'From One End of the Earth to the Other': The London Bet Din, 1805-1855, and the Jewish Convicts Transported to Australia

The emancipation of the Jews of England was largely complete when George III came to the throne in 1760. Free to live how and where they wished, English Jews had been specifically exempted from the provisions of the 1753 Marriage Act which made Christian marriage the only legal option for all others. The effect of this exemption was to put the matrimonial cases of the Jews of England exclusively in the hands of their Rabbis and Dayanim (Jewish ecclesiastical judges) for the next one hundred year…