The Salomons Museum is a museum north of Tunbridge Wells, in the county of Kent, southeast England. It preserves the country house of Sir David Salomons, the first Jewish Lord Mayor of London, and of his nephew, Sir David Lionel Salomons, a scientist and engineer. Originally called Broomhill, the house is now called Salomons. [1] The museum is managed by Markerstudy Group.
The house was built in the 1830s by Decimus Burton. It features an extremely tall water tower, stables, a private science lecture theatre and Sir David Lionel's laboratories. Major additions were made in 1854, 1863, 1908, 1910 and 1913. [2] The house is a Grade II listed building. [3]
The museum preserves the bench from which David Salomons rose to speak in 1851, becoming the first Jew ever to speak in Parliament. [4]
The first Jew elected to Parliament was Baron Lionel de Rothschild. Elected in 1847, he refused to swear his oath of office using the phrase "on the true faith of a Christian." Unable, therefore, to serve, he stood down but was again elected M.P. for the City of London in 1850. He took his oath leaving out the crucial phrase. A Parliamentary debate ensued, the conclusion of which was that a non-Christian could not take a seat in Parliament. David Salomons was elected MP for Greenwich in an 1851 by-election. He arrived at Parliament on 18 July 1851, and, like Rothschild, took his oath omitting the words "on the true faith of a Christian". He sat on the bench in the museum's collection, but when requested to leave a second time he stood and departed. He returned three days later and again took his seat. A heated debate ensued. A fellow MP for the Liberal Party turned to Salomons and inquired what he intended to do. Salomons stood and spoke, the first Jew to ever speak in Parliament. He said that he had been elected by a large majority, and that he was carrying out the wishes of the people in being there. He voted three times before he was removed by the Serjeant-at-Arms. Salomons was fined £500 for voting illegally. The law requiring Members of Parliament to swear an oath "on the true faith of a Christian" was changed in 1858. Lionel de Rothschild, who had been elected yet again in 1857, became the first Jewish MP, taking his seat as soon as the law was changed. David Salomons was elected for Greenwich in 1859 and continued to sit in Parliament until his death in 1873. [5]
Items in the museum include Sir David Lionel Salomons' collections of hot air ballooning memorabilia, [6] early automobiles, [7] a Welte Philharmonic-Organ [8] and writings on electrical and scientific subjects. [9] There is also a collection of Judaica, which includes the tablets of the Ten Commandments from the Salomons family's private Roof-top synagogue in Brighton.
The Rothschild family is a wealthy Ashkenazi Jewish noble banking family originally from Frankfurt that rose to prominence with Mayer Amschel Rothschild (1744–1812), a court factor to the German Landgraves of Hesse-Kassel in the Free City of Frankfurt, Holy Roman Empire, who established his banking business in the 1760s. Unlike most previous court factors, Rothschild managed to bequeath his wealth and established an international banking family through his five sons, who established businesses in London, Paris, Frankfurt, Vienna, and Naples. The family was elevated to noble rank in the Holy Roman Empire and the United Kingdom. The family's documented history starts in 16th century Frankfurt; its name is derived from the family house, Rothschild, built by Isaak Elchanan Bacharach in Frankfurt in 1567.
Charles Bradlaugh was an English political activist and atheist. He founded the National Secular Society in 1866, 15 years after George Holyoake had coined the term "secularism" in 1851.
Royal Tunbridge Wells is a town in Kent, England, 30 miles southeast of central London. It lies close to the border with East Sussex on the northern edge of the High Weald, whose sandstone geology is exemplified by the rock formation High Rocks. The town was a spa in the Restoration and a fashionable resort in the mid-1700s under Beau Nash when the Pantiles, and its chalybeate spring, attracted visitors who wished to take the waters. Though its popularity as a spa town waned with the advent of sea bathing, the town still derives much of its income from tourism.
Lionel Walter Rothschild, 2nd Baron Rothschild, Baron de Rothschild, was a British banker, politician, zoologist and soldier, who was a member of the Rothschild family. As a Zionist leader, he was presented with the Balfour Declaration, which pledged British support for a Jewish national home in Palestine. Rothschild was the president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews from 1925 to 1926.
The 1847 United Kingdom general election was conducted between 29 July 1847 and 26 August 1847 and resulted in the Whigs in control of government despite candidates calling themselves Conservatives winning the most seats. The Conservatives were divided between Protectionists, led by Lord Stanley, and a minority of free-trade Tories, known also as Liberal Conservatives or the Peelites for their leader, former prime minister Sir Robert Peel. This left the Whigs, led by Prime Minister Lord John Russell, in a position to continue in government.
Baron Rothschild, of Tring in the County of Hertfordshire, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1885 for Sir Nathan Rothschild, 2nd Baronet, a member of the Rothschild banking family. He was the first Jewish member of the House of Lords not to have previously converted to Christianity. The current holder of the title is Nathaniel Rothschild, 5th Baron Rothschild, who inherited the barony in February 2024.
Nathaniel Mayer Rothschild, 1st Baron Rothschild, was a British banker and politician from the wealthy international Rothschild family. He was also a hereditary Baron of the Austrian Empire.
Jewish emancipation in the United Kingdom was the culmination in the 19th century of efforts over several hundred years to loosen the legal restrictions set in place on England's Jewish population. Between 1833 and 1890 Parliament passed a series of laws that placed male Jews in the United Kingdom on an equal legal footing with the kingdom's other emancipated males.
Baron Lionel Nathan de Rothschild was a British Jewish banker, politician and philanthropist who was a member of the prominent Rothschild banking family of England. He became the first practising Jew to sit as a Member of Parliament in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom.
M. Welte & Sons, Freiburg and New York was a manufacturer of orchestrions, organs and reproducing pianos, established in Vöhrenbach by Michael Welte (1807–1880) in 1832.
Sir Edward Albert Sassoon, 2nd Baronet was a British businessman and politician.
Sir David Salomons, 1st Baronet, was a leading figure in the 19th century struggle for Jewish emancipation in the United Kingdom. He was the first Jewish Sheriff of the City of London and Lord Mayor of London.
Sir David Lionel Goldsmid-Stern-Salomons, 2nd Baronet was a British scientific author, barrister and pioneer of road transport.
John Abel Smith was a British Member of Parliament (MP) for Chichester and Midhurst.
Philip Salomons (1796–1867) was an English financier, Jewish leader and High Sheriff of Sussex.
The Jews Relief Act 1858, also called the Jewish Disabilities Act, is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which removed previous barriers to Jews entering Parliament, a step in Jewish emancipation in the United Kingdom.
Sir Moses Haim Montefiore, 1st Baronet, was a British financier and banker, activist, philanthropist and Sheriff of London. Born to an Italian Sephardic Jewish family based in London, after he achieved success, he donated large sums of money to promote industry, business, economic development, education and health among the Jewish community in the Levant. He founded Mishkenot Sha'ananim in 1860, the first Jewish settlement outside the Old City of Jerusalem.
Royal Victoria Hall, Kent was historically notable as the first Municipally funded theatre in England. It stood on London Road, Southborough, Kent and opened on 17 January 1900 to celebrate the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria.
