Lancelot Addison

An Anglican clergyman born in Maulds Meaburn (Cumbria, England), Lancelot Addison studied at Oxford and served as a military chaplain in Tangier for seven years, during which time he became quite close with Josef Messias, a Tétouan Jew. Addison returned to England in 1670 and began writing about the communities and local history of northern Morocco. Despite his attempts to convert local Jews, his The Present State of the Jews (1675–1685, four editions), offered a sympathetic portrayal of Jewish life in the Barbary Coast community. Scholars have suggested that he borrowed heavily from Johannes Buxtorf’s Synagoga Judaica (1657). Addison also wrote about Islam and disputes in the Anglican Church.