AN IMPORTANT EARLY AMERICAN MARRIAGE CONTRACT, NEW YORK: 1751

Estimate

15,000 - 20,000 USD

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Description

Ink on paper (11 x 7 ½ in.; 280 x 188 mm). Engraved cartouche at top depicting two cherubs holding a banner containing the Hebrew congratulatory wish, be-Siman Tov; signatures of the groom (in Hebrew) and Isaac M. Seixas and Benjamin Pereira (witnesses). With losses; laid to size.

Provenance

The American Jewish Historical Society- sold in 1987.

Literature

J.R. Marcus, Early American Jewry (1951), pp. 219-24; J.R. Rosenbloom, Biographical Dictionary; H. Simonhoff, Jewish notables in America (1956), T. de Sola Pool, An Old Faith in the New World (1955); Goldman and Kinsberg, Hebrew Printing in America, 1735-1926, New York, 2006, p.1165.

Catalogue Note

One of the first known ketubbot in colonial America

This ketubbah celebrates the marriage of Rachel, daughter of Moses Louzada to Haym son of Meir on Wednesday, 30 Sivan, 5511 [=23 June, 1751].

The groom, Haym Myers, was born in Amsterdam and arrived in New York sometime before 1750 when he is recorded as having accepted the position of Shochet to the Shearith Israel congregation. He took the Oath of Naturalization in 1759 and went into business, establishing trade relationships with Canada and traveling frequently between Montreal and New York. In 1763 Myers and his family moved to Montreal, but returned to New York after the American Revolution. Observant Jews throughout their lives, the Myers had four children, the most prominent of whom was Moses (1752-1835), an outstanding merchant and leader of the City of Norfolk.

Benjamin Pereira, a witness to the marriage, was appointed Hazan of Congregation Shearith Israel in 1748. Seven years later he also agreed to administer and teach in the community's school. Because of his poor health, Pereira moved to the warmer climate of Jamaica in 1757.

The engraved border design of this Ketubbah was first developed in Amsterdam in 1659. The same design was subsequently used for over 200 years by Spanish and Portuguese Jews around the world. By 1729, the Jewish community of London had printed their own variation of the famed Amsterdam ketubbah. An examination of the engraved decoration on our ketubbah has proved it to be a variant of both the Amsterdam and London designs. Only one other copy of this design is extant (recording a wedding that took place just one month before this one, See Goldman, p.1161). Since the only two known exemplars both document weddings in Colonial America, it would appear that these two ketubbot represent a new discovery in Jewish wedding contracts, namely a ketubbah that although printed in Europe, was created from the outset for use in the New World. This surviving marriage contract represents one of the only remnants of the religious observance of the then fledgling Jewish community in colonial New York.