Isaac Miranda

Isaac Miranda (died 1732 or 1733) was a merchant, trader and colonial official in the Province of Pennsylvania. He was one of the earliest Jewish settlers of Philadelphia and the first known Jewish resident of Lancaster. In 1727 he was appointed deputy judge of the Court of Vice-Admiralty, which the Jewish Encyclopedia describes as the first judicial office held by a Jew in the English colonies. By the 1720s he had converted to Christianity.

Life

The date of Miranda's birth is not known. He arrived in Philadelphia around 1710 and immediately went into trade with the Native Americans. He was present in what became Lancaster County from as early as 1715 until his death, and he owned property in Lancaster before the town and county were organized in 1730, making him the town's first Jewish resident.

In 1723 James Logan, the provincial secretary, described Miranda as an "apostate Jew or fashionable Christian proselyte" who had gone into the interior of the colony on official business.

Admiralty appointments

In 1727 Miranda was appointed agent to receive and collect the perquisites and rights of the Admiralty, and on June 19, 1727, he was appointed deputy judge of the Court of Vice-Admiralty. The Jewish Encyclopedia calls this the first judicial office held by a Jew in the English colonies, although by then Miranda had already been described as a convert to Christianity.

Death

Miranda died in Lancaster. The Jewish Encyclopedia gives the year of his death as 1733, while Brener gives 1732.

Further reading

• Marcus, Jacob Rader. Early American Jewry. Vol. 2. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society of America, 1953.