Alexander Hamilton, 1st Secretary of the United States Treasury - Was Alexandet Hamilton Jewish?

I had heard about this before but the article is really thorough in presenting the hypothesis. I think I had just seen Hamilton when I heard this story and had been reading other things about the early Jews of the Caribbean as well as the very diverse and intermarried situation on some of the islands.

Unfortunately, the article has significant factual errors! Alexander Hamilton was born on the island of Nevis, NOT on St. Croix as the article states. (I have visited Hamilton's birthplace on Nevis.) Rachel and James Hamilton and their two sons, James and Alexander did move to St. Croix when Alexander was around 10 years old, after which his father abandoned the family.

Another major error: Professor Porwancher states Alexander Hamilton never joined a church or took communion. It's true, apparently, that he never took communion but he was active in the affairs of Trinity Church at Broadway and Wall Street in Lower Manhattan. He represented the church in legal matters, purchased a pew there, had several of his children baptized there and is buried in Trinity Church's graveyard along with his wife, Elizabeth (Eliza), and his oldest son, Philip.

As for the major thesis of the article, that Alexander Hamilton may have had Jewish antecedents -- Professor Porwancher is not the first person to suggest this. Many years ago, I was being driven around Nevis by a man named David Robinson (as I recall) who was the local historian, and of course, we talked about Alexander Hamilton. David said that the story about Hamilton's going to the Jewish school on Nevis because his parents weren't married and he was therefore illegitimate was nonsense. "It was like the wild west here in those days," Robinson said. "No one cared about illegitimacy." He went on to say that it was rumored on Nevis that Hamilton was partly Jewish.

There are other reasons to think so besides those that Professor Porwancher mentions. Here's one of them: Rachel Fawcette (or Faucette) Lavien traveled to other Caribbean islands besides Nevis and St. Croix. But she never once set foot on an island under Spanish control, where anti-Semitism was still virulent and where the fires of the Inquisition were still remembered and feared.

PS -- If you're interested in Alexander Hamilton's relationship to Trinity Church, here's a link to a video on the church's website that discusses the ways in which Hamilton was active on behalf of the church and contributed to it financially. The website also shows some of the relevant documents. https://www.trinitywallstreet.org/about/alexander-hamilton-churchman

Thank you Private User for the information. I also read Nevis was his birthplace. I will have a look at website.

Hatte Blejer (absent until Nov 1) I have also heard of a Jewish Pirate Cemetary on one of the Caribbean islands, not sure which one?

One more thing I read somewhere is that President Franklin Pierce was said to have Jewish roots too.

Oh here are some bits of information on various presidents who appointed Jews to offices in America. Also, talks about Pierce.

http://www.aish.com/j/f/We_Jews_Presidential_Jewish_Firsts.html

this other link has a bit of humor entwined.
http://www.mindspring.com/~dbholzel/pierce/piercejews.html

Last link, I found this tour guid video of the Jewish Pirate Cemetery, Port Royal, Jamaica.

https://youtu.be/sU-GK_XH9Bs

Jamey, I don't know about Franklin Pierce or about a Jewish Pirate Cemetery. I DO know about the Jewish cemetery in Charlestown, Nevis, because I saw it myself. The summer that I was there -- probably 16 years ago -- some archaeologists were at work in and near the cemetery. They had found a mikvah. They were hoping to find the foundation of a synagogue. There were a few extant graves in the cemetery, but most of the headstones were gone. The earliest gravestone is dated 1679. The newest gravestone is dated 1768. A path bordering the cemetery was known in Charlestown as "the Jews' Walk" and was said to have run between the cemetery and the Jewish school where Alexander Hamilton was educated. Here's some more information about the Jewish community of Nevis as it was when Hamilton lived there, and subsequently. http://sefarad.org/lm/035/15.html

Thank you Terese. I will have to ask my friend from Barbados if she knows any of this history. Very interesting. Have a great day.