1682: The Black Jews of London
This 1682 record from the Royal Society of London notes of Black Jews in England.
"The minutes of April 5 were read; and upon occafion of thoſe concerning the transformation of creatures by means of the quali qualifications of the place, wherein they are foftered, the prefident related, that he had obferved in a garden made out of the ruins of an old building, that the leaves of all the plants became ſpeckled and ſtriped; and that the fame plants being tranfplanted from thence to another place would for fome time continue ftriped and fpeckled. The change effected in mules and in the redftreak fruit was allo mentioned. It was likewife urged, that there are many of the Jews black, who yet are very strict in not mingling with other nations, and that Europeans, by continuing to inhabit in Africa, have been found to turn black, and that Blacks in England, after a few generations, become white and that wild afparagus, which is very fmall and fticky, being planted in gardens, and heightened with dung, become large and foft."
Source >>> The History of the Royal Society of London for Improving of Natural Knowledge ... as a Supplement to The Philosophical Transactions. By Thomas Birch ... Vol. 1. (-4.), Volume 4 page 141 (1757)
https://books.google.com/books/about/The_History_of_the_Royal_Society_of_Lond.html?id=H4LsvdVKLyAC
Posted May 6, 2026, 9:34 PM UTC