When I Am Gone

Abstract

Personal and financial loss continued to blight Isaac, Joshua, and their children’s lives. Joshua and Isaac immersed themselves in business, and left the child rearing to the unwed Moses sisters. Bookkeeping wasn’t the men’s forte: they lived beyond their means in a fashionable neighborhood near St. John’s Park, where they were joined briefly by Isaac’s father Abraham Rodrigues Brandon, his new mistress, and his second brood of children. When Brandon’s death left Isaac guardian of his younger half-siblings, he enrolled them in British Jewish boarding schools as per his father’s wishes. Then Joshua died unexpectedly, and Sarah’s children became utterly beholden to their Moses aunts and uncles. Increasingly, Isaac sought refuge on the island, the old controversy about whether he should count as a full Jew having been laid to rest.