Samuel fraunces biography
The Dalley, Simmons and Fraunces Siblings
Genealogical records prove the connections between “America’s Founding Hosts”
The Dalley-Simmons-Fraunces family operated several of the most important taverns and boarding houses in American history (hereinafter “America’s Founding Taverns”).[1] Delegates to the Continental and Confederation Congresses and the Constitutional Convention were very familiar with Gifford Dalley’s City Tavern and Miss Dalley’s boarding house in Philadelphia. Fraunces’ Tavern and Simmons’ Tavern similarly played an important civic function in New York City. While historians have long recognized the significance of taverns during America’s Revolutionary era, the family and business connections between these well-known taverns was not previously understood. In hindsight it is not surprising that the proprietors of these patriotic businesses were in fact an extended family of siblings – the Dalley, Fraunces, and Simmons families (hereinafter “America’s Founding Hosts”).[2]
Thirsty tourists exploring southern Manhattan might find their way to Fraunces’ Tavern, “New York’s oldest and most historic bar and restaurant.”[3] The New York City landmark is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Although the building has been rebuilt several times, the tavern’s website describes the location as “A tavern older than the country itself.” The first floor restaurant and bar offer a wide selection of revolutionary era and modern fare. The building’s upper floors contain the “only museum in New York City that allows visitors to discover the American Revolutionary past in NYC’s oldest standing structure.” When exploring the museum’s eight galleries, Samuel Fraunces’ name is regularly mentioned in the exhibits. The museum also prominently features images, artwork and busts of famous members of the founding generation who frequented the tavern and its upstairs offices, including George Washington, Alexander Hamilton and John Jay
Samuel Fraunces ''Black Sam''
[The author] "has been researching the free black living within the boundaries of Pennsylvania before the Civil War ... Many of the nuclear families in Centre County had migrated from Lancaster County Pennsylvania. These free black families intermarried and settled throughout Pennsylvania, New York, Ohio and Canada. These nuclear families brought to light Samuel Fraunces [who] lived in Philadelphia [and] was steward for the Washington's household in Philadelphia ... Fraunces' family like all of these families has been enumerated in census records as white, black, Negro Caucasian, and Mulatto. There are those who would erase Fraunces' African origins in his biography because he seems to have "passed for white". Not all of Samuel Fraunces' children, grandchildren or continuing descendants passed for white. Many of the descendants do not want Samuel's African origins erased from his biography. While future generations may be able to sort things out even further with DNA testing of allied lines there is a need to mark what records are available."--Page 4 of cover.
Samuel Fraunces
American restaurateur
Samuel Fraunces (1722/23 – October 10, 1795) was an American restaurateur and the owner/operator of Fraunces Tavern in New York City. During the Revolutionary War, he provided for prisoners held during the seven-year British occupation of New York City (1776-1783), and claimed to have been a spy for the American side. At the end of the war, it was at Fraunces Tavern that General George Washington said farewell to his officers. Fraunces later served as steward of Washington's presidential household in New York City (1789–1790) and Philadelphia (1791–1794).
Since the mid-19th century, there has been a dispute over Fraunces's racial identity. According to his 1983 biographer, Kym S. Rice: "During the Revolutionary era, Fraunces was commonly referred to as 'Black Sam.' Some have taken references such as these as an indication that Fraunces was a black man. ...[W]hat is known of his life indicates he was a white man." Some 19th- and 20th-century sources described Fraunces as "a negro man" (1838), "swarthy" (1878), "mulatto" (1916), "Negro" (1916), "coloured" (1930), "fastidious old Negro" (1934), and "Haitian Negro" (1962), but these date from at least several decades after his death. As Rice noted in her Documentary History of Fraunces Tavern (1985): "Other than the appearance of the nickname, there are no known references where Fraunces was described as a black man" during his lifetime.
The familiar oil-on-canvas portrait, long identified as depicting Samuel Fraunces and exhibited at Fraunces Tavern since 1913, was recently discredited by new evidence. German historian Arthur Kuhle found a portrait of the same sitter in a Dresden museum in 2017, and suspects that the sitter had been a memb .