Childhood and Emigration
Phillips was born in 1736 in Germany. The place of his birth has been given as either Buseck or Frankfort-on-the-Main; he was the son of Aaron Phillips. He emigrated to America from London in November 1756. Working as an Indentured servant servant he lived in Charleston, S.C., where he was employed by indigo grower Moses Lindo. Until 1759, when he became a freeman and moved to Albany.
He moved to Albany, and then to New York City, where he became a merchant. By 1760, Phillips had joined a lodge of Freemasons in New York. According to researcher, Jonas left Albany with the intent of securing an introduction to Rebecca Mendez Machado, a Sephardic Jew (see Machado).
Read more about this topic: Jonas Phillips
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“Indeed, my mother’s beautiful face still shone with youthfulness that night when she so softly held my hands and sought to stop my tears; but, precisely, it seemed to me that this should not have happened, her anger would have saddened me less than this new sweetness that my childhood had never known; it seemed to me that, with a hidden and impious hand, I had just traced the first wrinkle and made appear the first grey hair in her soul.”
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