to the Reading of the Law on 1 See Genesis v., 1, "This is the book of the generations"; I Kings xi, 41, "the book of the acts of Solomon"; II Kings xiii, 8, "the book of the Chronicles"; I Chron. ix, i, "the book of the Kings of Israel"; II Chron.

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