THOROWGOOD, THOMAS. Jews in America, or, Probabilities That those Indians are Judaical, made more probable by some Additions to the former Conjectures.

(AMERICAN JUDAICA).

Henry Brome

London

1660

Second Edition.

Sabin 95652; J. H. Coppenhagen, Menasseh ben Israel-A Bibliography (1990) no. 657/2

Thorowgood’s second installment on the question of what became of the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel. The first installment; “Jewes in America, or, Probabilities that the Americans are of that Race…” (1650), sought to prove Native American Indians were identifed as Jews. The crown of his argument lay in a supplement containing an affidavit given by the Portuguese Jew, Antonio Montesinos (Aaron Levi) to Menasseh ben Israel in 1644 regarding his discovery of Brazilian natives practicing Jewish ritual and claiming to be decentants of the tribe of Reuben. Thorowgood’s first arguments were attacked by Roger l’Estrange in 1652 and in 1660, Thorowgood rewrote his former arguments ommitting Aron Levi Monterinos’ affidavit and instead appending the learned conjectures of Reverend John Eliot who had spent time preaching to the Indians at Roxbury, a small settlement south of Boston. Thorowgood’s two works were the first of many books and articles identifying the American Indians as the descendants of the Ten Lost Tribes. See L. M. Friedman, Jewish Pioneers and Patriots (1942) pp.153-59; A. M. Hyamson, English Interest in the Lost Tribes (J. Q. R., Old Series, vol. XV, pp. 660-4; and A. J. Karp, From the Ends of the Earth: Judaic Treasures from the Library of Congress (1991) pp. 222-4.