Samuel Benjamin Helbert Judah (ca. 1806–76), author and attorney, was a lifelong resident of New York City. Having received a classical education there, he composed three plays that were produced at a city theater between 1820 and 1823. Enraged that these efforts did not fare better, Judah, writing under the pseudonym of “Terentius Phlogobombus,” published Gotham and the Gothamites, A Medley (New York, 1823), a work in which he satirically attacked over one hundred of his fellow New Yorkers. For this he was convicted of libel, fined $400 plus court costs, and imprisoned when he could not pay. Released after several weeks on the grounds of poor health, Judah then studied law, was admitted to the New York bar in 1825, and made his living thereafter as an attorney. He continued to write, however. His later productions included The Buccaneers; A Romance of our Own Country (1827), the Maid of Midian (1833), and other works. Judah’s personal and real-estate holdings were estimated to be worth $23,000 a few years before his death (DAB description begins Allen Johnson and Dumas Malone, eds., Dictionary of American Biography, 1928–36, repr. 1968, 20 vols. in 10 description ends ; Charles P. Daly, The Settlement of the Jews in North America [1893]: 139–45; New-York Evening Post, 9 Sept. 1823; New York National Advocate, 15 Sept. 1823; Albany Argus, 3 Mar. 1825; DNA: RG 29, CS, N.Y., New York, 1870; Goulding’s New York City Directory for 1876–’77 [1876], 2:718; New York Co. Surrogate’s Court Will Book, 234:392–412).

Judah also sent copies of Odofriede to John Adams and James Madison, on 12 and 14 June 1822, respectively (MHi: Adams Papers; Madison, Papers, Retirement Ser., 2:535–6).