Solomon Etting (1764-1847). Autograph Letter Signed, written to Jonathan Bayard Smith, Grandmaster of Lodge 43. F.A.M.

Jonathan Bayard Smith (1742-1812) was a signatory to the Articles of Confederation on behalf of Pennsylvania at the Continental Congress to which he was a delegate. Solomon Etting was a merchant in Baltimore deeply involved in the struggle of early Maryland Jews to attain full civil rights. In 1797 he and his father-in-law Barnard Gratz petitioned the Maryland House of Delegates. A record reads, a petition was received from: “Solomon Etting and others, stating, that they are a sect of people called Jews, and thereby deprived of many of the invaluable rights of citizenship, and praying to be placed upon the same footing with other good citizens.” (See Votes and Proceedings of the House of Delegates of the State of Maryland, November Session, 1797, p. 69). This petition was rejected and the Jews of Maryland remained barred from practicing law, or holding public office. When Etting was himself elected to office, he was denied the right to occupy it. He filed petitions twice more, in 1802 and 1824. The sought after rights were finally achieved in 1826 with the passage of the “Jew Bill.” Etting was a founder of the B & O Railroad, and many civic institutions in Baltimore. He was, in addition to this, a Shochet since 1782, likely the first American-born ritual slaughterer. (See Archives of Maryland (Biographical Series) Solomon Etting).