Description:William Hutton's 'History of Birmingham' (1780).
This interesting description of Birmingham’s first Jewish synagogue is important as it marks one of the first published accounts of Jewish life in Birmingham. However, his attitude towards Jewish culture and its synagogue is noticeably unfavourable. Why was this? One reason is that Hutton himself had particular views of religion. As a nonconformist ‘Unitarian’, Hutton believed that orthodox or ancient religions were old fashioned. His attitude to the Jews, who followed one of the oldest known religions, was unlikely to be positive.