Solomon de Leon Jacobs

Was acting Mayor of Richmond, Virginia from 1818 to 1819.

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Solomon Jacobs

Birth: 1775 Heidelberg Allegheny County Pennsylvania, USA

Death: Oct. 30, 1827 Richmond Richmond City Virginia, USA

Mayor of Richmond and Businessman. Solomon was acting Mayor of Richmond, Virginia in 1818-1819, president of Beth Shalome Congregation, and the first Jew to become grand master of the Masons of Virginia. He was a representative for the French government's tobacco interests and the Richmond representative for the Rothschild banking house. He was elected "Recorder" of the city of Richmond, the second highest municipal office after that of the Mayor in 1815 and again in 1818.

Note: Kahal Kadosh Beth Shalome was the sixth and westernmost congregation in the colonies, and one of the six that congratulated George Washington upon his inauguration as the first president of the United States.

Solomon Jacobs served briefly as Richmond's Mayor after the death of Mayor Thomas Wilson on September 21, 1818, and according to *Herbert Ezekiel, Solomon had an elaborate inscription on his tombstone indicating he was called an officer "of distinction in the municipality."

An 1811 oil painting of Jacobs is mounted on a fourth-floor wall of the National Museum of American Jewish History in Philadelphia. Solomon Jacobs' portrait was painted by Thomas Sully, a painter who drew from live sittings of major world figures such as Queen Victoria and Thomas Jefferson.

His wife Esther was named for her father's God-mother. She was active in the support of the Orphan Society, or Asylum, as a young woman in Philadelphia. In 1815 she sat for a portrait painted by Sully, formerly in the possession of Mrs. Henry Oppenhimer of Richmond, Virginia. Solomon Jacobs was the son of Bernard (Barent) Itzhak Jacobs, a one time itinerant "Mohel", and resident of Heidelberg and Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Esther and Solomon moved to Richmond, Virginia, where he made a huge impact on the community. During the Summers of 1816 and 1817, Esther returned to Philadelphia to visit her parents and Solomon wrote faithfully.

When Solomon died, he made provision that his sizable estate be equally divided among his wife and children, but that should his wife remarry, her portion would go to the children. Solomon's rationale for this arrangement was the unhappy experience of his parents. His mother had previously been married to then divorce from Isaac Levy, Bernard Jacobs' partner. Apparently the second marriage was less than harmonious, and he wanted to spare his children the discomfort of a step-father. In 1829, Esther succeeded in "breaking" the will so that she obtained the normal "widow's share" of one-third of the estate. She resided in Richmond through February 1844, but by 1850, she had moved to Hanover County, Virginia.

Esther and Solomon Jacobs had six children, four of whom grew to adulthood. Two of the girls married half brothers named Taylor, and both had children. One daughter married a Poindexter, and the son, born after Solomon's death, married Octavia Boykin and resided in Richmond, Virginia. She is not buried with her husband.

• Herbert Ezekiel, "History of the Jews of Richmond", 1917.

Gravesite Source: National Register of Historic Places, US Department of Interior

Family links:

Parents:

 Catherine Jacobs (1732 - 1815)

Spouse:

 Esther Nones Jacobs (1790 - ____)*

Children:

* Adelaide F Jacobs Poindexter (____ - 1889)*

• Miriam Jacobs Taylor (1815 - 1878)*
• Isabella De Leon Jacobs Taylor (1822 - 1896)*
• Soloman Bernard Jacobs (1828 - 1905)*
• Calculated relationship

Inscription: Now illegible, Solomon Jacob's inscription was transcribed in 1936 by Madge Goodrich. It reads:

In memory of Solomon Jacobs Who died on the 12th day of Hesran, 5588 (October 30, 1827) Aged 52 years: During a hopeless and painful illness, which he bore with great patience and unshaken fortitude he manifested in no ordinary degree his perfect reliance on the mercy of God and his entire conviction of the truth of the Mosiac Dispensation. He passed a life of activity and usefulness with unblemished integrity; called to offices of distinction in the municipality of the city and other corporate institutions he discharged his duty with firmness and ability. Fond as a husband, Indulgent as a father, Kind as a master, Hospitable and benevolent as a man. Steady, useful and disinterested as a friend.

Burial: Hebrew Cemetery Richmond Richmond City Virginia, USA Plot: Section: HB Plot: 26

Created by: Victor E. Everhart, PhD Record added: Apr 12, 2013 Find A Grave Memorial# 108375137

From "A Memorial and Biographical History of the  Counties of Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, and Ventura Counties" 1891 By Yda Addis Storke

Dr. Joshua Marks, one of the prominent citizens of Ventura County, was born in Richmond, Virginia, July 12, 1816. His father, Mordecai Marks, was a native of Prussia, came to the United States when a youth, was reared in Virginia, and was a merchant there for many years. The Doctor's mother, nee Esther Raphael, was a daughter of Solomon Raphael, a tobacconist, and a descendant of the great painter Raphael. Her maternal ancestors were settlers of Pennsylvania, her great-grandfather, Solomon Jacobs, and her grandmother, Marion Jacobs, having come to this country with William Penn and settled in Philadelphia. Solomon Raphael, one member of the family, was appointed by the Masonic Grand Lodge of  Virginia as one of the gentlemen to receive General La Fayette on his visit to this country.