History of the Marranos in England
The History of Sephardic Jews in England consists of the Sephardic Jews' contribution and achievement in England.
Sephardic Jews were Spanish and Portuguese Jews living in the Iberian Peninsula who converted or were forced to convert to Christianity during the Middle Ages, but continued to practice Judaism in secrecy.
Arrival of Sephardic Jews
Documents suggest that, although small in number at the time, Sephardic Jews fleeing persecution from the Inquisition developed a small community in London around the late 16th century, largely known from contemporary Spanish and Portuguese sources writing about English Catholic ambassadors' repeated complaints of Jews from this community meeting to celebrate Passover and Yom Kippur in London.Toward the middle of the 17th century a considerable number of Sephardic merchants settled in London and formed there a secret congregation, at the head of which was Antonio Fernandez Carvajal. They conducted a large business with the Levant, East and West Indies, Canary Islands, and Brazil, and above all with the Netherlands, Spain, and Portugal. They formed an important link in the network of trade spread, especially throughout the Spanish and Portuguese world by the Sephardi or secret Jews. Their position enabled them to give Cromwell and his secretary, John Thurloe, important information as to the plans both of Charles Stuart in Holland and of the Spaniards in the New World. Outwardly they passed as Spaniards and Catholics; but they held prayer-meetings at Creechurch Lane, and became known to the government as Jews by faith.
Creechurch Lane and, later in 1701, the Bevis Marks Synagogue in 1701 become the first Jewish religious places since the Edict of Expulsion of 1290. In the following three centuries, Sephardic Jews communities established near the major European sea ports like Amsterdam and London, helping the Marranos who were expelled from the Spanish Inquisition to rise up new merchant activities.