Samuel Nunez - Dr. Nunez and Rev. John Wesley

Dr. Nunez and Rev. John Wesley

Two years later, Dr. Nunez met John Wesley who arrived in Savannah with a commission from the Trustees, appointing him to the office of "priest of the Church Of England" to the Savannah mission. Rev. Wesley courted the society of this Sephardic Jew but had no illusions about the ease with which he could be converted to Christianity. Pastor Bolzius, the leader of the Salzburg Germans, and George Whitefield, another pioneer Methodist, had offered the Jews conversionist literature, which had been vigorously rejected.

Rev. Wesley exhibited a great interest in Dr. Nunez’s medical practice and discussed with him the conduct and care of his patients. John Wesley, who became the founder of Methodism, wrote in his journal on April 4, 1737, "I began learning Spanish in order to converse with my Jewish parishioners, some of whom seem nearer the mind that was in Christ than many of those who call him Lord."

8 hours." In Georgia, he met John Regnier, who was a male nurse among the Moravians. He assisted Regnier with the first autopsy in Georgia. The two men listed among the causes of death as "a hematoma of the abdominal wall, among other things"! In Georgia, John Wesley became an active practitioner of bodily as well as spiritual healing among his parishioners. On his return to England a few years later, he organized the first free clinic "for the ill and ailing."

The London Trustees eventually showed their appreciation for Dr. Nunez by sending him "casks of wine and packets of drugs" to be used in treating the colonists. With "two barrels containing twenty-three deer skins, weight of Bears oil" and several parcels of "sea pod, make root, sassafras, china root, sumac, and contra-yerba," Dr. Nunez opened the first pharmacy in Georgia to compound his medications from imported and native-grown herbs.

When Spanish forces moved up the Georgia coast from Florida in 1740, Dr. Nunez and other Jewish-Portuguese settlers fled Savannah, fearing the Spanish Catholics would burn them at the stake for apostasy. Some of the refugees moved inland to Georgia’s wild interior, while others went to Charleston, South Carolina. Dr. Nunez and Zipra were among those who left for Charleston.

They soon moved to New York City where Zipra's husband, Rev. David Mendes Machado, was the religious leader of Shearith Israel Synagogue. Samuel Nunez died in New York City in 1744 at the age of 76.