Abraham Israel had once committed his impressions of Prague to paper in a foreign tongue, viewing the city with the keen eye of a young scholar attentive to its palaces, its thoroughfares, and the condition of its populace. A few years later, he lay in Newgate awaiting the execution of a capital sentence pronounced for the robbery of jewels in London. Between these two existences, the chronicler has interposed a love affair, debts, and a train of fateful choices, for which the memorialist offers no warrant beyond his own relation.
Israel was born at Pressburg, in the Kingdom of Hungary, of Jewish parents in prosperous circumstances and of unblemished repute. Desiring that he should receive a liberal education, they sent him to study at the Jewish college in Prague, allowing him, according to the account, some two hundred pounds sterling a year. Under the tutelage of the rabbis, he made rapid progress. The chronicler affirms that he spent less than half of this stipend upon himself, distributing the remainder to indigent scholars without regard to nation or creed. In the course of his narrative, the writer inserts a description of Prague written by Abraham in the German tongue: in it, Abraham recounted the quarters of the town, the Moldau, and the noble palaces. He described the ancient Jewish quarter, the privileges enjoyed by his community when compared with other German territories, and the foul lanes where, as he noted, the poorer inhabitants went clad in a distinctive habit. This portrait remains his own personal impression, not a general inquiry into the state of the city.
At the age of thirteen, Abraham was recalled by his father. Having returned to Pressburg, he was called upon to read in the synagogue at the desire of the congregation. In the days that followed, kinsmen and wealthy townsmen bestowed gifts upon him in honour of his sacred learning. The source treats this incident as the initial turning point of his life: it imputes to this early adulation a sudden pride, thereafter detailing his taste for music, dancing, horsemanship, and fencing. Such psychological censure belongs properly to the narrator; the recorded facts are merely those of an adolescent who, having tasted bookish study, turned to other pursuits and presently fell into discord with the expectations of his house.
Abraham subsequently set forth for Amsterdam in the company of a young woman whom the chronicler characterizes as indolent. Uncertain what calling to pursue, he at length entered domestic service in a Spanish Jewish family, wherein his conduct was sufficiently upright to earn him letters of recommendation to Baron Swaffo in England. Thence he passed into the service of Jacob Mendez da Costa, and afterwards into that of Mr Villareal, at College Hill. The attachment he had earlier formed at The Hague remained ever present to his mind, according to the chronicle; having scraped together a modest sum, he returned to seek her out, only to learn that she had departed for Amsterdam.
Upon his return to London, Abraham resumed service with Mendez da Costa. In a barber’s shop, he chanced to hear tell of a young Dutchwoman newly arrived, who was seeking a place with her uncle in St Mary Axe. Recognizing in her the woman he had known at The Hague, he procured her engagement as cook in the household where he served, having secured the dismissal of the kitchen-maid then in place.
At first, according to the narrative, the young woman behaved as an industrious domestic. One night, however, Abraham came upon her forcing an escritoire with a knife. She told him she could compass the lock at her pleasure. Though he forbade her to touch it, he presently yielded to her solicitations and consented to ransack the cabinet with her. Therein they found diamond rings and other jewels of great value. The woman pointed out a ring of great beauty and urged him to take it, but he refused. They took only five guineas. At a later hour, having obtained leave of absence, they again withdrew money from the same desk. Returning on the morrow, after having spent the night abroad, the young woman was discharged from her place.
She returned to her uncle’s house, and subsequently found employment in Winchester Street. Abraham went thither to visit her, inquiring whether she were with child; this she denied. He took his departure, giving her a guinea when she complained of her poverty. Upon his next visit, he put the same question to her, and received the same denial. A few hours later, the woman set the parish officers upon him. This proceeding cost him five guineas out of hand, and compelled him to enter into a recognizance of fourteen guineas to indemnify the parish. The record discloses neither the precise ground of this process nor its legal conclusion; it notes only that it cost him his place and plunged him into fresh embarrassments.
Abraham nevertheless found another situation, in which he bore himself creditably until he entered the service of John Mendez da Costa. Distracted, as the relation states, by distresses concerning his child and other entangled affairs, he committed a robbery in the house, carrying off eight silver spoons, five forks, two pairs of silver spice-boxes, a diamond ring valued at two hundred and fifty pounds, diamond earrings appraised at ninety pounds, three diamond-set buckles, and other goods of great worth. For this felony he was arraigned and convicted upon evidence which the chronicle describes as complete.
The source preserves neither the depositions taken at the trial nor the manner in which the stolen goods were recovered. Nor does it warrant the assertion that Abraham was indicted for the five guineas previously taken from the escritoire: that earlier larceny had been narrated, yet the final conviction rested solely upon the articles abstracted from John Mendez da Costa. This distinction is material, for the chronicle blends the indiscretions of youth, an initial purloining of money, and a capital felony committed in his last place of service.
Lying under sentence of death, the Ordinary of Newgate reported that Abraham was well versed in Hebrew. He frequented the chapel rather to breathe the fresh air than from any impulse of Christian devotion, though he once sang a portion of a psalm. He also read books of his own faith printed in the Hebrew character. The chronicle records his deep bitterness toward his prosecutor, noting that he questioned whether, under the Law, he were bound to forgive him; adding, so it is said, that Heaven might deal with that man by the same measure of justice he had himself received. This speech is recorded by the chaplain and is not to be received as an exposition of Jewish doctrine.
As the hour of execution drew near, Abraham assumed a more solemn demeanour. He addressed a harsh letter to his prosecutor, wherein he repeated the imprecations of the 109th Psalm. This represents his reaction to the trial as transmitted by the narrator; the source does not detail the precise part played by the complainant in the proceedings. On the day of execution, two men stood by him and whispered in his ear. Abraham held in his hand a small Hebrew prayer-book, which he read attentively. When the Ordinary exhorted him one last time to forgive his accuser, he answered in a faint voice that he did so.
Abraham Israel was executed at Tyburn on the 12th of May, 1730, being about twenty-two years of age. His kinsfolk and acquaintances, persons of substance in England, took charge of his body after death. The chronicle began with admiration for his learning and with a description of Prague; it concludes with a word of pardon uttered beneath the gallows. It is not our province to impute to his faith, his origins, or the passion he entertained the felonies of which he was found guilty: the ancient memorial preserves the recorded acts and utterances, yet its sweeping generalizations upon an entire people cannot be admitted in their stead.