Hart, Isaac

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HART, ISAAC

HART, ISAAC (d. 1780), U.S. merchant. Hart, a Loyalist, left England about 1750, and established himself in Rhode Island. He soon became one of the wealthiest merchants in the colony, and his prominent position made Hart a leader of *Newport's Jewish community. He served on the committee which raised funds for the building of Newport's Touro synagogue, was one of the purchasers of the land it stands on, and his firm, Naphthali Hart and Company, erected the building. In 1780 the revolutionary government of Rhode Island exiled him with other Loyalists, and in December he was killed, supposedly during an American raid on Fort George in New York.

bibliography:

Rosenbloom, Biogr Dict, s.v.

[Neil Ovadia]