Theses and Dissertations

ORCID

https://orcid.org/0009-0004-6830-178X

Advisor

Ridner, Judith

Committee Member

Messer, Peter

Committee Member

De Stradis, Susanna

Committee Member

Lerner, Marc

Date of Degree

5-15-2026

Original embargo terms

Immediate Worldwide Access

Document Type

Dissertation - Open Access

Major

History

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)

College

College of Arts and Sciences

Department

Department of History

Abstract

Through a series of determined choices over sixty-five years, the Levy-Franks family blended their religious identity as Jews with their claimed British socio-political identity to achieve economic success in eighteenth-century colonial New York. Through colonial records, newspapers, legal petitions, portraits and, most significantly, the letters of Abigaill Levy Franks, this dissertation examines the family’s actions taken to create a blended identity, despite the potential threat that their participation in the broader British Atlantic world posed to their religious selves. During a time in British history when religious identities were at the forefront of political debate, the Levy-Franks family created a blended identity existing as British Jews. The family’s impact on colonial New York, as well as the impact the colony had on the family, emerge from the historical record to exemplify the complicated negotiation families underwent to gain socio-economic opportunity without sacrificing their faith. Through their actions, they found acceptance among Great Britain’s Anglo population, achieved economic success, and supported British New York’s Jewish community. By examining the family’s role in the construction of their blended socio-political and religious identities, we gain a sense of the cautious negotiation Jewish families experienced as they forged their own places within the British Atlantic world.

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