MARK OF WILLIAM BURWASH AND RICHARD SIBLEY, LONDON, 1807

Sir David Salomons was one of the most influential bankers of the 19th century. he was born into a stockbroking family of Dutch Ashkenazi Jewish descent. He was one of the campaigners who successfully petitioned the government to allow joint-stock bond banks to operate in the City of London and was one of the fouding directors of the London and Westmister Bank. His family were well connected within the Anglo-Jewish community and he position was assured by his marriage in 1823 to Jeanette Cohen, niece of the great Jewish financier and philanthropist Sir Moses Montefiori and the banker Nathan de Rothschild. He was a proponent of religious reform and emancipation in opposition to the beliefs of Montefiori. He was one of the first Jewish magistrates and was High Sheriff of Kent. Following the passing of ther Jewish Emancipation Bill in 1845 he was admitted as an Alderman of the City of London and became the first Jewish Lord Mayor in 1855. He stood unsuccessfully for parliament in 1837, 1841 and 1847 but was returned as member for Greenwich in 1851. He took the oath of allegiance but omitted those sections which he felt he was unable to read. Although this led to a hefty fine and him having to withdraw, focus was brought to bear on the issue and finally in 1858 the requirement to swear allegience of the New Testament was withdrawn. In 1859 he was elected as member for Greenwich once more, holding the seat until his death fifteen years later. After his first wife's death in 1867 he married Celia, daughter of Samuel Moses Samuel, in 1872. Unfortunately both marriages were childless and his baronetcy passed by special remainder to his nephew David Lionel Salomons (1851-1925). He had brought up his nephew and his siblings after early death of their parents and it was to David that he left his Kent estate Broomhill. David Lionel Salomon greatly added to the estate in his liftime, building workshops and photographic studios to enable him to persue his scientific studies for which he is most remembered. On his death it was left to Kent County Council and it now forms part of Canterbury Christchurch University.