Richa Franks

Previously misidentified as Phila Franks, the young woman represented in this portrait is now believed to be her older sister Richa, at about 17 years of age. Although we know fewer details about Richa’s life than about David and Phila, her more flamboyant younger siblings, we do find some descriptions of her as a young unmarried woman in the letters of her mother, Abigail Levy Franks. In 1734, Abigail wrote her son Naphtali, “Your Sister Richa has bin out of town this three weeks at huntington & Oyster Bay. She will Not be at home this fortnight. She has Learned to ride horseback and intends to come down in that Manner.” Skeptical of her daughter’s ambition to ride from their property on Long Island to Manhattan, she continued, “I hardly believe She rides well enough to make a Jurney of fourty Mile.” The following year, Abigail noted that “Your sister Richa has begun to learn the harpsichord and playas three Very good tunes in a months Teaching.”

Abigail went on to write, “Richa is Like’d by all that know her. And I hope she will Allways have that happyness.” Richa’s father, Jacob, on his account, declared Richa “as good a Child as ever lived.” Clever, determined, accomplished and dutiful by turns, Richa was thus the model of a virtuous Jewish daughter. Devoted to both her parents, she declined several suitors and remained at home into her 40s, caring for her widowed father after her mother’s death in 1756 and later administering her father’s estate. Several months after her father’s death in 1769, Richa left New York for London to join her brother Naphtali and other extended family. She would reside in England for the rest of her life, and eventually married Abraham de Fries, a widower.

Richa Franks

c. 1735