Grace Aguilar

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Grace Aguilar

1816 - 1847

Poet, Novelist & Theologian.

About FROM THE AUTHOR OF THIS SITE:I am the great, great, nephew of Grace Aguilar, poet, novelist and theologian. I am directly descended from the musician and composer Emanuel Abraham Aguilar, the eldest of Grace's two younger brothers who married Sarah Lindo.I have been interested in the ' Aguilar Family History' for many years and publish on this site information solely connected with Grace Aguilar, notes, biographies and a substantial bibliography for the serious researcher. Michael Dugdale.GRACE AGUILARGrace Aguilar was born of Spanish-Jewish parents at The Paragon, Hackney, London, on 2nd June 1816. Grace was the first child of Emanuel Aguilar (8th June 1787 - 18th January 1845) and Sarah (nee Dias Fernandes) Aguilar (9th June 1787 - 29th April 1854) Emanuel and Sarah were married on 7th June 1809. Sarah was the third daughter of Jacob Dias Fernandes and granddaughter of Benjamin Dias, a Portuguese Merchant of Jamaica.Grace's Grandfather, Joseph Aguilar (1765 - 17th December 1822) had married his first cousin Grace Aguilar (1764 - 28th February 1823) The generation of Aguilar's before this had owned sugar plantations in Jamaica, their forebears having fled Jewish persecution in Spain.From birth Grace Aguilar was a delicate child and was mainly educated at home. At the age of four she was taken to Hastings on the south coast of England for her health. It was here that she started collecting and arranging shells. Already a keen reader, Grace would prefer a book to any other present. At the age of seven, Grace commenced a journal, that she was to keep for most of her life. During her childhood she only spent 18 months at school her tuition given mainly by her parents. On 23 August 1824 her first brother, Emanuel Abraham Aguilar was born. Emanuel was to later become a gifted composer and musician. On 26th August 1827 Henry Aguilar her second brother was born. Henry was later to become a sailor working for the West India Company and later joining the Royal Navy. In 1828 when Grace was twelve years old, her parents moved to the Tavistock and Teignmouth areas of Devon for the health of her father, Emanuel Aguilar. Here she was able to continue her collection of shells, stones seaweed and mosses.Always a semi-invalid, she began writing in her childhood, her first poems at the age of nine being collected in Magic Wreath. At the age of twelve she wrote a small drama called ‘Gustavus Vasa’. Grace was much influenced by; ‘Josephus’ a book dealing with the history of the Jewish people, this book seemed to have had a long lasting effect on her. This was the beginnings of what was going to be her life’s passion. As part of her education, Grace went on a tour of English towns (1835) She visited Oxford, Cheltenham, Gloucester, Worcester, Ross, and Bath, including visits to a porcelain works and pin factory.So strong were her feelings that she translated a small French book called ‘Israel Defended’ by the Marano, Orbio de Castro, which she printed for private circulation and wrote ‘The Magic Wreath’, a collection of poems which she published anonymously in 1835. ‘The Vale of Cedars’ was written about this time and published in 1850. It was twice published in German and Hebrew. This was followed by two larger projects ‘Home Influence’ (1835) and ‘The Spirit of Judaism’.At about this time (1835) both her brothers Emanuel aged eleven and Henry aged eight were sent away to private school. Her mother became seriously ill and had a serious and dangerous operation from which recuperation was slow, with Grace caring for her day and night.In 1836 Grace wrote ‘Home Influence’ and its sequel ‘The Mother’s Recompence’ both first published after her death in 1850. 'Woman’s Friendship' written at this time was published in 1851.What was to happen next was a fundamental turning point in Grace’s life and would have a long lasting and devastating effect on her. In the Spring of 1838, at the age of 21 she caught measles. Following this illness she lost weight and became considerably physically weakened. Grace, although ill, continued to write and completed ‘The Records of Israel’, 'The Women of Israel' and ‘The Jewish Faith’. ‘The ‘Records of Israel’ was not well received by English Jews. These books published in America however were very successful and Grace received many letters of thanks and congratulation. Many of her poems were also published in America at this time. Her lasting popularity, however, came from her sentimental domestic novels which were mostly edited and published posthumously by her mother, Sarah Aguilar. Emanuel Aguilar, her eldest brother, was fast becoming a talented musician and pianist and was sent to Germany for tuition. In 1843 Henry her younger brother left home to go to sea on a West Indiaman at the age of sixteen. Later in life whilst Second Master, Navigating Officer, on H.M. Gunboat ‘Grappler’, his name was adopted by Capt. Richards’ chart of 1861, who named ‘Aguilar Point’, at Barkley Sound, on the west coast of Canada after him.The Family had now returned to London following their stay in Devon and were living at 5, The Triangle, Hackney, London.On 18th January 1845 Grace's father (Emanuel Aguilar) died of consumption in Grace’s arms. Henry returned home from sea soon after his fathers death and decided never to go to sea again. Henry attempted with great difficulty to obtain a job in the City. Grace's health was now considerably worse. Around this time Grace and her mother Sarah Aguilar moved to 1, Clarence Place, Clapton Square, Clapton (between November 1844 and September 1845) After her father's death, Grace wrote for a profession, publishing her controversial attack on the formality of contemporary religion, The Spirit of Judaism, in 1842, followed by a more popular work, The Jewish Faith, 1845.Much of Grace's popularity in America was due to the philanthropist Miriam Moses Cohen who acted as an agent for her publications in America. There was much correspondence between the two but April 2nd 1846 the last letter was sent. Towards the end of January 1847 Grace went to Peckham to a friend for her health as a change of air was recommended. During this time she had difficulty speaking and swallowing her doctors advised her to rest and she was not allowed to write. She had planned to write ‘Men of Israel’. In March 1847, Henry the sailor (aged 19 yrs and seven months) returned to sea and was not to return home for another 3½ years Grace's last publication was an article for Chambers called ‘History of the English Jews’. Following it’s writing, Grace was persuaded by her musician brother, Emanuel, to visit Frankfort, to consult an eminent German Physician. Emanuel returned to England to accompany his family to Germany. On the 17th June 1847 Emanuel, Grace, their mother Sarah and a friend of Grace, a Miss Samuelson, left to catch the steamer 'Sir Edward Banks' at Blackwall for Ostend.The family journey through Belgian to Germany is documented in Grace's Frankfort Journal of 34,000 words, which has recently been transcribed by Michael Galchinsky. During her stay in Germany, Grace became weaker and weaker, with depression and intense headaches. The last entry in her Frankfort journal was made on 29th July 1847. After 6 weeks she was advised to go to the spa at Schwalbach, where she stayed for three weeks. The spa had no remedial effect and she returned to Frankfurt for the final three weeks of her life. She died in Frankfort on 16th September 1847 and was buried in the Jewish cemetery there. On her gravestone were carved five stars representing her faith and a butterfly. Dr. Daniel A. Harris*, Ph.D, Bildner Center for the Study of Jewish Life; Professor of English & Jewish Studies, Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick NJ wrote: Popular as a novelist, important as a theologian, but ignored as a poet: an English Jew of Sephardic extraction fixated on themes of exile and as similation at just the point that British Jews were seeking full civil rights, Aguilar is the first Anglo-Jew to write midrashic poems about Hebrew characters. She is also among the first to jump the boundaries of Victorian women's 'domestic sphere' to write explicitly political poetry. Her work is vigorous, stark, subtle in its critique of British Christian culture. Some of her most powerful work is clearly proto-Zionist.Michael Galchinsky Ph. D. Associate Professor 19th Century British Literature, Cultural Studies, Jewish Studies and Narrative Theory at Georgia State University, USA, wrote;Modern Jewish Women's Dilemmas, Grace Aguilar's Bargains' argues that Victorian Jewish women were the first Jewish women anywhere in the world to begin publishing books in a thoroughgoing way. Grace Aguilar, by far the most prominent spokesperson for English Jews during the period, attempted to strike bargains, both with Christians, and with Jewish men. If Christians would tolerate Jews, Aguilar agreed that Jews would keep their different practices within the domestic sphere. Similarly, if Jewish men would provide women in the community with the education they lacked, women would agree to restrict their use of this education to training children in the home. Aguilar's bargains, articulated in romances, domestic fictions, and midrashim, enabled her to break centuries' old exemptions on women's participating in the intellectual life of the Jewish community, and enabled her to create a new Jewish novelistic from scratch.
Biography MEMOIR OFGRACE AGUILAR FROM ‘HOME INFLUENCE’ BY GRACE AGUILAR. PUBLISHED BY GROOMBRIDGE & SONS 1885Grace Aguilar was born at Hackney, June 2nd, 1816. She was the eldest child and only daughter of Emanuel Aguilar, one of those merchants descended from the Jews of Spain who, almost within the memory of man, fled from per-secution in that country, and sought and found an asylum in England. The delicate frame and feeble health observable in Grace Aguilar throughout her life, displayed itself from infancy; from the age of three years, she was almost constantly under the care of some physicians, and, by their advice, annually spending the summer months by the sea, in the hope of rousing and strengthening a naturally fragile constitution. This want of physical energy was, however, in direct contrast to her mental powers, which developed early, and readily. She learned to read with scarcely any trouble, and when once that knowledge was gained, her answer, when asked what she would like for a present, was invariably "a book," which was read, re-read, and preserved with a care remarkable in so young a child. With the exception of eighteen months passed at school, her mother was her sole instructress, and both parents took equal delight in directing her studies, and facilitating her personal inspection of all that was curious and interesting in the various counties of England, to which they resorted for her health. From the early age of seven she commenced keeping a journal, which was continued with scarce any intermission throughout her life. In l825 she visited Oxford, Cheltenham, Gloucester, Worcester, Ross, and Bath, and though at that time but nine years old, her father took her to Gloucester and Worcester cathedrals, and also to see a porcelain and pin manufactory, etc., the attention and interest she displayed on these occasions, affording convincing proof that her mind was alive to appreciate and enjoy what was thus presented to her observation. Before she had completed her twelfth year she ventured to try her powers in composition, and wrote a little drama, called Gustavus Vasa, never published, and only here recorded as being the first germ of what was afterwards to become the ruling passion. In September, 1828, the family went to reside in Devonshire, for the health of Mr. Aguilar, and there a strong admiration for the beauties and wonders of nature manifested itself: she constantly collected shells, stones, seaweed, mosses, etc., in her daily rambles; and not satisfied with admiring their beauty, sedulously procured whatever little catechisms or other books on those subjects she could purchase or borrow, eagerly endeavouring, by their study, to increase her know-ledge of their nature and properties. When she had attained the age of fourteen, her father commenced a regular course of instruction for his child, by reading aloud, while she was employed in drawing, needle-work, etc. History was selected, that being the study which now most interested her, and the first work chosen was Josephus. It was while spending a short time at Tavistock, in 1830, that the beauty of the surrounding scenery led her to express her thoughts in verse. Several small pieces soon followed her first essay, and she became extremely fond of this new exercise and enjoyment of her opening powers, yet her mind was so well regulated, that she never permitted herself to indulge in original composition until her duties and her studies were all performed. Grace Aguilar was extremely fond of music; she had learned the piano from infancy, and in 1831 commenced the harp. She sang pleasingly. Preferring English songs, and invariably selecting them for the beauty or sentiment of the words; she was also passionately fond of dancing, and her cheerful lively manners in the society of her young friends would scarcely have led any to imagine how deeply she felt and pondered upon the serious and solemn subjects, which afterwards formed the labour of her life. She seemed to enjoy all, to enter into all, but a keen observer would detect the hold that sacred and holy principle ever exercised over her lightest act and gayest hour. A sense of duty was apparent in the merest trifle, and her following out of the divine command of obedience to parents, was only equalled by the unbounded affection she felt for them. A wish was once expressed by her mother that she should not waltz, and no solicitation could afterwards tempt her. Her mother also required her to read sermons, and study religion and the Bible regularly; this was readily submitted to first as a task, but afterwards with much delight; for evidence of which we cannot do better than quote her own words in one of her religious works. "This formed into a habit, and preserved in for a life, would in time, and without labour or weariness, give the comfort and the knowledge that we seek: each year it would become lighter, and more blessed, each year we should discover something we knew not before, and in the valley of the shadow of death, feel to our heart's core that the Lord our God is truth."- Women of Israel, vol. ii. page 43. Nor did Grace Aguilar only study religion for her own personal observance and profit. she embraced its principles (the principles of all creeds in a widely extended and truly liberal sense. She carried her practice of its holy and benevolent precepts into every minute of her daily life, doing all the good her limited means would allow, finding time in the midst of her own studies, and most varied and continual occupations, to work for and instruct her poor neighbours in the country, and while steadily venerating and adhering to her own faith, neither inquiring nor heeding the religious opinions of the needy whom she succoured or consoled. To be permitted to help and comfort, she considered a privilege and a pleasure; she left the rest to God; and thus bestowing and receiving blessings and smiles from all who had the opportunity of knowing her, her young life flowed on, in an a1most uninterrupted stream of enjoyment, until she had completed her nineteenth year. Alas! the scene was soon to change, and trials awaited that spirit, which in the midst of sunshine had so beautifully striven to prepare itself a shelter from the storm. The two brothers of Miss Aguilar, whom she tenderly loved, left the paternal roof to be placed far from their family at school. Her mother's health necessitated a painful and dangerous operation, and from that time for several years, alternate hopes and fears, through long and dreary watchings beside the sick bed of that beloved mother, became the portion of her gifted child. But even this depressing and arduous change in the duties of her existence did not suspend her literary pursuits and labours. She profited by all the intervals she could command, and wrote the tale of the "Martyr," the "Spirit of Judaism," and "Israel Defended;" the latter translated from the French, at the earnest request of a friend, and printed only for private circulation. The "Magic Wreath," a little poetical work, and the first our authoress ever published, dedicated to the Right Honourable the Countess of Munster, also appeared about this time. In the spring of 1835, Grace Aguilar was attacked with measles, and never afterwards recovered her previous state of health, suffering at intervals with such exhausting feelings of weakness, as to become, without any visible disease, really alarming. The medical attendants recommended entire rest of mind and body; she visited the sea, and seemed a little revived, but anxieties were gathering around her horizon, to which it became evidently impossible her ardent and active mind could remain passive or indifferent, and which recalled every feeling, every energy of her impressible nature into action. Her elder brother, who had long chosen music as his profession, was sent to Germany to pursue his studies; the younger determined upon entering the sea service. The excitement of these changes, and the parting with both, was highly injurious to their affectionate sister, and her delight a few months after, at welcoming the sailor boy returned from his first voyage, with all his tales of danger and adventure, and his keen enjoyment of the path of life he had chosen, together with her struggles to do her utmost to share his walks and companionship, contributed yet more to impair her inadequate strength. The second parting was scarcely over, when her father, who had long shown symptoms of failing health, became the victim of consumption. He breathed his last in her arms, and the daughter, while sorrowing over all she had lost, roused her self once more to the utmost, feeling that she was the sole comforter beside her remaining parent. Soon after, when her brother again returned, finding the death of his father, he re-solved not to make his third voyage as a midshipman, but endeavour to procure some employment sufficiently lucrative to prevent his remaining a burden upon his widowed mother. Long and anxiously did he pursue this object, his sister, whose acquaintance with literary and talented persons had greatly increased, using all her energy and influence in his behalf, and concentrating all the enthusiastic feelings of her nature in inspiring him with patience, comfort, and hope, as often as they failed him under his repeated disappointments. At length his application was taken up by a powerful friend, for her , she had the happiness of succeeding, and saw him depart at the very summit of his wishes. Repose, which had been so long necessary, seemed now at hand; but her nerves had been too long and too repeatedly overstrung, and when this task was done, the worn and weary spirit could sustain no more, and sank under the labour that had been imposed upon it.Severe illness followed, and though it yielded after a time to skilful remedies and tender care, her excessive langour and severe headaches continued to give her family and friends great uneasiness. During all these demands upon her time, her thoughts, and her health, however, the ruling passion neither slumbered norslept. She completed the "Jewish Faith," and also prepared "Home Influence" for the press, though very unfit to have taxed her powers so far. Her medical attendant became urgent for total change of air and scene, and again strongly interdicted al~ mental exertion-a trip to Frankfort, to visit her elder brother, was therefore decided on. In June, 1847, she set out, and bore the journey without suffering nearly so much as might have been expected. Her hopes were high, her spirits raised-the novelty and interest of her first travels on the Continent gave her for a very transient period a gleam, as it were, of strength. For a week or two she appeared to rally, then again every exertion became too much for her, every stimulating remedy to exhaust her. She was ordered from Frankfort to try the baths and mineral waters of Schwalbach, but without success. After a stay of six weeks, and persevering with exemplary patience in the treatment prescribed, she was one night seized with alarming convulsive spasms, so terrible, that her family removed her the next morning with all speed back to Frankfort, to the house of a family of most kind friends, where every attention and care were lavishly bestowed. In vain. She took to her bed the very day of her arrival, and never rose from it again; she became daily weaker, and in three weeks from that time her sufferings ceased for ever. She was perfectly conscious to within less than two hours before her death, and took an affectionate leave of her mother and brother. Speech had been a matter of difficulty for some time previous, her throat being greatly affected by her malady; but she had, in consequence, learned to use her fingers in the manner of the deaf and dumb, and almost the last time they moved, it was to spell upon them feebly, "Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him." She was buried in the cemetery of Frankfort, one side of which is set apart for the people of her faith. The stone which marks the spot bears upon it a butterfly and five stars, emblematic of the soul in heaven, and beneath appears the inscription- "Give her of the fruit of her hands, and let her own works praise her in the gates. Prov. ch.. xxxi. v.31." And thus, 16th September, 1847, at the early age of thirty one, Grace Aguilar was laid to rest-the bowl was broken, the silver cord was loosed. Her life was short, and chequered with pain and anxiety, but she strove hard to make it useful and valuable, by employing diligently and faithfully the talents with which she had been endowed. Nor did the serious view with which she ever regarded earthly existence induce her to neglect or despise any occasion of enjoyment, advantage, or sociality which presented itself. Her heart was ever open to receive, her hand to give. Inasmuch as she succeeded to the satisfaction of her fellow-beings, let them be grateful ; inasmuch as she failed, let those who perceive it deny her not the need of praise, for her endeavour to open the path she believed would lead mankind to practical virtue and happiness, and strive to carry out the pure philanthropic principles by which she was actuated, and which she so earnestly endeavoured to diffuse.Extract from The Jewish Encyclopedia AGUILAR, GRACE: English novelist and writer on Jewish history and religion; born at Hackney London June 2, 1816; died at Frankfort-on-the Main, September 16, 1847, where her remains were to be buried in the Jewish cemetery. She was the oldest child of parents descended from Portuguese Maranos who sought asylum in England in the eighteenth century. To strengthen her constitution, which from infancy had been. feeble, she was taken to the sea-shore and to various rural localities in England. Her love of nature was cultivated by these experiences; and at the age of twelve she devoted herself of her own accord to the study of natural science, augmenting a collection of shells begun by her at Hastings, when only four years old, and supplementing it by mineralogical and botanical collections. Grace Aguilar was educated mainly by her parents. Her mother, a cultivated woman of strong religious feeling, trained her to read the Scriptures systematically; and when she was fourteen her father read aloud to her regularly, chiefly history, while she was occupied with drawing and needle work. She was an assiduous musician till her health became impaired. Her reading, especially in history, was extensive; her knowledge of foreign literature was wide. She evinced a literary tendency at the age of seven, when she began a diary, which she continued almost uninterruptedly until her death. Before she was twelve she had written a drama, ‘Gustavus Vasa’. Her first verses were evoked two years later by the scenery about Tavistock in Devonshire. The first products of her pen to be published (anonymously in 1835) were her collected poems, which she issued under the title "The Magic Wreath." Her productions are chiefly stories and religious works dealing with Jewish subjects. The former embrace domestic tales, tales founded on Marano history. and a romance of Scottish history. ‘The Days of Bruce’ (1852). The most popular of the Jewish tales is ‘The Vale of Cedars’, or the ‘Martyr: A Story of Spain in the Fifteenth Century’, written before 1835, published in 1850, and twice translated into German and twice into Hebrew. Her other stories founded on Jewish episodes are included in a collection of nineteen tales, ‘Home Scenes and Heart Studies’; ‘The Perez Family’ (1843) and ‘The Edict,’ together with "The Escape," had appeared as two separate volumes; the others were reprinted from magazines. Her domestic tales, of which new editions still appear, are ‘Home Influence’ (1847) and its sequel, "The Mother' Recompense" (1850), both of them written early in 1836, and "Woman's Friendship" (1851). The first of Miss Aguilar's religious works was a translation of the French version of ‘Israel Defended,’ by the Marano Orobio de Castro, printed for private circulation. It was closely followed by ‘The Spirit of Judaism,’ the publication of which was for a time prevented by the loss of the original manuscript. Sermons by Rabbi Isaac Leeser, of Philadelphia, had fallen into her hands and, like all other accessible Jewish works, had been eagerly read. She requested him to revise the manuscript of the ‘Spirit of Judaism,’ which was forwarded to him, but was lost. The authoress rewrote it; and in 1842 it was published in Philadelphia, with notes by Leeser A second edition was issued in 1849 by the first American Jewish Publication Society and a third (Cincinnati, 1864) has an appendix containing thirty two poems (bearing date 1838 1847) all but two reprinted from "The Occident The editor's notes serve mainly to mark dissent from Miss Aguilar's depreciation of Jewish tradition due probably to her Marano ancestry and to her country life, cut off from association with Jews. In 1845 ‘The Women of Israel’ appeared a series of portraits delineated according to the Scriptures and Josephus. This was soon followed by ‘The Jewish Faith: Its Spiritual Consolation, Moral (Guidance, and Immortal Hope,’ in thirty-one letters, the last dated September, 1846. Of this work-addressed to a Jewess under the spell of Christian influence, to demonstrate to her the spirituality of Judaism-the larger part is devoted to immortality in the Old Testament. Miss Aguilar's other religious writings some of them written as early as 183~were collected in a volume of ‘Essays and Miscellanies (1851-52). The first part consists of "Sabbath Thoughts" on Scriptural passages and prophecies; the second, of "Communings" for the family circle. In her religious writings Miss Aguilar's attitude was defensive. Despite her almost exclusive inter-course with Christians and her utter lack of –prejudice, her purpose, apparently, was to equip English Jewesses with arguments against conversionists. She inveighed against formalism, and laid stress upon knowledge of Jewish history and the Hebrew language. In view of the neglect of the latter by women (to whom she modestly confined her expostulations), she constantly pleaded for the reading of the Scriptures in the English 'version. Her interest in the reform movement was deep; yet, despite her attitude toward tradition, she observed ritual ordinances punctiliously. Her last work was a sketch of the ‘History of the Jews in England,’ written for ‘Chambers's Miscellany.’ In point of style it is the most finished of her productions, free from the exuberances and redundancies that disfigure the tales-published, for the most part, posthumously by her mother. The defects of her style are mainly chargeable to youth. With her extraordinary industry-she rose early and employed the day systematically-and her growing ability of concentration she gave promise of noteworthy productions. Miss Aguilar's later years were full of family trials. In 1835 she had an attack of illness, from the effect of which she never fully recovered. Finally her in-creasing weakness and suffering necessitated change of air, and in 1847 a Continental trip was arranged. Before her departure some Jewish ladies of London presented her with a gift and a touching address recounting her achievements in behalf of Judaism and Jewish women. She visited her elder brother at Frankfort and at first seemed to benefit by the change, but after a few weeks she had to resort to the baths of Schwalbach. Alarming symptoms necessitated her return to Frankfort, and there she died. Her last words, spelled on her fingers, were, ‘Though he slay me, yet will I trust in Him,’ her epitaph is the verse Prov. Xxxi.31.BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES BY LUCIEN WOLFENGLISH AUTHOR OF PORTUGUESE MARRANO EXTRACTION WHO WROTE A NUMBER OF NOVELS ON JEWISH THEMES & SOME RELIGIOUS WORKS ADDRESSED PRIMARILY TO JEWISH WOMEN. HER FIRST BOOK WAS A VOLUME OF POEMS, 'THE MAGIC WREATH' WHICH SHE PUBLISHED ANONYMOUSLY WHEN SHE WAS ONLY 19. HER TRULY CREATIVE PERIOD HOWEVER BEGAN IN 1842 & IN THE FIVE YEARS UNTIL HER DEATH, AT THE AGE OF 31. HER LITERARY OUTPUT WAS REMARKABLE, PARTICULARLY BECAUSE AT THE TIME, ALTHOUGH VERY ILL, SHE WAS HELPING HER MOTHER RUN A PRIVATE SCHOOL IN HACKNEY, LONDON MOST OF GRACE AGUILAR'S BOOKS WERE NOT PUBLISHED UNTIL AFTER HER DEATH. HER NOVEL 'HOME INFLUENCE' (1847) A TALE FOR MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS' AND ITS SEQUEL 'MOTHERS RECOMPENSE (1851) HAD CONSIDERABLE SUCCESS, BUT IT WAS 'THE DAYS OF BRUCE (1852) A ROMANCE SET IN 14th CENTURY SCOTLAND THAT MADE HER FAMOUS. THE BEST KNOWN OF HER JEWISH NOVELS WAS 'THE VALE OF CEDARS' (1850) A ROMANTIC, HIGHLY IDEALISED PICTURE OF THE MARRANOS IN SPAIN. TWICE TRANSLATED INTO GERMAN AND TWICE INTO HEBREW, IT LONG RETAINED POPULARITY. SHE ALSO WROTE STORIES AND SKETCHES BASED ON JEWISH LIFE & FAMILY TRADITIONS. IN A SERIOUS VEIN SHE TRANSLATED FROM FRENCH, THE APOLOGETIC WORK OF EX MARRANO OROBIO DE CASTRO, 'ISRAEL DELUDED' (1838). SHE HERSELF WROTE, 'THE SPIRIT OF JUDAISM' IN DEFENCE OF HER FAITH AND ITS PROFESSORS (1842) & 'THE JEWISH FAITH' (1846), THE LATER TOOK THE FORM OF LETTERS ADDRESSED TO A FRIEND WAVERING IN HER JEWISH CONVICTION. HER 'WOMEN OF ISRAEL' (1845) WAS A SERIES OF BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES OF BIBLICAL CHARACTERS, INTENDED TO AROUSE THE PRIDE OF YOUNG JEWS IN THEIR HERITAGE. GRACE AGUILAR WAS ONE OF THE FIRST ENGLISH JEWS TO ATTEMPT TO WRITE A HISTORY OF THE JEWS IN ENGLAND; IT APPEARED IN CHAMBERS MISCELLANY (1847). SHE DIED WHILE ON HOLIDAY IN GERMANY. HER COLLECTED WORKS IN 8 VOLUMES APPEARED IN 1861. BIOG: A.3. ISAACS, 'YOUNG CHAMPIONS, ONE YEAR IN GRACE AGUILAR'S GIRLHOOD' (1933); ABRAHAM,IN: J.H.S.E.T. 16 (1945-51), 137-48; J.C. SUPPLEMENT (JULY 27, 1930); F. KODDER, 'JEW IN THE LITERATURE OF ENGLAND' (1939), 182-7. D.N.B. S.V. S.AGUILAR 'MEMOIR, PREFIXED TO 'HOME INFLUENCE' (1849). MOSES MOCATTA WAS A GENEROUS PATRON OF GRACE AGUILAR, A NOVELIST & POETESS WHO DIED IN 1847. HER NOVELS WHICH WERE MAINLY HISTORICAL ROMANCES BUILT ROUND THE ORDEALS OF SPANISH JEWRY UNDER THE INQUISITION. (FROM 'THE COUSINHOOD' BY CHAIM BERMANT. PAGE 166) QUERY. REFER TO GRACE AGUILAR'S STORY OF 'THE ESCAPE' I FANCY THE PLOT IS DERIVED FROM HER OWN FAMILY HISTORY. (HAND WRITTEN NOTE IN THE PAPERS OF HISTORIAN LUCIEN WOLF. LUCIEN WOLF PAPERS, B 20 ) GRACE AGUILAR LOST HER SPEECH BEFORE SHE DIED. SHE LEARNT TO USE HER HANDS IN THE DEAF & DUMB METHOD. LAST WORDS, 'THOUGH HE SLAY ME YET WILL I TRUST IN HIM' VARIOUS BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES -COMPILED BY LUCIEN WOLF (Jewish Archives) (LUCIEN WOLF PAPERS, B 20 ) Back END NOTES FROM 'JEWISH WOMANS' FAITH'1. "With the exception of eighteen months passed at school, her mother was her sole instructress, and both parents took equal delight in directing her studies and facilitating her personal inspection of all that was curious and interesting in the various counties of England to which they resorted for her health." ("Memoir of Grace Aguilar" by Sarah Aguilar, xi in Home Influence: A Tale for Mothers and Daughters.) 2. Many of Aguilar's posthumously published books include moving biographical sketches written by Sarah Aguilar. 3. The terms "crypto-Jew" or "new Christian" refers to Jews who lived in the Iberian Peninsula, during the Inquisition, and either converted to Catholicism or posed as Catholics in pubic while retaining some level of Jewish identity in secret. In Grace Aguilar's life time, decedents of these crypto-Jews were just beginning to re-educate themselves in Jewish history and practice. Aguilar, in her non-fiction, urges English Jews to shed the remnants of this culture of secrecy and to embrace their Jewish faith and identity. 4. My edition of The Vale of Cedars (1872) contains seven pages of excerpts from reviews of Aguilar's collected works. 5. Aguilar's father's family fled Inquisition Spain and immigrated to England in the eighteenth century. Her mother's family arrived at about the same time from Portugal, via Jamaica. Jewish families, such as Aguilar's, did not emigrate earlier because English law prohibited them from living in England from 1290 to 1656. An evangelical effort to gather the Jews together in order to convert them and hasten the Second Coming helped motivate the readmission (Endelman, 9-10) and conversion societies such as London Society for Promoting Christianity Amongst the Jews (founded in 1809) and British Society for the Promogation of the Gospel Amongst the Jews (founded in 1842) remained subjects of ongoing public debate and controversy. During the period of 1830-1858, English Jews gradually acquired more legal and social liberties. Aguilar witnessed this Jewish emancipation in England in which Jews had opportunities to establish a new place for themselves in Christian English society and opportunities to reevaluate their own Jewish identity and faith.
Bibliography Bibliography:Primary Sources:Pilgramages to English Shrines by Mrs S C Hall, ISBN: 1-902222-07-5. Collected edition of essays first published in The Art Journal between 1847 - 1852. Describes a visit to Grace Aguilar's grave. ( Bardon Enterprises, 6 Winter Rd, Southsea, Hants PO4 9BT "History of the Jews in England" Aguilar, Grace. Grace Aguilar: www.graceaguilar.info. Michael Dugdale-Aguilar Papers. 2000 Home Influence: A Tale for Mothers and Daughter. 1847. London: The Oxford Library Co, 1901. Home Scenes and Heart Studies. 1853. New York: D. Appleton. 1873. The Jewish Faith: Spiritual Consolation Moral Guidance and Immortal Hope. 1846. Philadelphia: Sherman & Co. For the Rev. Abraham de Sola, 1864. Moses Papers, #2639, Southern Historical Collection, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Includes letters from Grace Aguilar to Mrs. Solomon Cohen of Savanah, Georgia. The Mother's Recompense: A Sequel to Home Influence. 1851. New York: D. Appleton & Co. 1916. The Spirit of Judaism. 1842. Ed. Isaac Leeser. Philadelphia: Sherman & Co. 1853. The Vale of Cedars: or The Martyr. 1850. New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1872. The Vale of Cedars and Other Stories. Introduction by Walter Jerrold. Illus. By TH Robinson. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society of America. 1902. Woman's Friendship: A Story of Domestic Life. 1850. New York: D. Appleton & Co. 1853. The Women of Israel: or Characters and Sketches from the Holy Scriptures and Jewish History. 1845. New York: D. Appleton and Company. 1913. Cohen, Rachel. "From Grace Aguilar's Diary. "The Jewish Chronicle Supplement. August 30, 1929. Edgeworth, Maria. Harringlon. 1817. London: William Glaisher Ltd, 1924. Goodman, Annette. "Grace Aguilar. A Note." The Jewish Chronicle Supplement. London, June 1930. Pp. vii-viii. Isaacs, A.S. The Young Champion: One Year in Grace Aguilar's Life. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society of America. 1913. Wollstonecraft, Mary. Maria or The Wrongs of Woman. 1798. New York: W.W. Norton, 1975. Secondary Sources Abrahams, Mrs. Beth-Zion Lask. "Grace Aguilar: A Centenary Tribute." in Transactions of the Jewish Historical Society of London, 1952. Pages 137-48. Ashton, Dianne. "Grace Aguilar and the Matriarchal Theme in Jewish Women's Spirituality. Active Voices: Women in Jewish Culture. Ed. Marie Sacks. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1995. Brown, Malcolm. "The Jews of Hackney Before 1840," in Jewish Historical Studies:Transactions of the Jewish Historical Society of England, 1989. Coulson, John. Religion and Imagination. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1981. Curran, Stuart. '1Romantic Poetry: The I Altered," in Mellor 1988. Pp.185-207. Davidoff~ Leonore, and Catherine Hall. Family Fortunes: Men and Women of the English Middle Class 1780-1850. London: Hutchinson Education, 1987. Endelman, Todd M. Radical Assimilation in English Jewish History 1656-1945. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1990. Erickson, Lee. The Economy of Literary Form: English Literature and the Industrialization of Publishing 1800-1850. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996. Feldman, Paula R. and Theresa M. Kelley, ed. Romantic Women Writers: Voices and Countervoices. Hanover: University Press of New England, 1995. Galchinsky, Michael. The Origin of the Modem Jewish Woman Writer: Romance and Reform in Victorian England. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1996. Gleadle, Kathryn and Sarah Richardson, eds. 'Women Writers and the Campaign for Jewish Emancipation in Early Victorian England' in Women in British Politics, 1760-1860 Basingstoke: Macmillan, 2000, 93-114Heinzelman, Kurt. "The Cult of Domesticity: Dorothy and William Wordsworth at Grasmere," in Mellor 1988. Pp.52-78. Houghton, Walter. The Victorian Frame of Mind. 1957. New Haven: Yale UP, 1985. Hyman, Paula. Gender and Assimilation in Modem Jewish History: The Roles and Representations of Women. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1995. Kuzmack, Linda. Women1s Cause: The Jewish Women's Movement in En~and and the United States 1881-1933. Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 1990. Lascelles, Mary. The Story-teller Retrieves the Past: Historical Fiction and Fictitious History in the Art of Scott, Stevenso~ Kipling and Some Others. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1980. McGann, Jerome. The Poetics of Sensibility: A Revolution in Literary Style. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1996. Mellor, Anne K., Ed. Romanticism and Feminism. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1988. Piciotto, James. Sketches of Anglo-Jewish History. 1875. Rev. and Ed. with prologue, notes and an epilogue by Israel Finestein. London: Soncino Press, 1956. Piciotto, James. Sketches of Anglo-Jewish History. 1875. Rev. and Ed. with prologue, notes and an epilogue by Israel Finestein. London: Soncino Press, 1956. Ragussis, Michael. Figures of Conversion: "The Jewish Question" and English National Identity. Durham: Duke University Press, 1995. Spender, Dale. Mothers of the Novel: Hundred Good Women Writers Before Jane Austen. London: Pandora, 1986. Szold, Henrietta, "Grace Aguilar," The Jewish Encyclopedia: A Descriptive Record of the History Religion. Literature, and Customs of the Jewish People from the Earliest Times to the Present. 12 volumes. New York: Funk & Wagnells, 1901. Todd, Janet. The Sign of Angellica: Women Writing and Fiction 1660-1800. New York: Columbia University Press, 1989. Weinberger, Philip M. The Social and Religious Thought of Grace Aguilar (1816-1847). Diss. New York Univ., 1970. Zatlin, Linda Gertner. The Nineteenth-Century Anglo Jewish Novel. Boston: Twayne Publishers. 1981.
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The Mother's Recompense, Volume 1 A Sequel to Home Influence

The Mother's Recompense, Volume 2 A Sequel to Home Influence

The Vale of Cedars

Aguilar Library New York New York Public Library - Aguilar BranchOne of the oldest branch libraries in New York, the Aguilar Library was founded in 1886 and is named after Grace Aguilar.When it became part of The New York Public Library, Aguilar was serving large Jewish and Italian immigrant populations. After World War II, an influx of Puerto Rican and other Spanish-speaking newcomers led to the creation at the branch of an extensive collection of materials in Spanish. Designed by architects Herts and Tallant, 'Aguilar' is one of 65 city libraries built with funds donated by Andrew Carnegie. The interior of the building features a graceful hanging gallery with a cast-iron railing and a pressed-glass floor. 'Aguilar' was renovated in 1996 as part of the Library's Adopt-A-Branch program and is fully accessible to persons using wheelchairs. The branch has a Language Learning Center for adults, a computer lab that provides instruction in English for speakers of other languages. 174E 110th Street New York 10029. Tel: (212) 534 2930W

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