The Jewish. World declares that the family legend given by
Lord Beaconsfield in the preface to his father's works is all -wrong. The family name was not Lara, nor did the Premier's grandfather assume the name of Disraeli, "never borne before," when flying from the Spanish Inquisition. The name Lara really belonged in a way to the first wife of Benjamin Disraeli, grandfather of Lord Beaconsfield, from whom he is not descended. She was the daughter of Gaspar Mendes Furtado, -a Portuguese Jew, whose wife Abigail was a Lara, and had had placed on her tombstone, in the Mile End Road, the following inscription, which, doubtless, suggested the legend:—" The sepulchre of Abigail, widow of Gaspar Mendes Furtado, of Portugal, who, after suffering the tortures of the Inquisition, fled for protection to England with her children, since named Rachel, Rebecca, Judith, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, whom she educated in the Jewish faith, and established well in marriage, where, having survived her beloved daughter Rachel, she was called to rest Friday night, 17th September, 1764, aged 65." The Rebecca mentioned married, as is shown by another tomb- stone, Benjamin D'Israele, and died, leaving only one daughter, -4' Rachel," who was not related to the Premier. He is descended from Benjamin's second. wife.
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