The following information was assembled from numerous sources and cannot be used directly as proof of Qualifying Service or Lineage.
It is considered a research aid and is intended to assist in locating sources that can be used as proof.
State of Service: NY/MA
Qualifying Service: Ensign
Birth: 27 May 1759 New York / New York / NY Death: 04 Mar 1822 Philadelphia / Philadelphia / PA
Qualifying Service Description:
1776, served as a Private in the company of Colonel Lasher, served in the Battle of Long Island.
1777, served as a Quartermaster Department, Continental Army, commanded by Colonel Hugh Hughes
1778, appointed Forage Master under the same commander. He served in that role through 1780.
1781-1782, served as an Ensign in the 7th Massachusetts Regiment, commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel John Brooks. Resigned due to ill health.
After the Revolution, in 1794, he was commissioned as a Lieutenent-Colonel in the Pennsylvania militia.
Additional References:
Revolutionary War Pension file S41549
Spouse: Mary Davidson Children: Samuel; Sarah Elizabeth;
Members Who Share This Ancestor
None*
*This means that the NSSAR has no applications for this Patriot on file.
Instead the information provided is best effort, and from volunteers who have either researched grave sites, service records, or something similar. There is no documentation available at NSSAR HQ to order.
Find-a-Grave memorial doesn't present any evidence of a stone.
Directions to Cemetery / Gravesite:
Author: Dr. Michael Bernard Gunn
Isaac Franks was born on 27 May 1759 in New York County, New York, to parents Moses and Sarah Franks.
He served the Continental Army at age 17 and fought the British in the battles on Long Island. He was captured in Manhattan but escaped to New Jersey in a leaky rowboat. There, he joined the quartermaster division as an assistant foragemaster for Washington's main army. He was promoted to foragemaster and sent to West Point, where he received a commission as ensign in a Massachusetts regiment in 1781. He resigned his commission in 1782 due to attacks of "gravel," a common term used to describe kidney stones.
Although Franks was Jewish, he was a practicing Christian. He married Mary Davidson (1762-1801). Their known children:
Samuel Davidson was born in 1784.
Sarah Elizabeth Franks Huffnagle was born in 1789.
They lived in Philadelphia but moved to Ephrata, Pennsylvania, where he received a Pension for his military service. In 1793, he lent his house to George Washington to live in while the Yellow Fever epidemic ravaged the capital of Philadelphia. Franks's home became the Germantown Whitehouse, and Washington and his cabinet met within. In 1794, he received a commission as Lieutenant-Colonel in the state militia.
The Patriot died on 4 March 1822 and was buried at the Old Pine Street Presbyterian Churchyard, Pine Street, Philadelphia (aka Third and Scots Presbyterian Churchyard, Third Presbyterian Church Burial Ground, Third, Scots, and Mariners' Presbyterian Churchyard).
Sources:
Morris Jastrow, Jr., Publications of the American Jewish Historical Society, No. 5 (1897), pages 7-34 (28 pages).
Revolutionary War Pension file S41549
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