Benjamin Levy

Benjamin Levy was a successful English merchant and stockbroker, credited with being the founder of the London Ashkenazi community.

Benjamin left Hamburg and came to London in 1669 to represent the business interests of his wealthy father. He engaged in a variety of commercial and financial transactions – he speculated in shares of chartered companies, discounted bills, participated in many branches of overseas commerce, dealt in precious stones…

He is known as the earliest Jewish subscriber to the Bank of England, and a considerable shareholder in the Million Bank, founded in 1695. Levy was also a considerable shareholder in the East India Company credited with procuring the new Company’s charter in 1698. As a member of the Royal African Company, he also had interests in trade along the west coast of Africa. Although he never visited America, he also invested there and was one of the proprietors of the West Jersey.

In 1697, in the course of the reorganization of the Royal Exchange, he became one of the 12 original Jewish brokers of the City of London.

Through these business activities he made a large fortune in London.

In 1696 he purchased the first Ashkenazi cemetery.