Joseph da Costa

Fernando Joseph da Costa (1683–1753), alias Joseph Curiel, was a member of a wealthy family of merchants in London of Portuguese-Jewish origins, and the son of Alvaro Jacob da Costa, sometimes considered the founder of the Anglo-Sephardi community in London. He was able to buy Copped Hall in Totteridge, Hertfordshire, and thus became the lord of the Manor of Copped Hall.

A Prospect of Coppeed Hall at Totteridge in the County of Hertford seat of Joseph Da Costa, Esq. 1739.[1]

Early life and family

Da Costa was born in 1683, the second son of Alvaro Jacob (Rodrigues) da Costa (1646–1716), sometimes considered the founder of the Anglo-Sephardi community in London, and Leonor Mendes Gutiérres (1651–1727). He had brothers Anthony Moses da Costa (1667x9–1747) and John Benjamin da Costa (1674–1752).[2] He married his cousin Leonora Mendes and they had six children who survived infancy.[3]

Their daughter Catherine (Kitty) (1709-1746), married Joseph (Isaac) da Costa Villareal who died three years later. She then married William Mellish, member of Parliament for East Retford but was sued for breach of promise by her cousin Jacob (Philip) Mendes da Costa.[4] (1707-86) in the ecclesiastical Consistory Court of Arches, the first time a Jew had brought a case in that forum.[3]

Their son (Anthony) Moses da Costa (1712-80) was elected a fellow of The Royal Society.[3][5]

Career

The da Costa family had extensive mercantile interests that included the import of diamonds from India, wood from the Azores, and the export of coral from Italy to India. They were brokers for customers in European trading centres and shippers of bullion.[2]

Houses

In 1716, da Costa inherited a house in Budge Row, London, on the death of his father. By 1722, he owned Copped Hall (or Coppeed Hall) in Totteridge, Hertfordshire and was lord of the manor of Copped Hall.[3] The house in Totteridge had extensive grounds and was significant enough to appear in Badeslade and Roqeu's Vitruvius Brittanicus in 1739.[1] In 1758 the house was sold to Abraham Chambers, London Banker.

Death

Da Costa died in 1753.[3]

References
  1. Badeslade & Roqeu, Vitruvius Brittanicus, Vol. IV, 1739.
  2. "Costa, Alvaro Jacob da (1646–1716)" by Norma Perry in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004. Online edition. January 2008. Retrieved 2 November 2016.
  3. Hemming, T.D.E., E. Freeman, D. Meakin (Eds.) (1994). The secular city: Studies in the Enlightenment presented to Haydn Mason. Exeter: University of Exeter Press. pp. 48–50. ISBN 978-0-85989-416-6.CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: extra text: authors list (link)
  4. Scott, Darwin F. (2002). For the love of music: Festschrift in honor of Theodore Front on his 90th birthday. Lucca, Italy: Antiqua. p. 23. ISBN 978-88-88326-01-6.
  5. "Costa, Anthony Moses da (1667x9–1747)" by Norma Perry in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004. Online edition. April 2016. Retrieved 2 November 2016.
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