John Sequeyra

Background

He was the middle son of Doctor Abraham de Sequeira (1665-1747) who was a member of Bevis Marks Synagogue in London.

Education

He studied medicine in Holland beginning in 1736 and received his degree in 1739 from the University of Leiden. Between 1745 and 1781 he compiled a manuscript entitled "Diseases in Virginia." He was a physician who attended about 85 households during a smallpox epidemic of 1747/8.

Career

In Holland he was known as “Johannes de Sigueyra” and “Iohannes Disiqueyra”. In 1745, he moved to Williamsburg, Virginia where he practiced medicine. Patsy suffered from increasingly debilitating epileptic seizures which eventually led to her death.

In 1773, the first insane asylum in the 13 colonies, Eastern State Hospital (Virginia) was built in Williamsburg, Virginia, and it remains in operation to this day.

Doctor John de Sequeyra was one of the first physicians attached to the facility. John Hill once wrote – “’’Those who are us’d to eat with the Portuguese Jews know the value of it’’”.

He was speaking of the tomato. John Custis IV, a Williamsburg resident, sent a letter to Peter Collinson, in 1741, inquiring about this thing called a “tomato”. made their way to Colonial America by way of the West Indies Slave Trade – it was a staple food of the slaves who learned to discern the poisonous varieties from the edible varieties.

Thomas Jefferson himself informs us that introduction of the tomato as an edible fruit is due to the work of Doctor John de Sequeyra.

Achievements

• So accomplished in caring for the residents, was Doctor Sequeyra, that when he retired in 1795 it took two doctors to back-fill his position.