Mordecai Palache

Slave-owner in Jamaica, moving to the US before Emancipation and dying there c. 1837. His surviving family appears to have moved in turn to England by the 1860s.

1. Unsourced online family tree gives Mordecai Palache, born 1790 in Jamaica, married to Eliza Isaacs, daughter of Solomon Isaacs (q.v.), and father of Alexander (1815-1846), Mordecai junior (1818-), Sarah (1821-), Louisa (1825-), Eliza (1830-1902) and Solomon (1833-). The same tree gives Mordecai's wife as Eliza nee Isaacs, daughter of Solomon Isaacs (q.v.). The marriage of Mordecai Palache to Eliza Isaacs, 18/05/1813, appears in Jamaican Family Search with the births of their children George (1814), Jacob (1817), Miriam (1819), Sarah Isaacs (1821), Samuel (1823), Louisa (1825), Abraham and Isaac Edmond (both 1827) and Gilbert (1828).

2. Mordecai Palache, now of the City of New York and formerly of Kingston, Jamaica, gentleman, signed a deposition 24/01/1832 stating that now he is resident of New York and intends to always reside in the United States of America and to become a citizen thereof as soon as he is naturalised.

3. On 3/12/1838, Eliza Palache, age 42, Sarah age 18, Louisa age 13, Eliza age 8 and Solomon age 5 arrived in New York from Kingston on the ship 'Emily'.

4. What appears to be Mordecai Palache's wife and daughter, both named Eliza, were in England from the 1860s, living in Teignmouth. Eliza Palache died 20/09/1869 at West Teignmouth (effects under £200); her daughter was at Teignmouth in 1871 and 1891 ('living on own means'), dying at Teignmouth in 1902, with effects sworn and resworn but ending up at some £750.

5. The will of Mordecai Palache was registered in New York 28/12/1837 and proved there 27/02/1838.

1. Ancestry.com family tree by teresastokes56, https://www.ancestry.co.uk/family-tree/person/tree/57741339/person/330150740724/facts [accessed 09/11/2018]; 'Ashkenazi Congregation, English and German Jews, Kingston, Jamaica, 1788-1905 Register of Births' and 'Marriages of the Sephardic Congregation Kingston, Jamaica 1805-1897', at www.jamaicanfamilysearch.com.

2. Ancestry.com, New York, Alien Depositions of Intent to Become U.S. Citizens, 1825-1871 [database online].

3. Ancestry.com, New York, Passenger and Immigration Lists, 1820-1850 [database online].

4. National Probate Calendar 1869 and 1902; census online 1871, 1891.

5. Ancestry.com, New York, Wills and Probate Records, 1659-1999 for Mordecai Palache [database online].

We are grateful to Rich Weeks for his assistance with compiling this entry.