Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 supplement/Mocatta, Frederic David
MOCATTA, FREDERIC DAVID (1828–1905), Jewish philanthropist, born in London on 16 Jan. 1828, was elder son in a family of two sons and two daughters of Abraham Mocatta (1797–1880). His father was an active member of the movement in England in 1840 for reform of Jewish worship and practice. His mother was Miriam, daughter of Israel Brandon. The Mocatta family, originally named Lumbrozo, was driven from Spain in 1492, when one branch migrated to Italy and the other, after a settlement in Holland, moved to England about 1670. Frederick David represented the seventh generation of the English settlers. In 1790 Abraham Lumbrozo de Mattos, his great-grandfather, who founded the firm of Mocatta & Goldsmid, bullion brokers to the Bank of England, was permitted by George III to change the family name to Mocatta, after a maternal ancestor. Rachel, a daughter of this Abraham, was mother of Sir Moses Montefiore [q. v.].
Educated at home by private tutors, among them Albert Lowy [q. v. Suppl. II], he was taught Hebrew and Latin by his father, and came to speak five or six languages. About 1843 he entered his father's business, from which he retired in 1874. His chief recreations through life were the study of history and antiquities, and foreign travel which extended over Europe, Asia Minor, Palestine and Egypt.
Enjoying a large income, Mocatta was best known as a broad-minded philanthropist. Among the first questions that engaged his attention were the better housing of the working classes and the administration of charity in such a way as not to demoralise the poor. He was an active promoter and vice-president from its formation in 1869 of the Charity Organisation Society, and was chairman from 1901 of the Charity Voting Reform Association, with whose efforts to abolish electioneering in charity administration he was in fullest sympathy. He was specially interested in hospital and nursing work, and he liberally supported almost every hospital in London.
To Jewish charities he devoted the greater part of his wealth and leisure. He was active in organising the Board of Guardians of the Jewish Poor (founded in 1859), and was chairman of a Jewish workhouse started in 1871, and reorganised in 1897 as the Home for Aged Jews, with himself as president; he also helped to form the Jews' Deaf and Dumb Home in 1865. The situation of the Jews in eastern Europe engaged his constant attention. He was vice-president of the Anglo-Jewish Association, was member of the Alliance Israelite in Paris, and member of the Roumanian committee which was founded in London in 1872 to watch over the affairs of the Roumanian Jews. In 1882 he took active part in administering the Mansion House Committee Fund for assisting Jews to leave Russia.
Mocatta did all he could to promote education, especially that of the Jewish poor, and he encouraged Jewish literature and research. In whole or part he defrayed the expenses of many important publications, including Zunz's two books, 'Zur Geschichte und Literatur' (Berlin, 1850) and 'Literaturgeschichte der Synagogalen Poesie' (Berlin, 1855), Berhner's 'Juden in Rom' (Frankfort, 1893), and the English translation of Graetz's 'History of the Jews' (London and Philadelphia, 1891). In 1887 he was president of the Anglo-Jewish Historical Exhibition at the Albert Hall, which led to the establishment of the Jewish Historical Society of England. He was president of the society in 1900. He bequeathed to public uses his valuable collection of books, principally on Jewish history; it now forms the Mocatta Library at University College, Gower Street, the room being the headquarters of the Jewish Historical Society. He was elected F.S.A. in 1889. He was chairman of the council of founders of the West London Synagogue (1896–1904). On 16 Jan. 1898, his seventieth birthday, he was presented with a book containing signatures of the Empress Frederick and of 8000 other representatives of 250 public bodies to which Mocatta had given his support; the book now belongs to his nephew, Mr. B. Elkin Mocatta.
Mocatta died in London on 16 Jan. 1905, and was buried at the Ball's Pond cemetery of the West London Synagogue of British Jews. There is a drinking fountain to his memory outside St. Botolph's Church, Aldgate. An enlarged photograph is in the committee room of the West London Synagogue.
Mocatta published 'The Jews and the Inquisition' (1877), which has been translated into German, Italian, and Hebrew, and 'The Jews at the Present Time in their Various Habitations,' a lecture (1888).
He married in 1856 Mary Ada, second daughter of Frederick David Goldsmid, M.P. for Honiton, and sister of Sir Julian Goldsmid; he had no issue.
[F. D. Mocatta: a memoir, lectures, and extracts from letters, 1912; Jewish Chron. 20 Jan. 1905, 17 Feb. (will); Charity Organization Rev., Feb. 1905; private information.]