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 later 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 households 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. Some 19th- and 20th-century sources described Fraunces as "a negro man" (1838), Emphasis in original. "swarthy" (1878),Joseph Nerée Balestier, Historical Sketches of Holland Lodge, with Incidental Remarks on Masonry in the State of New York (1878), p. 38. "mulatto" (1916),Frederic J. Haskin, The Washington D.C. Evening Star, August 11, 1916, p. 10. "Negro" (1916),National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, The Crisis (December 1916), p. 85. "coloured" (1930),James Weldon Johnson, Black Manhattan (Perseus Books Group, 1930). "fastidious old Negro" (1934),William Hornor, Jr., The Philadelphia Bulletin, February 22, 1934, p. 8. and "Haitian Negro" (1962),Charles Henry Thompson, The Journal of Negro Education, vol. 31 (1962), p. 475. but even the earliest of these date from several decades after his death. 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.""Samuel Fraunces" (biographical sketch) in 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. In 2017, German historian Arthur Kuhle recognized the sitter as the same sitter in a portrait at a Dresden museum. Kuhle suspects that the unidentified man in both portraits had been a member of Prussian king Frederick the Great's royal court.
Origins There is a tradition that Samuel Fraunces was of French ancestry and came from the West Indies. There are claims that he was born in Jamaica, Cole argues that Fraunces was 11 years younger than stated in his published death notice; born in 1734, rather than 1722/23. Haiti,Donald Peebles, Haiti's Contributions to the World (2010). Martinique,F. Donnie Ford, Caribbean Americans in New York City 1895–1975 (Arcadia Publishing, 2002), p. 7. and the possibility that he was related to a Fraunces family in Barbados. Although his surname implies that he was of French extraction, there is no evidence that he spoke with a French accent. There is also no record of where he learned his skills as a cook, caterer, and restaurateur.
Taverns
The first documentation of Fraunces's presence in New York City was in February 1755, when he registered as a British subject and "Innholder."February 5, 1755, "Roll/Register of freemen in the City of New York," reprinted in New-York Historical Society Publication Fund Series 18 (New York, 1866), p. 181. The following year he was issued a tavern license,Tavern Keeper's License Book, 1756-66, (manuscript, New York Historical Society). but where he worked for the next two years is unidentified. From 1758 to 1762, he operated the Free Mason's Arms Tavern at Broadway and Queen Street.
In 1762 he mortgaged and rented out the Free Mason's Arms, and purchased the Oliver Delancey mansion at Pearl and Dock Streets.Fraunces Tavern Historic Structures Report, (New York: Graduate School of Architecture and Planning, Columbia University, 1979), p. 12. He opened this as the Sign of Queen Charlotte Tavern, but within a year it was better known as the Queen's Head Tavern (possibly due to the queen's portrait on a painted sign). In addition to the usual restaurant fare, Fraunces offered fixed-price dinners, catered meals delivered, and sold preserved items such as bottled soups, ketchup, nuts, pickled fruits and vegetables, oysters, jellies and marmalades.Eugene P. McParland, "Colonial Taverns and Tavern Keepers of British New York," The New York Genealogical and Biographical Record (July 1974), p. 158. Although the tavern featured five lodging-rooms, it was better known as a place for private meetings, parties and receptions, and card-playing.
Fraunces rented out the former Delancey mansion in 1765, and moved his family to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, opening a Queen's Head Tavern on Front Street in that city. The following year he moved the tavern to a building on Water Street.Walter C. Brenner, A List of Philadelphia Inns and Taverns, (typescript, Historical Society of Pennsylvania, 1928) He returned to New York City in early 1768, and sold the Free Mason's Arms. He resumed operation of his tavern in the former Delancey mansion in 1770.The New York Gazette and the Weekly Mercury, May 7, 1770.
Spring Hill – a villa along the Hudson River under lease to Major Thomas James – was heavily vandalized in the November 1765 Stamp Act Riot.Henry B. Dawson, New York City during the American Revolution (New York: Mercantile Library Association, 1861), pp. 41-49. Fraunces leased the property, opening it in 1767 as a summer resort: Vaux-Hall Pleasure Garden, (named for London's Vauxhall Gardens). The villa featured large rooms, and its extensive grounds were the setting for concerts and public entertainments. Fraunces exhibited ten life-sized wax statues of historical figures (possibly modeled by him), debuting them in a garden setting in July 1768.The New York Gazette and the Weekly Mercury, July 25, 1768. He later exhibited seventy miniature wax figures from the Bible, and life-size wax statues of King George III and Queen Charlotte.The New York Gazette and the Weekly Mercury, March 19, 1770; July 27, 1772. He operated Vaux-Hall through Summer 1773; in October, he auctioned its contents and sold the property.
Fraunces continued to operate the Queen's Head Tavern through the early years of the Revolutionary War, but fled when the British captured New York City in September 1776.
Revolutionary War A month after the April 19, 1775 battles of Lexington and Concord in Massachusetts, the Royal Navy ship of the line Asia sailed into New York Harbor. On August 23, a group of Patriots stole the cannons from the fort on The Battery, which prompted Asia to bombard the city with cannon fire that night. There were no deaths, but injuries and damage to buildings, including Fraunces Tavern. Philip Freneau wrote a poem about the bombardment, "Hugh Gaines Life," that included the couplet: "At first we supposed it was only a sham. Till she drove a round ball through the roof of Black Sam."
The tavern was used for more than entertainment during the Revolutionary War. Fraunces rented out office space, and meetings of the New York Provincial Congress were held there. In April 1776, General Washington was present at a court-martial conducted at the tavern.John C. Fitzpatrick, ed., The Writings of George Washington (Washington, DC, 1931-39).
Washington's headquarters, April 17 to August 27, 1776, was Richmond Hill, a villa two miles north of the tavern. Fraunces later swore that he discovered and foiled an assassination plot against Washington. The supposed plotter, Thomas Hickey, one of Washington's life-guards, was court-martialed, and executed on June 28:Congress, I doubt not, will have heard of the plot, that was forming among many disaffected persons in this city and government for aiding the King's troops upon their arrival. No regular plan seems to have been digested; but several persons have been enlisted, and sworn to join them. The matter, I am in hopes, by a timely discovery, will be suppressed and put a stop to. Many citizens and others, among whom is the mayor, are now in confinement. The matter has been traced up to Governor Tryon; and the mayor appears to have been a principal agent or go-between him and the persons concerned in it. The plot had been communicated to some of the army, and part of my guard engaged in it. Thomas Hickey, one of them, has been tried, and, by the unanimous opinion of a court-martial, is sentenced to die, having enlisted himself, and engaged others. The sentence, by the advice of the whole council of general officers, will be put in execution to-day at eleven o'clock. The others are not tried. I am hopeful this example will produce many salutary consequences, and deter others from entering into the like traitorous practices. — George Washington to the President of Congress, 28 June 1776.The Writings of George Washington, Vol. 4, Worthington Chauncey Ford, ed. (New York & London: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1889), pp. 187-88.
British Occupation of New York City (September 1776 - November 1783)
British troops captured lower Manhattan on September 15, 1776, and soon occupied all of what is now New York City. Fraunces and his family left "previous to its being taken Possession of by the British Forces," and fled to Elizabeth, New Jersey. Fraunces was captured in June 1778, brought back to New York City, and impressed into working as the cook for British General James Robertson. Fraunces later swore that he used this as an opportunity to smuggle food to American prisoners of war, giving them clothing and money, and helping them to escape. He also swore to have passed information about the British occupation and troop movements to General Washington and others. According to the Jane Tuers legend, Fraunces overheard British officers toasting Continental Army general Benedict Arnold, and sent a warning (through Tuers) that Arnold was a traitor.Jane Tuers , from New Jersey City University.
Lord Cornwallis surrendered at Yorktown in October 1781, but British forces continued to occupy New York City until 1783. Fraunces's tavern was the meeting place for negotiations between American and British commissioners to end the 7-year occupation. In May 1783, peace negotiations were held at the DeWint House in Tappan, New York, where Fraunces provided meals for General Washington, British General Sir Guy Carleton, and both their staffs."Samuel Fraunces," Dictionary of American Biography, Volume 8 (1937), p. 1. Carleton's Book of Negroes – a ledger listing some 3,000 fugitive slaves who had fled to the British and been promised freedom in return for their service – was compiled at the former Fraunces Tavern between April 26 and November 30, 1783.James W. St. G. Walker, The Black Loyalists: The Search for a Promised Land in Nova Scotia and Sierra Leone, 1783–1870, (University of Toronto Press, 1992), p. 12. The "Black Loyalists" were settled in Nova Scotia and Sierra Leone.Commissioners of Embarkation at New York to George Washington, January 18, 1784 (note 3), from National Archives. The British evacuation from New York City was celebrated by patriots with a November 25, 1783 dinner at the tavern.Evacuation Day: New York's Former November Holiday, from New York Public Library.
At a December 4, 1783 dinner in the tavern's Long Room, Washington said an emotional farewell to his officers and made his famous toast: "With a heart full of love and gratitude, I now take leave of you: I most devoutly wish that your latter days may be as prosperous and happy, as you former ones have been glorious and honorable."
Memorial to Congress