As of 02/19/2004 William Barry is the sole "professional" source I have found over the past six or seven weeks to assert without cavil the Jewish descent of John Henry Cardinal Newman. He later weakened this assertion considerably, but never, so far as I can tell, retracted it. But the belief in a Jewish Newman was still alive in the late 1950s when Father Leonard Feeney, S.J. revived it in print.

Barry lived in and around "Newman Country" in Oxford and Birmingham and was a much younger contemporary. He was thus in a position to pick up table talk or gossip on the subject if he chose. 

The first of several mentions of Newman 's biographic data by Barry (that I have found) occurs in 1904. Other citations will be put up to my web site as time permits.

TPK
02/19/2004

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--(1) Canon William Barry published in 1904 a biography, NEWMAN. In it he makes the strongest statement which I have yet (04-10-2004) found anywhere on the Jewishness of John Henry Newman on his paternal side.
 
/p. 8/  "A singular concurrence of events, not yet fully unravelled,
 fitted for the task this clerical Fellow of Oriel, who was not by
origin either Catholic or English."

[SKIP 9 lines]

/p. 9/ Newman's father John "...was chief clerk and afterwards
partner in a banking firm, was also a Freemason, with a high
standing in the craft, an admirer of Franklin and an enthusiastic
reader of Shakespeare. These particulars, except the last, will
prepare us for the fact that in an earlier generation the family had
spelt its signature 'Newmann'; that it was understood to be of Dutch
origin; and that its real descent was Hebrew. The talent for music,
calculation, and business, the untiring energy, legal acumen, and
dislike of speculative metaphysics, which were conspicuous in John
Henry, bear out this interesting genealogy. A large part of his
character and writings will become intelligible if we keep it in
mind. That his features had a strong Jewish cast, is evident from
his portraits, and was especially to be noted in old age. It may be
conjectured that the migration of these /10/ Dutch Jews to England fell within a period not very distant from the death of Spinoza in 1675. But there is not the slightest trace in Newman of acquaintance with modern Hebrew literature or
history; so far as we can tell he had never opened the ETHICS, and
the only Mendelssohn he knew by name was probably the author of
ELIJAH.

But the qualities which he interited from his mother's family cannot
be left out of account. ..."

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From

NEWMAN

by William Barry

London: Hodder And Stoughton  MDCCCCIV

282 pp.

On last page

"Butler & Tanner  The Selwood Printing Works  Frome and London"

-OOO-

Patrick Killough
Swannanoa, NC 
02/19/2004