Isabella Hester Anthony

Biography

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Hart-368

Isabella Hester Hart was born 1680, in Surry county, Virginia and died in 1750, in Hanover county, Virginia. [1]

"About 1703, Mark Anthony married Isabella Hart who bore him twelve sons and one daughter, one of the sons being Joseph Anthony, born May 2, 1713, who married April 22, 1741, Elizabeth Clarke, daughter of Captain Christopher Clarke. The Anthonys and Clarkes were all Quakers." [2]

Isabella's son, Joseph Anthony, although too old to serve as a soldier, during the American Revolutionary War, signed the Oath of Allegiance in Henry county, Virginia, and rendered material aid, in support of the Continental Army. [3] Joseph was honored for his Patriotic Service by the Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution as Ancestor #: A002885

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It has been mentioned that Mark Anthony possibly was of Iberian-Jewish descent. I have come to the conclusion that is probably correct, although I cannot prove it. There is one citation in reference to a Thomas Cooper (1733-1796 GA), in which it mentions his wife, Sarah Anthony Clark. Sarah Anthony Clark was the granddaughter of Mark Anthony & Isabella Hart, through James Anthony (1711-1760? VA). In that reference, Isabella Hart was described as "of an old Jewish trading family", while Mark Anthony was termed a "marrano of Amsterdam". The 'marranos' were Spanish Jews who had been forced to convert to the Catholic Church under pressure from the Inquisition. Many of them kept their Jewish faith in secret. Being from Iberia, these Jews were Sephardic. The Jewish people in northern Europe (Germany, Poland, etc) were Ashkenazi.

I saw one reference in Ancestry.com dated 11-17-2010 which said that Isabella Hart was of ethnic Jewish descent based on DNA tests. That entry has been withdrawn (at least it is no longer there).

After reading about several lines of Jewish Isabella Hester Anthony Anthony people in England, it is clear they were Sephardic, with roots back to Spain (Antonio) or Portugal (with the possible name of Antunyes). I have looked at three separate Anthony lines (or they may be interrelated somehow). One of the lines traced to a family of Jewish musicians named Bassano, who were brought to England by Henry VIII from Venice. The Bassano family was originally from Spain. One of the Bassano sons was named John Anthony (Moses) Bassano, and he apparently used the Anglicized version, John Anthony.

Another line were goldsmiths. The family seems to have come to London from Bavaria. The most famous of them was a man named Derrick Anthony, who became chief of the British mint, with much wealth and power. Descendents of that line eventually moved to the colonies, into New York and Rhode Island.

A third line comes from John Anthony of Exeter, who appears 'from nowhere'. He was a wealthy merchant and shipowner. Several Anthony men were seamen, some of them almost certainly pirates (nicely called 'privateers' under Crown authority, like Francis Drake, etc.). One of Francis Drake's subordinate captains was a Nicholas Anthony who was lost at sea with his ship off the coast of Chile. The natural suspicion therefore is that John Anthony of Exeter gained his wealth by privateering.

These three lines were clearly Jewish. But there is no certain evidence for a connection to our Mark Anthony.

In the case of Isabella Hart, there are two possible lines I have been looking at. One is a Sephardic Hart family in London which traces to Breslau, Germany (now Poland). Some Sephardic Jews did emigrate from Spain around the time of the expulsion in 1492 and went to northern Europe. So Sephardic Jews were not unknown there. That particular line was in Hamburg, Germany, then to Breslau, then to London in the late 1600s.

According to the Jewish Encyclopedia, there was a Jewish Hart family in Spain and in Portugal, actually using that name (although it does not sound 'Spanish'). Many of them emigrated to Brazil, and then on to the Caribbean.

I cannot connect Isabella Hart to either of these lines, although the reference to her as 'of an old Jewish trading house' would seem to imply London, rather than the Caribbean. Her name 'Isabella' is certainly Iberian, rather than the English version 'Elizabeth'.

This whole scenario fascinated me so much that I had my DNA tested for ethnic markers. I am Christian, with ancestry in America dating back to 1610, predominantly from English-Scots-Welsh-German sources. I have no known Jewish ancestry. The results of the test came back positive for Jewish ancestry.

There are four Jewish DNA 'markers'. Jewish I is general Jewish. Jewish II is Askenazi (northern Europe). Jewish III is Sephardic (Spain, Mediterranean, Palestine). Jewish IV is Central Asian. I tested positive for Jewish I (general) and Jewish III (Sephardic). It was negative for Jewish II (Ashkenazi) and for Jewish IV (Asian).

While I cannot positively trace this to the Anthony-Hart family, the connection seems to be fairly clear that they were in fact Jewish, at least ethnically. I have no idea if they maintained the Jewish faith in secret, as many of the 'conversos' did. One reference to Charles Fleming, the man to whom Mark was indentured in Virginia says that Mark Anthony adopted Fleming's religion. It is almost certain that Fleming was also Jewish and was involved in privateering. The comment about 'adopting Fleming's religion' thus has more sigificance.

Another connector is the Lupo family. They were Jewish musicians who came to England along with the Jewish Bassanos from Venice. Some of the Lupo people settled in Virginia near Mark Anthony and contributed land for the first Jewish cemetery in Virginia.

So there are hints of connections to privateers (see Mark's sea-Algerian adventure and Charles Fleming), as well as possible connections to the musical Bassanos.

The whole thing is an immense puzzle. Fascinating but frustrating. I don't know whether any of us will ever be able to pin down the truth.

CORRECTIONS, June 2013.

The above material is fairly accurate except for a few points. It says that the indenture owner Charles Fleming was 'almost certainly' Jewish. This does not appear to be correct. Charles Fleming came from a landed gentry family from Scotland, a second son of the Earl of Wigton. He was Quaker, not Jewish. The Virginia Anthony family became Quaker.

Another item mentions the Bassano musical family in England. The basic facts shown are correct, but the John Anthony Bassano mentioned died childless in prison and so cannot have had any direct family connection. He was arrested during a purge of Jewish residents for no other reason than he was Jewish. Other members of that family escaped to the continent but later returned after pressure from Jewish banking interests in Italy.

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Isabella Hart was of ethnic Jewish extraction, as was her husband Mark Anthony. Her granddaughter said that she was a child 'of an old Jewish trading house'. Nothing certain is known of her background or ancestry, The name 'Isabella' is distinctly Iberian. There were Jewish Hart families living in both Spain and Portugal before the expulsions in 1492. Some of them went to Antwerp Belgium and some to Brazil, with later moves into the Caribbean, notably Barbados and Jamaica. No connections have yet been made for Isabella Hart.