GOLDSMID, the name of a family of Anglo-Jewish bankers sprung from Aaron Goldsmid (d. 1782), a Dutch merchant who settled in England about 1763. Two of his sons, Benjamin Gold smid (c. 17 S3-18°8) and Abraham Goldsmid (c. 1 7 5 6-181 o) , set up as bill-brokers in London in 1777 and became great powers in the money market, during the Napoleonic war, through their dealings with the Government. Abraham Goldsmid was in 181 o joint contractor with the Barings for a government loan, but owing to a depreciation of the scrip he was forced into bank ruptcy and committed suicide, as his brother had done.
Their nephew, Sir Isaac Lyon Goldsmid, Bart. (1778-1859) connected with a firm of bullion brokers to the Bank of England and the East India Company, was made Baron da Palmeira by the Portuguese Government in 1846 for services rendered in settling a monetary dispute between Portugal and Brazil, but he is chiefly known for his efforts to obtain the emancipation of the Jews in England and for his part in founding University college, London. The Jewish Disabilities bill owed its final passage to Goldsmid's energetic work. He helped to establish the University college hospital in 1834, aided in the efforts to obtain reform in the English penal code, and financially assisted the building of the English southern railways and the London docks. In 1841 he became the first Jewish baronet. His second son, Sir Francis Henry Goldsmid, Bart. (1808-1878), born in London, and the first Jew to become an English barrister, entered parliament in 186o as member for Reading. He was succeeded in the baronetcy by his nephew Sir Julian Goldsmid, Bart. (1838-1896).
Another distinguished member of the same family, Sir Frederic John Goldsmid (1818-1908), grandson of Benjamin Goldsmid (see above), was educated at King's college, London, and entering the Madras army in 1839 served in the China War of 184o-41, with the Turkish troops in eastern Crimea in 1855-56, and during the Egyptian campaign. From 1865 to 187o he was director general of the Indo-European telegraph, and carried through the telegraph convention with Persia; and between 18 7 o and 1872, as commissioner, he settled with Persia the difficult questions of the Perso-Baluch and Perso-Afghan boundaries. In 1881-82 he was in Egypt, as controller of the Daira Sanieh, and in 1883 he went to the Congo, on behalf of the king of the Belgians.