A winegrower, he fled Portugal to London to escape the Inquisition; 1733 emigrated with his family (including his father-in-law) to Savannah, as one of the first jewish settlers there and set up one of the first vinyards in Georgia with a grant from Oglethorpe; 1740/41, fearing the defeat of Oglethorpe by the spaniards in Florida, he and his family were among those who fled north; after he died his family settled in Easton, PA.