Editing Benjamin Disraeli (section)

===Childhood===
Disraeli was born on 21 December 1804 at 6 King's Road, Bedford Row, [[Bloomsbury]], London,{{refn|The street was renamed some time after 1824 as [[Theobald's Road]];<ref>Pierpoint, Robert. [https://archive.org/stream/s12notesqueries02londuoft#page/170/mode/2up "Kingsway"] ''Notes and Queries'', 26 August 1916, p. 170</ref> a commemorative plaque marks the current 22 Theobald's Road as Disraeli's birthplace.<ref name=b3>Blake (1967), p. 3</ref><ref>[http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/discover/blue-plaques/search/disraeli-benjamin-earl-of-beaconsfield-1804-1881 "Disraeli, Benjamin, Earl of Beaconsfield, 1804–1881"] English Heritage, accessed 20 August 2013</ref>|group=n}} the second child and eldest son of [[Isaac D'Israeli]], a literary critic and historian, and Maria (Miriam), ''née'' Basevi.<ref name=b3/> The family was mostly from Italy, of [[Sephardic Jewish]] mercantile background.<ref name="academia.edu">Wolf, Lucien. 1905. The Disraeli Family, "Transactions of the Jewish Historical Society of England", vol. 5, pp. 202–218. Of these surnames, Shiprut de Gabay, Cardoso, Aboab, and, most likely, Israeli are [[Sephardic]], Basevi is of [[Ashkenazic]] origin, while Rieti was originally taken by a family whose ancestors lived in Italy for centuries; -see Beider, Alexander. [https://www.academia.edu/35766905/Pseudo-Sephardic_Surnames_from_Italy] Pseudo-Sephardic Surnames from Italy. "Avotaynu: The International Review of Jewish Genealogy," vol. XXXIII, Number 3, Fall 2017, pp. 3–8 (see pp. 5–6).</ref>{{refn|Both Disraeli's grandfathers were born in Italy; Isaac's father, [[Benjamin D'Israeli (merchant)|Benjamin]], moved in 1748 from [[Venice]] to England. His second wife, Disraeli's grandmother, was Sarah Shiprut de Gabay Villareal. The maternal grandfather, Naphtali Basevi from [[Verona]], settled in London in 1762. He married in 1767 Rebecca Rieti, born in England, the daughter of Sarah Cardoso and granddaughter of Jacob Aboab Cardoso who was already born in London (from this line, Disraeli had already four generations born in Britain).<ref name="academia.edu" />|group=n}} He also had some [[Ashkenazi Jewish]] ancestors.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Roth |first=Cecil |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2021AAAAIAAJ |title=Benjamin Disraeli, Earl of Beaconsfield |date=1952 |publisher=Philosophical Library |isbn=978-0-8022-1382-2 |page=10}}</ref> He later romanticised his origins, claiming his father's family was of grand [[Portuguese People|Portuguese]] and [[Venice|Venetian]] descent; in fact, Isaac's family was of no great distinction,<ref name="Blake (1967), p. 6">Blake (1967), p. 6</ref> but on Disraeli's mother's side, in which he took no interest, there were some distinguished forebears, including [[Isaac Cardoso]], as well as members of the [[Goldsmid family|Goldsmids]], the [[Mocatta]]s and the [[Montefiore (surname)|Montefiore]]s.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Wolf |first=Lucien |date=1902 |title=The Disraeli Family |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/29777634 |journal=Transactions (Jewish Historical Society of England) |volume=5 |pages=202–218 |issn=2047-2331 |quote=When Isaac D'Israeli married Maria Basevi, he became related, through his brother-in-law, Joshua Basevi, and his sister-in-law, Sarah Basevi, to all the leading Jewish families of the day – the Lindos, the Lumbrozo de Mattos Mocattas, the Mendez da Costas, the Ximenes, the Montefiores, the Lousadas, and the Goldsmids.}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last=Ezratty |first=Harry A. |date=May 2010 |title=Adam Kirsch: Benjamin Disraeli |url=https://ajrsem.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/Benjamin_Disraeli_Ezratty.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/https://ajrsem.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/Benjamin_Disraeli_Ezratty.pdf |archive-date=9 October 2022 |url-status=live |journal=The Journal of the Academy for Jewish Religion |volume=6 |issue=1 |issn=1944-3501 |quote=Benjamin's mother had the true Sephardic pedigree he was looking for. He needn't have fabricated one. Not only was she related to the accomplished and wealthy Montefiores, she was a descendant of the distinguished Basevi and Aboab Cardoso families. Isaac Aboab Cardoso was the last gaon of Castile who in 1492 negotiated the movement of Jewish exiles from Spain to Portugal. She was the fourth generation of her family living in England. That would have been an easier and more truthful bloodline to follow, but for some unknown reason Disraeli did not avail himself of it.}}</ref>{{refn|Disraeli's mother's ancestors included [[Isaac Aboab of Castile|Isaac Aboab]], the last [[Gaon (Hebrew)|Gaon]] of Castille, the Cardoso family (among whose members were [[Isaac Cardoso]] and [[Abraham Miguel Cardoso|Miguel Cardoso]]) and other prominent families; Disraeli was described in ''The Times'' as having "some of the best blood in Jewry".<ref name=wolf>Wolf, Lucien. "The Disraeli Family", ''The Times'', 21 December 1904, p. 12</ref>|group=n}} Historians differ on Disraeli's motives for rewriting his family history: Bernard Glassman argues that it was intended to give him status comparable to that of England's ruling elite;<ref>Glassman, p. 32</ref> [[Sarah Bradford]] believes "his dislike of the commonplace would not allow him to accept the facts of his birth as being as middle-class and undramatic as they really were".<ref>Bradford, p. 1</ref>

[[File:Isaac-miriam-sarah-d'israeli-125px.jpg|thumb|upright=0.5|Disraeli's father, mother and sister—[[Isaac D'Israeli|Isaac]], Maria and Sarah|alt=Three portraits; a man and two women]]
Disraeli's siblings were Sarah, Naphtali (born and died 1807), Ralph and James ("Jem"). He was close to his sister and on affectionate but more distant terms with his surviving brothers.<ref>Bradford, p. 6</ref> Details of his schooling are sketchy.<ref name="b11"/> From the age of about six he was a [[day pupil|day boy]] at a [[dame school]] in [[Islington]], which one of his biographers described as "for those days a very high-class establishment".<ref name=m19>Monypenny and Buckle, p. 19</ref>{{refn|Monypenny gives his age as "six or earlier"; Parry concurs, giving his first year at Miss Roper's as 1810 or 1811;<ref>Parry, p. 1</ref> Hibbert<ref>Hibbert, p. 8</ref> and Ridley<ref>Ridley, p. 18</ref> give his age unequivocally as six. Kuhn puts his starting age as early as four.<ref>Kuhn, p. 25</ref>|group= n}} Two years later or so—the exact date has not been ascertained—he was sent as a boarder to [[St Piran's (school)|Rev John Potticary's school]] at [[Blackheath, London|Blackheath]].<ref name="Blake 1967, p. 12">Blake (1967), p. 12</ref>

Following a quarrel in 1813 with the [[Bevis Marks Synagogue]], his father renounced [[Judaism]] and had the four children [[baptised]] into the [[Church of England]] in July and August 1817.<ref name="b11"/> Isaac D'Israeli had never taken religion very seriously but had remained a conforming member of the synagogue.<ref name="Blake (1967), p. 6"/> Issac's father, [[Benjamin D'Israeli (merchant)|Benjamin]], was a prominent and devout member; it was probably out of respect for him that Isaac did not leave when he fell out with the synagogue authorities in 1813.{{refn|Isaac was elected, without his consent, as Warden (''parnas'') of the synagogue. He refused the post, partly lest it interfere with his literary research and partly because he was ideologically much more liberal than the ruling orthodox group. Under the synagogue's rules he became liable for a fine of £40 for declining to serve. He refused to pay.<ref name="Bradford, p. 7">Bradford, p. 7</ref>|group= n}} After Benjamin senior died in 1816, Isaac felt free to leave the congregation following a second dispute.<ref name=b11>Blake (1967), p. 11</ref>{{refn|Breaking away from Judaism was not uncommon among well-off Sephardic families in [[Georgian era|the late Georgian period]].<ref>Endelmann, p. 107</ref>|group= n}} Isaac's friend [[Sharon Turner]], a solicitor, convinced him that although he could comfortably remain unattached to any formal religion it would be disadvantageous to the children if they did so. Turner stood as godfather when Benjamin was baptised, aged twelve, on 31 July 1817.<ref name="Bradford, p. 7"/>
[[Conversion to Christianity|Conversion]] enabled Disraeli to contemplate a career in politics. There had been [[Member of Parliament (United Kingdom)|Members of Parliament]] (MPs) from [[British Jews|Jewish]] families since [[Sampson Eardley, 1st Baron Eardley|Sampson Gideon]] in 1770. However, until the [[Jews Relief Act 1858]], MPs were required to take the oath of allegiance "on the true faith of a Christian", necessitating at least nominal conversion.<ref>Blake (1967), p. 10</ref> It is not known whether Disraeli formed any ambition for a parliamentary career at the time of his baptism, but there is no doubt that he bitterly regretted his parents' decision not to send him to [[Winchester College]],<ref name=b8>Bradford, p. 8</ref> one of the great [[Public school (United Kingdom)|public schools]] which consistently provided recruits to the political elite.<ref>Richmond and Smith, p. 23</ref> His two younger brothers were sent there, and it is not clear why Isaac chose to send his eldest son to a much less prestigious school.<ref>Glassman, p. 38</ref> The boy evidently held his mother responsible for the decision; Bradford speculates that "Benjamin's delicate health and his obviously Jewish appearance may have had something to do with it."<ref name=b8/> The school chosen for him was run by [[Eliezer Cogan]] at [[Higham Hill]] in [[Walthamstow]]. He began there in the autumn term of 1817;<ref name="Blake 1967, p. 12"/> he later recalled his education:
{{blockquote|I was at school for two or three years under the Revd. Dr Cogan, a Greek scholar of eminence, who had contributed notes to the A[e]schylus of Bishop Blomfield, & was himself the Editor of the Greek Gnostic poets. After this I was with a private tutor for two years in my own County, & my education was severely classical. Too much so; in the pride of boyish erudition, I edited the Idonisian Eclogue of Theocritus, wh. was privately printed. This was my first production: puerile pedantry.<ref>Disraeli (1975), p. 145</ref>|}}