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Percy J. Marks

(1867-1941) solicitor and historian

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJul 22, 2026
Entity authorityQ21537068
Source-derived summary

Percy Joseph Marks (11 December 1867 – 22 June 1941) was an Australian Jewish solicitor and historian.

Marks was born at West Maitland, New South Wales, the eldest son of Joseph Marks, a storekeeper and later woolbuyer born in London, and Elizabeth, daughter of Samuel Benjamin. His mother died in 1875 or 1879 and the family moved to Sydney in 1882 where Marks attended Royston College, Darlinghurst, and later, the University of Sydney. His younger brother was Ernest Samuel Marks, Lord Mayor of Sydney.

Marks was active within the Jewish community and worshipped at the Great Synagogue in Sydney. In his lifetime he was usually referred to as Percy J. Marks to avoid confusion with the Sydney jeweller Percy Marks.

He held positions in a number of Jewish organisations, including the New South Wales Board of Jewish Education, the Sydney Zionist Society, Friends of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, the Australian Jewish Historical Society, and the Union of Junior Zionists.

He was sometime joint editor, with Sir Daniel Levy, of the New South Wales Hebrew Standard.

Percy J. Marks established a reputation for Jewish scholarship. A significant collection of Judaica gathered by him was left to the State Library of New South Wales by his brother Ernest.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “Percy J. Marks” as (1867-1941) solicitor and historian. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Percy, Marks and 1867-1941.

Editorial reviewStrongest as a route into the people, institutions and dated events that shaped the subject’s public record. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1867, 1941, 1875, 1879—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1867-11-12. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Percy, Marks and 1867-1941 providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Percy J. Marks”, the useful work is to connect “(1867-1941) solicitor and historian” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 22, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q21537068. VIAF identifies the subject as 82988878. The Library of Congress control number is no2008143868. 2 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1867, 1941, 1875 and 1879.

Critical limits

Later biographies can compress uncertainty and repeat inherited reputations, so apparently settled claims may still require comparison. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
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Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Percy J. Marks”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Percy J. Marks primary sources, Percy J. Marks archive and Percy research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Percy J. Marks”?
  2. Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
  3. How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Percy J. Marks” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.