Leslie Mound’s ancestors

Just after he arrived, Spain and England declared war on each other.

By GLORIA MOUND
Forced to leave beloved Spain (photo credit: AVI KATZ)
Forced to leave beloved Spain
(photo credit: AVI KATZ)
One of my late husband Leslie’s ancestors was Antonio Robles. He came to England in 1654 from the Canary Islands. Legend has it that he was a pirate, but there is little to prove it. Just after he arrived, Spain and England declared war on each other. At this period, Robles had six ships in British ports, which the government promptly appropriated.
Whereupon, according to books owned by The Jewish Historical Society of England, Robles announced he was not really Spanish but Jewish, and was rumored to have been part of a group that was meeting secretly in the Spanish Embassy for prayers. Later, he was one of the founders of the Bevis Marks Congregation in London. He served the Jewish community well and it was established that his real name was Barzilay. For more information, refer to the works of Edgar Samuel, president of the JHS.
We have a family tree in our office at Casa Shalom. It contains in excess of 1,000 names and goes back to Rabbi Samuel Anijar, who left Majorca in 1391, with most of the family, for Tetuan, Morocco. We know they were in Gibraltar during the siege there, as the family is listed as butchers by trade and they supplied the British garrison. That side of the family is listed as eventually moving to England between 1781 and 1791. Other branches came from Holland and Italy. Later, through marriage into the Romain family, they began a tradition, that continues to the present day, of signing their names always as Anijar Romain.