# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Margoliouth, Moses

​MARGOLIOUTH, MOSES (1820–1881), divine, was born of Jewish parents at Suwalki, Poland, on 3 Dec. 1820. He was instructed at Pryerosl, Grodno, and Kalwarya in talmudic and rabbinical learning, and also acquired Russian and German. In August 1837, during a visit to Liverpool, he was induced to carefully study the Hebrew New Testament, with the result that on 13 April 1838 he was baptised a member of the church of England. For a time he obtained a livelihood by giving lessons in Hebrew, but in January 1840 he entered Trinity College, Dublin, to prepare for ordination, and during the vacations studied at the Hebrew College, London. In 1843 he became instructor of Hebrew, German, and English at the Liverpool Institution for inquiring Jews. On 30 June 1844 he was ordained to the curacy of St. Augustine, Liverpool. Three months later the Bishop of Kildare obtained for him the incumbency of Glasnevin, near Dublin, and made him his examining chaplain. The parish being small, Margoliouth had much leisure for literary pursuits. He started a Hebrew Christian monthly magazine, entitled 'The Star of Jacob,' which extended to six numbers (January- June 1847), and tried to establish a Philo-Hebraic Society for promoting the study of Hebrew literature, and for reprinting scarce Hebrew works. He subsequently served curacies at Tranmere, Cheshire; St. Bartholomew, Salford; Wybunbury, Cheshire (1853-5); St. Paul, Haggerston, London; Wyton, Huntingdonshire; and St. Paul, Onslow Square, London. Among his own people he was an indefatigable worker. In 1847 he visited the Holy Land, and on his return published an interesting account of his wanderings. During his travels he made the acquaintance of many celebrated men, among whom were Neander, Mendelssohn Bartholdy, and Mezzofanti. In 1877 he was presented to the vicarage of Little Linford, Buckinghamshire. He died in London on 25 Feb. 1881, and was buried in Little Linford churchyard. In 1857 he accepted the Ph.D. degree of Erlangen.
Margoliouth's chief works are: 1. 'The Fundamental Principles of Modern Judaism investigated,' 8vo, London, 1843. 2. 'An Exposition of the Fifty-third Chapter of Isaiah,' 8vo, London, 1846 and 1856. 3. ' A Pilgrimage to the Land of my Fathers,' 2 vols. 8vo, London, 1850. 4. 'The History of the Jews in Great Britain,' 3 vols. 12mo, London, 1851. 5. 'Genuine Repentance and its Effects: an Exposition of the Fourteenth Chapter of Hosea,' 8vo, London, 1854. 6. 'The Anglo-Hebrews, their Past Wrongs and Present Grievances,' 8vo, London, 1856. 7. 'The Curates of Riversdale: Recollections in the Life of a Clergyman,' 3 vols. 8vo, London, 1860. 8. 'The End of the Law, being a preliminary Examination of the "Essays and Reviews,"' 8vo, London, 1861. 9. 'Abyssinia, its Past, Present, and probable Future,' 8vo, London, 1866. 10. 'Vestiges of the Historic Anglo-Hebrews in East Anglia,' 8vo, London, 1870. 11. 'The Poetry of the Hebrew Pentateuch,' 8vo, London, 1871. 12. 'The Lord's Prayer no adaptation of existing Jewish Petitions, explained by the light of the Day of the Lord,' 8vo, London, 1876. 13. 'Some Triumphs and Trophies of the Light of the World,' 8vo, London, 1882. By 1853 he had completed, but apparently did not publish, a Hebrew translation of the New Testament (Notes and Queries, 1st ser. viii. 196). In 1872 he projected a quarterly periodical called 'The Hebrew Christian Witness and Prophetic Investigator,' which he continued (with the exception of one year, when the magazine was in abeyance) until the end of 1877. To the early volumes of 'Notes and Queries' he contributed many curious articles on Jewish history and antiquities. A portrait of Margoliouth is prefixed to his 'Pilgrimage,' 1850.
[Autobiography before Modern Judaism; Memoir prefixed to Some Triumphs; Guardian, 9 March 1881, p. 348; Crockford's Clerical Directory for 1880; Jacobs and Wolf's Bibl. Angl. Jud. p. 138; Jewish World, 4 March 1881.]
G. G.