ABSTRACT
On April 3, 1753, a bill was introduced into the House of Lords. Entitled the Jewish Naturalization Act, the proposed piece of legislature would provide an alternate mechanism for foreign-born Jews who wished to gain English citizenship but who were unwilling to undergo the then required sacramental test. If adopted, the new law would enable such Jews to petition Parliament in order to be granted the right to substitute the Oath of Supremacy and Oath of Allegiance in place of the holy sacrament. As Thomas Perry notes, the bill ‘actually naturalized no one: all it did was to modify the statutory requirements for naturalization so that the Parliament in future cases could, if it wished, naturalize professing Jews, a thing impossible under existing law.’1 Moreover, the procedure outlined in what would be commonly called the Jew Bill was intentionally complex and costly in order to limit the legislation’s scope to ‘the few elite Sephardi merchants and brokers who had the capacity to petition this way.’2 Initially put forward by Joseph Salvador, a prosperous Jewish banker (who was a native English subject), the proposal was endorsed by Prime Minister Henry Pelham and the inner circle of the ruling Whig party. After an uneventful passage through the House of Lords and the House of Commons, the Jew Bill was made law by royal decree on June 7, 1753.
