David Franks: Colonial Merchant

2. Family, Friends, and Associates

Two family, friends, and associates Success always seemed to come easily to Abraham Franks and his sons. David’s paternal grandfather was described as “second in wealth, though not in activity,” within the congregation of the Great Synagogue of London, and was “one of the twelve original Jew Brokers admitted in 1697” to the London Stock Exchange, which established a quota of twelve Jewish men for every one hundred members. Abraham Franks “prospered in London” and “married Abigail, a daughter of Rabbi David Bloch.” They were blessed with seven children, five of whom lived to adulthood. The best known of these was Aaron Franks, whose jewelry business made him one of the bestestablished London gem merchants of his day. In 1742 he lent jewels “to the value of £40,000 to the Princess of Wales for a masquerade.” As early as 1747, Aaron was a governor of the Foundling Hospital and was reputed at the time of his death to have been in the habit of distributing £5,000 annually to charity, without distinction of race or creed. At his house in Isleworth he entertained members of the aristocracy such as Horace Walpole , son of the great prime minister, and celebrities like Kitty Clive, a famous actress. Aaron was born in either 1685 or 1692, so he was fifty-one or fifty-eight years old when he married Moses Hart’s daughter, Bilah, who was also his sister-in-law. That relationship grew out of his brother Isaac’s marriage to Bilah’s sister, Simha Frances Hart, twenty-three years earlier. Within three years of their marriage, Aaron and Bilah were the parents of two daughters, Phila and Priscilla.1 Isaac Franks’s success as a merchant in London gained interest thanks to two sudden events. Isaac’s close friend Moses Hart had married into a wealthy family and was appointed a government agent. Isaac and Moses purchased a lottery ticket jointly and, by an extraordinary stroke of good luck, won the Family, Friends, and Associates 7 grand prize of £20,000. Isaac thereupon proceeded to marry Moses’ daughter , receiving as a dowry his partner’s share of the £20,000 as well.2 The third successful son of Abraham was Jacob, father of David Franks, the subject of this biography. Jacob (1688–1769) became an exceptionally prosperous merchant in New York. There he imported commodities such as tea, iron, guns, currency, and rice in exchange for such local products as grain and furs. Jacob was among the city’s most influential merchants, ranking with members of the Philipse, DeLancey, Van Dam, Beekman, and Clarke families.3 At one time he was the king’s fiscal agent for the northern colonies, distributing royal revenues to governors, ships, soldiers, and others who had dealings with the government, including loggers entitled to bounties on pines for the Royal Navy. Among Jacob’s business ventures, he ran an establishment on Queen Street where he sold all kinds of metal products. In an advertisement in the New York Weekly Journal in April 1739, he offered “sheathing Duck Nails, and Spikes, and all Sorts of best London Nail, Long Scythes, Sickles, Dutch Scythes, Spades, Shod, Shovels, Iron Hoops, best London Steel long and short Handle Frying Pans, Anvils, and Vices, also Anchors and small Swivell Guns.” The following year, Jacob sold six swivel guns to Admiral Peter Warren of the Royal Navy for a price of £18 to fight the Spanish in the War of Jenkins’ Ear.4 More than twenty years later, Jacob still enjoyed a position of great responsibility as agent to the contractors victualing His Majesty’s navy in North America.5 Jacob Franks was an active member of New York’s Congregation Shearith Israel, the first synagogue in the city, and served as its parnas (president ) seven times in a twenty-year span. In 1712 he married Bilhah Abigail Levy, daughter of the city’s most successful merchant, Moses Levy. Over the ensuing thirty years, they had nine offspring. Their first child was Naphtali, born in 1715 and destined to become his mother’s favorite. A second son, Moses, followed in 1718, and in 1720 David was born. This trio of sons was followed by four daughters—Phila, Richa (or Rachel), Sara, and Abigail (known as Poyer). One more son, Aaron, and another daughter, Rebecca, completed the family. Both Sara and Aaron perished as young children. The adult life of Poyer is unknown entirely; after repeated mention in early communications, she...