Caceres Family - Francisco de Caceres

Francisco De Caceres

(1) Writer of the seventeenth century; son of Daniel de Caceres of Amsterdam. He translated from Italian into Spanish the Vision Deleytable y Summarico de Todas las Sciencias, a work written by Alfonso de la Torre and translated into Italian by Domenico Dolphino. The translation of Caceres, published at Amsterdam in 1663, and dedicated to Don Emanuel, prince of Portugal, consists of two parts, the first dealing with the various sciences, the second with moral philosophy. Of the first part, chapter I treats of the "evil of things, and the confusion in the world"; the following six chapters treat of logic, rhetoric, arithmetic, geometry, music, and astrology, and the remaining chapters treat of metaphysics, pneumatics, and physics. Part II discusses ethics and politics.

Johann Christoph Wolf makes this Francisco de Caceres the author also of Dialogos Satiricos, published at Amsterdam in 1616. Meyer Kayserling, however, ascribes that work to (2) Francisco or Jacob de Caceres who was probably a son of Moseh de Caceres, one of the founders of the Jewish-Portuguese community of Amsterdam. The latter Francisco or Jacob also translated into Spanish Los Siete Dias de la Semana Sobre la Creacion del Mundo, a work by Bastasi, dedicated to Jacob Tirado. As the Dialogos Satiricos was published as early as 1616, it is not probable that the author was the former Francisco de Caceres.

Francisco (or Jacob) had, so far as can be determined, five sons:

(1) Daniel de Caceres: Writer of the seventeenth century; son of Jacob de Caceres. He held the degree of master of arts. Caceres was a friend of Manasseh ben Israel, upon whose works, The Conciliator and On Human Frailty (written about 1642), he wrote approbations. He also wrote a eulogy on Saul Levi Morteira (Amsterdam, 1645).

(2) David de Caceres, who, according to Kayserling, died October 18, 1624 at Amsterdam.

(3) Henrique (or Henry) de Caceres, who lived in England ca. 1650, probably the same who, with Benjamin de Caceres, petitioned the king on April 8, 1661 to permit them to live and trade in Barbados and Suriname.

(4) Samuel de Caceres: Dutch poet and preacher and brother-in-law of Benedict Spinoza; died November 1660, at Amsterdam. He was a pupil of Rabbi Saul Levi Morteira of Amsterdam. The title "Poeta, Predicador, y Jaxam, de la Ley Sancta Escritor" (Poet, Preacher, and Cantor, Writer of the Holy Law), given to Caceres by his contemporaries, shows the eminent position which he occupied in the Jewish community of Amsterdam. "De la Ley Sancta Escritor" refers to the Spanish translation of the Bible, which he edited, revised, and corrected, and which was published in 1661, soon after his death.

(5) Simon de Caceres: Military strategist, merchant, and communal leader; flourished in the middle of the seventeenth century. He was prominent in mercantile affairs in Hamburg, London, South America, and the West Indies; and his transactions extended to many parts of the world.

Caceres is described as a chauvinist Jew, boastful of his Jewish descent. He joined Antonio Fernandez Carvajal in the acquisition of the Bet Cholim cemetery in London, and was one of the petitioners who signed the document presented to Oliver Cromwell by Manasseh ben Israel in March 1656. Queen Christina of Sweden is known to have interceded with Cromwell on his behalf for certain commercial privileges in Barbados. At a later date the king of Denmark gave Caceres's brother a letter of recommendation to Charles II of England, which was instrumental in procuring for the Jews in the West Indies an extension of commercial facilities. Simon was one of Cromwell's intelligencers; and there are at least two documents among the Thurloe papers which show that his experience was utilized by the lord protector. One is called "A Note of What Things Are Wanting in Jamaica". It is a memorandum containing minute advice with regard to fortifications and implements. From a passage in Cromwell's Letters and Speeches, ed. Carlyle (iii. 131), it would seem that Caceres's recommendations were followed, for the needed supplies were forwarded.

Together with this memorandum Caceres submitted to the protector a remarkable scheme for the conquest of Chile, wherein he proposed to enlist "men of his own nation" (meaning Jews), and offered to lead the expedition in person. In his letter of instructions Cromwell refers to the desirability of hindering the Spanish trade with Peru and Cartagena, and of striving with the Spaniards for the mastery of all those seas. At a later date Caceres presented another plan to Cromwell, which provided for the protection of the Barbados trade and for improving the administration of the navigation act. This document seems to have been unauthorized, and turns out to be a personal application for an office he desired to have created for himself.

Daniel (see above) had two (?) sons; (1) Francisco de Caceres and (2) Samuel ben Daniel de Caceres, whose name, if he is not Daniel's son, remains a "crux interpretum". It is more than probable that the two Samuels have been confounded by bibliographers. Samuel, the poet and preacher, had a son named David de Caceres, who was printer in Amsterdam in 1661. Another person bearing that name was rabbi at Salonica, and afterward (ca. 1650) at Hebron, Palestine.