Jewish interest - A George III antique sterling silver meat dish, London 1766 by Sebastian & James Crespell Of shaped-oval form with gadrooned rim, engraved below the rim with an impaled coat-of-arms with motto ‘Non Nobis Solum’,I all surmounted by a Baron’s coat of arms. The reverse engraved “N 18” and with the scratch weight 61//10. Fully marked to reverse. Length – 46 cm/18.1inches Weight – 1856 grams / 59.6 ozt The arms are those of Eardley impaling Wilmot quartering Eardley For Sampson Eardley, 1st Baron Eardley (1744 – 1824), known as Sir Sampson Gideon from 1759 until 1789. In 1768, he married Maria Wilmot, the daughter of Sir John Eardley Wilmot, Chief Justice of the Common Pleas. On 17 July 1789 he legally changed his surname to that of Eardley. He served as Tory Member of Parliament for Cambridgeshire from 1770 to 1780, Midhurst from 1780 to 1784, Coventry from 1784 to 1796, and Wallingford from 1796 to 1802. In 1789 he was created an Irish peer, with the title of Baron Eardley, of Spalding in the County of Lincoln. An Irish peerage carried no seat in the House of Lords and thus did not disqualify him from membership of the British House of Commons. In November 1789 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) and he was also Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries (FSA). He was the first Provincial Grand Master of Cambridgeshire Freemasons, appointed in 1796, until his death. Lord Eardley was the son of Jewish banker Sampson Gideon (1699–1762) he the grandson of Portuguese immigrants. Under his influence his son was created a baronet, on 21st May 1759, aged only 13 years. Gideon Snr had lobbied for the same honour for himself from the prime minister, the Duke of Newcastle, but was denied it on account of his Jewish faith, as he remained a practising Jew. Sampson Gideon Jnr and his two sisters, on the contrary, whose mother was Christian, were baptised and brought up in the Church of England. Sampson Gideon Snr was a trusted "adviser of the Government," and a supporter of the Jew Bill of 7th July 1753, which allowed for naturalisation of Jewish people. The Jewish people had shown much support for the government during the Jacobite uprising of the 1740’s and Gideon Snr as their chief financier had strengthened the stock market. The bill was repealed only one year later due to a public outburst of antisemitism and Tory opposition in the House of Commons declaring it an “abandonment of Christianity”. Sampson Gideon Snr, died at his home Belvedere House, near Erith, Kent, in October 1762, aged 63, having a gained a fortune recorded as £350,000. Lord Eardley died at 10 Marina Parade, Brighton, on Christmas Day, 1824, aged 80, his son’s predeceased him and the Barony thus became extinct. The dinner plates from the Eardley service of the same year and maker were sold Christie's, New York, Important Silver 27th October 2005, Lot 430