Franco
FRANCO
FRANCO , English family. In the 18th century, jacob de moses franco (d. 1777) settled in London and amassed a large fortune in the coral trade in conjunction with his brothers raphael in Leghorn and solomon (see below) in Fort St. George, Madras. He played a prominent part in the affairs of the London Sephardi community and was a member of the original Board of Deputies of British Jews in 1760. In that year, the College of Heralds accepted as evidence for his coat of arms the family badge which figured in the Leghorn synagogue. His brother solomon (d. 1763) arrived in Bombay about 1743 under an agreement with the English East India Company as a "free merchant," moving to Madras in 1749. Described in his epitaph as "an eminent Hebrew merchant of Madras," he had huge interests in the coral and diamond trade. ralph franco (1788–1854), the great-grandson of Jacob, adopted the name of *Lopes, and was the ancestor of the barons Roborough.
bibliography:
A. Rubens, Anglo-Jewish Portraits (1935), 33; J. Picciotto, Sketches of Anglo-Jewish History (19562), index; A.M. Hyamson, Sephardim of England (1951), index; Wolf, in: jhset, 2 (1894–95), 159–68. add. bibliography: Katz, England, 176–77; T. Endelman, The Jews of Georgian England (1999), 250.
[Cecil Roth]