JEWS IN THE BRITISH ISLES IN 1851: BIRTHPLACES, RESIDENCE AND MIGRATIONS

Abstract

This paper offers the beginnings of a statistical portrait of the Jewish community living in mid-19th century Britain, before the age of mass immigration later in the century. It draws on the 1851 Anglo-Jewry Database (1851 AJDB) which has been under development over the past decade with the aim of offering an improved quantitative dimension to the existing historiography, and records information on 28,773 individuals. The paper suggests some fine-tuning of overall population estimates for this community; it then examines the range of birthplaces and later residence of the population in scope, along with their migrations both before and after 1851.