Our Characters
Diogo Nunes Ribeiro/Samuel Nunes
Diogo Nunes Ribeiro was born in 1668 in Idanha-a-Nova, Castelo Branco, Portugal, and is believed to have died in 1744 in New York City. He married Gracia Caetana da Vega in the latter part of the 17th Century in Lisbon, Portugal. They were New Christians, often called Conversos, and their families had secretly practiced Judaism for eight generations. Dr. Nunes was originally arrested in 1703 by the Portuguese Inquisition for Judaizing and then rearrested in 1726, charged with aiding other Conversos to escape from Lisbon. By this time, he had re-established his reputation as a physician, overseeing medical care for the Inquisitor General and the King of Portugal. He assumed the name Samuel Nunes in 1726 after escaping from Portugal, arriving in London, and reverting to Judaism. In 1733, he led an expedition of 42 Jews from England to settle in the Georgia Colony in America, but he and most of his family fled Savannah in 1741, anticipating the invasion of the Spanish and the possibility of being rearrested and tried by the Inquisition.
Gracia Caetana da Vega/Rebekah Nunes
Gracia Caetana da Vega was born in 1676 and is believed to have died in 1744 in Charleston, South Carolina. She married Diogo Nunes Ribeiro in the late 17th Century. They were New Christians, often called Conversos, and their families had secretly practiced Judaism for eight generations. The Portuguese Inquisition originally arrested her in 1703 for Judaizing. She was released in 1705/06 and then rearrested in 1726, charged with aiding other Conversos in escaping from Lisbon. Gracia changed her name to Rebekah Nunes in 1726 after arriving in London and reverting to Judaism from Catholicism. She did not accompany her husband to Savannah in January 1733 but did follow him on a later ship that arrived in November 1733. She and her family fled Savannah in 1741, anticipating the invasion of the Spanish and the possibility of being rearrested and tried by the Inquisition.
James Edward Oglethorpe
James Oglethorpe was born in 1696 in London and died in Cranham, England, in 1785. King George approved the Georgia Colony through Oglethorpe’s initiative, and he served as the de facto leader of the colony when he and the first settlers arrived in early 1733. After a short stint at Oxford College in 1714, he joined a military college in France and later successfully fought the Turks. In 1722, he was elected to Parliament. After a friend, Robert Castell, died of smallpox in a debtors’ prison, he became an advocate for prison reform, and his advocacy for the poor informed much of his thinking about the formation of the new Georgia Colony. He also became a strong voice opposing slavery and was able to stave off efforts to introduce slavery to the colony during his ten years of leadership. Oglethorpe was also a loyal ally to the Native American tribes in the region, and they were instrumental in helping him fight off the Spanish invasion of St. Simon’s Island in 1742. In 1743, he returned to England to defend his actions during the war and to preserve his reputation, never again to return to Savannah.
Rabbi David Nieto
David Nieto was the Rabbi for Bevis Marks Synagogue in London. Built in 1701, it is the oldest synagogue in continuous use in the United Kingdom. He was born in Venice, Italy, in 1654. At an early age, he moved to Livorno, a vital Jewish community at the time. Like many other rabbis in Italy, he studied medicine at the University of Padua. Rabbi Nieto was also a Renaissance man: a distinguished scientist, philosopher, physician, poet, mathematician, and astronomer. In 1702, at age 48, he was appointed Rabbi of the Sephardic Community of London, “Sha’ar HaShamayim,” more commonly known as Bevis Marks Synagogue. The first members of this Spanish-Portuguese community in London were mainly Jews from Amsterdam, including some highly successful businessmen. All community members spoke and wrote in Spanish or Portuguese since they or their parents were originally from Spain or Portugal. Rabbi Nieto served the London community until his untimely death in 1728, when his son, Isaac Nieto, assumed the role of rabbi of Bevis Marks.
Manoël (Moses) Nunes
Manoël was born in 1700 and died in 1787. He and the rest of his family reverted to Judaism when the family fled from Portugal to England in 1726, and he changed his name to Moses then. In later years, after arriving in Savannah, he became a customs official and often served as an interpreter with the Creek Indian population who lived in the area. His first wife, Rebecca Abrahams, died in childbirth in 1745, and Moses remarried Rose soon thereafter, a woman of mixed racial descent.
Isabel (Rachel) Nunes
Isabel was born in 1706 and changed her name to Rachel in 1726, when the family escaped from Portugal to London and reverted to Judaism. She married Rodrigo Soares de Bivar in London (who changed his name to Jacob) and remained in London after the rest of her family emigrated from America in 1733.
Theresa (Ester) Nunes
Theresa was born in 1708 and died in Philadelphia in 1785. She changed her name to Ester in 1726 when the family escaped from Portugal to London, reverted to Judaism, and then married Abraham de Lyon in London in 1732. The two of them emigrated from Georgia in 1733.
Abrão (Abraham) de Lyon
An expert in the cultivation of grapes for wine, de Lyon was one of the first to come to the Georgia Colony. He was married to Ester Nunes.
André (Daniel) Nunes
André was born in 1710 and died in 1789 in Savannah. He changed his name to Daniel in 1726 when the family escaped from Portugal to London and reverted to Judaism. Daniel later became a customs official in Savannah.
Maria Caetana Nunes/Zipporah Jacobs
Maria was the youngest child of Samuel and Rebekah Nunes, born in 1714 in Lisbon and died in 1799 in Philadelphia. Upon arriving in London in 1726, she adopted the name Zipporah, and was married soon after arriving in Savannah to David Mendes Machado who became the chazan of Congregation Shearith Israel in New York City. After his early death in 1747, she married Israel Jacobs and moved to Philadelphia. Her daughter Rebecca (named after Zipporah’s mother) had a son, Benjamin, who plays a significant role in the Flames of Freedom docudrama.
Benjamin Jonas Phillips
Grandson of Zipporah Jacobs and one of 15 children born to Jonas and Rebecca Phillips.
Teresa (Abagail) Eugénia de Sequeira Henriques
Sister of Gracia Caetana da Vega, born in 1684 and married to Isaac (Sebastão) Nunes Henriques. She assumed the name Abagail after reverting to Judaism when she and her husband escaped to London with the rest of the Nunes clan in 1726. Their baby died on the William & Sarah en route to Savannah from London in 1733.
Sebastião (Isaac) Nunes Henriques
Married to Teresa Eugénia de Sequiera and adopted the name Isaac after escaping Portugal and reverting to Judaism in 1726 in London.
Lucio Gama/Shem Noah
There is nothing in the historical record to detail the life of this man other than the mention in Benjamin Sheftall’s diary that of the 41 Jews who landed in Savannah in 1733, among them was a man named Shem Noah listed as the servant of Samuel Nunes. There is no record of his life prior to this time or after. For dramatic purposes, we created an identity for him based on plausible historical events.
Sir John Perceval
John Perceval, First Earl of Egmont, was born in 1683 and died in 1748. In 1728, he became a member of the committee of Parliament investigating prison conditions, becoming a close associate of James Oglethorpe, who chaired the committee. In 1730, the two men were among those who formed an association that later became the Trustees for establishing the Colony of Georgia in America. The Trustees of Georgia comprised 21 nobles appointed by the King.
Colonel William Bull
As a master surveyor, William Bull aided James Oglethorpe, the founder of the Colony of Georgia, in choosing the area of Yamacraw Bluff as the location of the City of Savannah. In addition to his military prowess, he was also a master surveyor and assisted Oglethorpe in laying out the city.
Mary Musgrove
Mary was born around 1700 to the daughter of an English trader and a Native American woman, and her mixed heritage uniquely equipped her to become a liaison between the British and the Creek Indian Communities in Georgia and South Carolina. In 1717, she married an English trader named John Musgrove and had three children, but all died very young. Mary and John Musgrove set up a trading post near the Savannah River, and she served as James Oglethorpe’s key interpreter for ten years in all of his dealings with the local Creek tribe.
Chief Tomochichi
Tomochichi was the leader of the Yamacraw Indians who lived on the bluffs of the Savannah River. During the first five years of British settlement, Tomochichi assisted Oglethorpe in his negotiations with the larger Creek Nation. Oglethorpe brought him to England to meet the King, and he was treated as a representative of the entire Creek Nation. When Tomochichi died on October 5, 1739, his death was celebrated with a British military funeral in the center of Savannah’s town square, and his grave site was commemorated with “a Pyramid of Stone.”
Anthony da Costa
Anthony da Costa was one of the wealthiest Jews in England and director of the Bank of England. He was a member of Bevis Marks Synagogue and played a pivotal role in arranging the first shipload of Jews to depart London for the new Georgia Colony.
Francis Salvador
Francis Salvador was a Dutch East India Company director and one of England's wealthiest merchants. He made frequent loans to the British government and gave considerable sums to charity annually. The Salvador family owned immense tracts of land in South Carolina. He, along with Anthony da Costa and Alvarez Lopez Suasso, collected monies, probably from the wealthy Jews in the Bevis Marks congregation, and used those funds to send the first boatload of Jews to Georgia without first obtaining the trustees’ consent.
Alvarez Lopez Suasso
Alvarez Lopez Suasso was also a wealthy Jewish merchant in London. He, along with Anthony da Costa and Alvarez Lopez Suasso, collected monies, probably from the wealthiest Jews in the Bevis Marks congregation, and used those funds to send the first boatload of Jews to Georgia without first obtaining the trustees’ consent.