Michael de Espinoza

Biography

Family origins

Spinoza's ancestors were of Sephardic Jewish descent, and were a part of the community of Portuguese Jews that grew in the city of Amsterdam after the Alhambra Decree in Spain (1492) and the Portuguese Inquisition (1536) had led to forced conversions and expulsions from the Iberian peninsula.

Some historians argue the Spinoza family ("Espinosa" in Portuguese) had its origins in Espinosa de los Monteros, near Burgos, Spain. Others claim they were Portuguese Jews who had moved to Spain and then expelled back to their home country in 1492, only to be forcibly converted to Catholicism in 1498. Spinoza's father was born roughly a century after this forced conversion in the small Portuguese city of Vidigueira, near Beja in Alentejo. When Spinoza's father was still a child, Spinoza's grandfather, Isaac de Spinoza (who was from Lisbon), took his family to Nantes in France. They were expelled in 1615 and moved to Rotterdam, where Isaac died in 1627. Spinoza's father, Miguel, and his uncle, Manuel, then moved to Amsterdam where they reassumed their Judaism. Manuel changed his name to Abraão de Spinoza, though his "commercial" name was still the same.

The brothers ran a successful import-export commercial house "Bento y Gabriel de Spinoza"

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http://members.upc.nl/a.prins124/Gen/dat1842.htm#0

de Spinoza, Michael Birth : ABT 1587 Vidigueira, Beja, Portugal Death : 28 MAR 1654 Amsterdam Gender: Male Parents:

   Father: de Spinoza, Isaac

   Mother: Álvares, Mor

Family:

   Marriage: ABT NOV 1622 in

   Spouse:

       de Spinoza, Rachel v Abraham

       Birth : ABT 1600

       Death : 21 FEB 1627 Amsterdam

       Gender: Female

       Parents:

           Father: de Spinoza, Abraham Michael

           Mother: , N.N.

   Children:

       de Spinoza, N.N

       Birth : 1623

       Death : 1623

       Gender: Male

       de Spinoza, N.N.

       Birth : 29 APR 1624

       Death : 29 APR 1624

       Gender: Male

       de Spinoza, Isaac de Michael

       Birth : ABT 1626

       Death : 1649

       Gender: Male

       de Spinoza, Ribca de Michael

Family:

   Marriage: ABT 1628 in Amsterdam

   Spouse:

       Senior, Hannah Deborah

       Birth : ABT 1606 Amsterdam

       Death : 5 NOV 1638

       Gender: Female

       Parents:

           Father: Garces, Henrique

           Mother: Nuänes, Maria

   Children:

       de Spinoza, Miriam de Michael

       de Spinoza, Isaac

       Birth : ABT 1630

       Gender: Male

       de Spinoza, Baruch Bento, Benedictus

       Birth : 24 NOV 1632 Amsterdam

       Death : 21 FEB 1677 Deb Haag

       Gender: Male

       de Spinoza, Gabriel de Michael

       Birth : ABT 1633

       Gender: Male

Family:

   Marriage: APR 1641 in

   Spouse:

       de Solis, Esther (Giomar)

       Birth : 1601 Lissabon, Portugal

       Death : 14 OCT 1652 Amsterdam (of: 24 okt)

       Gender: Female