DE LUCENA

DE LUCENA, family of freemen in colonial America. ABRAHAM HAIM DE LUCENA (d. 1725), New York merchant and   cleric, was made a freeman of New York in 1708 and carried on a substantial business in general merchandise. In 1710 he unsuccessfully petitioned for the right to export wheat. De Lucena succeeded saul brown as rabbi of the New York Jewish community, requesting Governor Robert Hunter in 1710 to exempt him from civic duties because he was a minister. The following year he donated money for the building of the Trinity Church steeple. His son SAMUEL (1711–?) was made freeman of New York in 1759. By 1782 he had a brokerage business in Philadelphia and was a contributor to the building of Congregation Mikveh Israel. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: J.R. Rosenbloom, A Biographical Dictionary of Early American Jews (1960), 101. (Leo Hershkowitz)