United States -- Relations -- Great Britain

Originally from England, the Franks family were colonial merchants who settled in New York City in the 1700s. This collection documents parts of their life through correspondence, legal documents, and financial records. The correspondence is primarily written by Abigail Franks in New York to her son, Naphtali, in England. Also included in the collection are the notes and correspondence of Dr. Leo Hershkowitz, who co-edited a book on the letters of the family entitled the Lee Max Friedman Collection of American Jewish Colonial Correspondence: Letters of the Franks Family (1733-1748), written with Isadore S. Meyer in 1968.

A letter written in Yiddish from Jacob Filemann to Myer Josephson of Reading, Penn. Also includes 1974 article about the letter.

Contains the will of Joseph Israel Levy (1785) which includes a bequest of fity British pounds to the "Jews College at Jerusalem"; two letters of attorney naming the merchant Nicholas Low of the city of New York "attorney general," one (1786) signed by Polly Israel Levy and witnessed by Samuel Baker and Lyon Joseph and the second (1787) signed by Lyon Joseph and his wife Polly Joseph, widow of Joseph Israel, witnessed by Isaac Dias and Jacob de Pinna and certified by the Lord Mayor of the city of London, Thomas Sainsbury.