Isaac Franks (May 27, 1759 – March 4, 1822) was an American soldier of the American Revolutionary War and later a public official in Pennsylvania. He fought at the Battle of Long Island, escaped British captivity, and served in the Continental Army's quartermaster department and as an ensign before resigning in 1782. He is best known as the owner of the house in Germantown that George Washington rented in 1793 and 1794, now known as the Germantown White House.
Early life
Franks was born in New York City on May 27, 1759. He belonged to the prominent Jewish Franks family: on his mother's side he was a grandson of Abraham Franks, a London-based brother of the New York merchant Jacob Franks, and on his father's side a grandson of their cousin Benjamin Franks.
Revolutionary War
At seventeen Franks joined a regiment of New York volunteers and fought at the Battle of Long Island in August 1776. He was taken prisoner when the British captured New York City that September and was held for about three months before escaping across the river to New Jersey in a leaky boat.
In 1777 he was appointed to the Continental Army's quartermaster department, and in January 1778 he became a forage master, stationed at West Point. On February 22, 1781, Congress commissioned him an ensign in the 7th Massachusetts Regiment. He resigned because of ill health in July 1782.
Some popular accounts describe Franks as an aide-de-camp to Washington with the rank of colonel. The Encyclopaedia Judaica rejects this, stating that despite claims in earlier Jewish sources, no Jew ever served as Washington's aide-de-camp; Franks's title of colonel derived from his later militia commission.
Germantown and the Washington residence
After the war Franks married and settled in Germantown, where he worked as a broker. In 1792 he bought the Deshler house on Germantown Avenue from the heirs of its builder, David Deshler.
During the yellow fever epidemic of 1793, with the capital under quarantine, Washington rented Franks's house and lived there from November 16 to 30, 1793, meeting with his cabinet and conducting the government's business from it. Washington returned with his family the following summer to escape the heat of the city. The house, later known as the Deshler–Morris House, was renamed the Germantown White House by the National Park Service in 2009.
Public offices
In 1789 Franks was appointed a notary and tabellion public of Pennsylvania. In 1794 Governor Thomas Mifflin commissioned him lieutenant colonel of the Second Regiment of the Philadelphia County militia, the source of the title "Colonel" by which he was later known. He became a justice of the peace for Germantown and Roxborough in 1795. On February 18, 1819, he was appointed prothonotary of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, a post he held until his death in Philadelphia on March 4, 1822.
United States