Notes on an early Virginia physician.

London-born Dr. John de Sequeyra ( 17 12-1 795), who arrived in Virginia around 1745, was no ordinary newcomer to America. His distinguished family of Portuguese Jewish origin produced several noted physicians during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.' A descendant of the de Sequeyras who possesses and has access to extensive family records has provided some genealogical data.2 The first name in the record is Abraham Israel de Sequeira, who died in 1679 and is described in an undated clipping from the Jewish Chronicle as "one of the oldest and most respected member of the community. . . ." According to the Chronicle, Abraham's name "appears on the purchase deed of the [Bevis Marks Congregation's] burial ground." A Dr. Abraham de Sequeira (1665-1747), who is also mentioned in the synagogue records and is believed to have been Abraham Israel's grandson, is listed as having had three sons. One of them, Joseph Henrique, married a woman named Leah; John is the subject of this article; and another, his name unrecorded, married into the de la Corn family of medical fame. The descendants of Joseph and his anonymous brother converted to Christianity during the nineteenth century. According to the records of the Spanish and Portuguese (Bevis Marks) Synagogue in London, a Dr. Abraham de Sequeyra was a member of the congregation in the 1730's, and a Dr. Isaac de Se-