Dr. John de Sequeyra

Born in London to a Sephardic family, John de Sequeyra served as one of the principal physicians in colonial Williamsburg and constituted the town’s only Jewish resident. He received his medical training at the University of Leiden, where he probably studied under the famous Dutch botanist and physician Hermann Boerhaave.

In 1745 he settled in Virginia. Immediately he established himself as a medical practitioner and in addition to treating nearly all of the townspeople of Williamsburg, he kept meticulous notes. Soon after his arrival, in 1747, he was kept particularly busy with an outbreak of smallpox. De Sequeyra left a manuscript dealing with pathology and treatment, “Diseases in Virginia.”

Dr. John de Sequeyra

c. 1745–1749