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More than 5000 entries on the history, culture and life of Britain (published in 1993 by Macmillan, now out of print)
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Rothschild
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Jewish family from Frankfurt in Germany which has made an extraordinary contribution to British life over the past two centuries. In 1804 Nathan Mayer Rothschild (1777–1836) became a British citizen and established in London a branch of the family bank; under the name N.M. Rothschild and Sons it is still a major institution in the *City. In 1858 his son Lionel Nathan (1808–79) became the first Jew to sit in the House of Commons, after a prolonged and heroic struggle against the requirement to swear a Christian oath.
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He had first been elected (for the City of London) in 1847, and was re-elected five times during the next 11 years while a succession of bills to allow the oath to be made on the Old Testament were thrown out by the House of Lords. His son, Nathaniel Meyer (1840–1915), became in his turn the first Jew to sit in the House of Lords, when he was made a baron in 1885.
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