Jacob Franks

Jacob Franks was a New York City merchant and founder of a prominent mercantile family. Jacob was born in London and in New York he arrived in 1708 or 1709. In 1711 he became a freeman of New York. The next year he married Abigail Bilhah Levy, daughter of Moses Levy, one of New York’s wealthiest Jews. They had nine children, and through marriage of their daughter Phila with Oliver De Lancey in 1742, they became linked with New York aristocracy. Jacob built vast trade activities in partnership with Moses Levy, Nathan Simpson, and members of the Van Cortlandt, Philipse, and Livingston families. Their trading activities included dry goods, liquor, and slaves.

Jacob Franks was much included in the congregational affairs of Shearith Israel in New York; he served in a variety of offices, including that of president (1729). He founded the congregation’s Mill Street synagogue, and also helped to purchase the congregation burial ground off present-day Chatham Square.