move to New York in 1780. His sister, Fila Franks, married Captain Oliver De Lancey, of New York, who, with Major André, painted the decorations for the Mischianza and served with credit in the Provincial troops during the Revolution. He was made a brigadiergeneral, and died in England in 1785.

David Franks had four children-Abigail, who married Andrew Hamilton of the Woodlands, afterwards attorney-general of the State; Jacob, Mary or Polly, and Rebecca, who married Lieutenant-Colonel, afterward General, Sir Henry Johnson, defeated and captured by General Anthony Wayne at Stony Point. Rebecca Franks was the most striking figure in a notable galaxy of society lights. She was brilliant, witty and of a winsome presence, the most graceful among the graceful, the most beautiful among the beautiful. Born about 1760, well educated, at home in the classics, familiar with Milton, Goldsmith, Swift, and others, she was of that group of aristocrats, who having derived their wealth and prosperity from the favour of the Crown, sided with the Loyalists and favoured law, order, and property as opposed to mobs and violence. She was a gifted writer and has left in her letters interesting accounts of the society of the day as well as a poem of some fifteen hundred lines written in the summer of 1779, which is a political satire full of unmeasured abuse of the leaders of the Revolutionary War. General Howe was in the habit of tying his horse in front of the house in which the Franks lived and going in to have a chat with the wit of the day.

This sprightly person was naturally one of the belles of the celebrated "Mischianza" given May 18, 1778, by

the British officers in honour of General Howe upon his departure. The word is an Italian one and signifies a medley. It was celebrated upon a scale of magnificence rarely equalled in those days and its description reads like a page from Ivanhoe, forcibly calling to mind the days of chivalry. The guests embarked from Green Street wharf and proceeded in a river pageant to what is now Washington Avenue, where they landed and advanced to Joseph Wharton's place, Walnut Grove, situated at about what is now Fifth Street and Washington Avenue. After this there was a tournament in which England's bravest soldiers appeared in honour of Philadelphia's fairest women, being divided into six Knights of the Blended Rose and six Knights of the Burning Mountain, each wearing the colours of his particular princess. Lord Cathcart led the former, appearing in honour of Miss Auchmuty, the only English maiden present and the betrothed of Captain Montresor, chief engineer. The Knights of the Burning Mountain were led by Captain Watson, who appeared for Miss Franks.

She was dressed in a white silk gown, trimmed with blue and white sash edged with black. It was a polonaise dress, which formed a flowing robe and was open in front to the waist. The sash, six inches wide, was filled with spangles, also the veil which was edged with silver lace. The headdress was towering, in the fashion of the time, and filled with a profusion of pearls. Major André planned most of the entertainment and has left a detailed account of it as well as drawings of the costumes. He painted many of the decorations and Captain Montresor of the engineers planned the fireworks. After

the tourney there was a supper with royalist toasts followed by dancing until four o'clock, and all in the midst of a bloody war and within a few miles of the enemy!

After the evacuation of the city by the British army, Lieutenant Jack Stewart of Maryland, calling upon Miss Franks in a scarlet coat, remarked, "I have adopted your colours, my princess, the better to secure a kind reception; deign to smile on a true knight." The beauty did not reply, but addressing some friends in the room exclaimed, "How the ass glories in the lion's skin." A commotion arising in the street at the time, they looked out and saw a figure in female attire with ragged skirts and bare feet, but with the exaggerated headdress of the Tory ladies. The unfortunate officer remarked that, “ the lady was equipped altogether in the English fashion." "Not altogether, Colonel," replied Miss Franks, "for though the style of her head is British, her shoes and stockings are in the genuine Continental fashion." When the French Alliance was announced, the patriots wore cockades in its honour. Miss Franks tied one of these to her dog and bribed a servant to turn it into the ballroom where Mrs. Washington was giving a reception to the French minister. It is to be hoped that having lost her manners she lost her dog as well.

In a letter to her sister, Mrs. Hamilton, she writes the most detailed and piquant account that we possess of New York social life during the Revolution.

She thinks that it is in the powers of entertaining that New Yorkers are most deficient:

Bye the bye, few ladies here know how to entertain company in their own houses, unless they introduce the card table.

I will do our ladies—that is, the Philadelphians-the justice to say that they have more cleverness in the turn of an eye, than those of New York have in their whole composition. With what ease have I seen a Chew, an Oswald, an Allen, and a thousand others, entertain a large circle of both sexes, and the conversation without the aid of cards not flag or seem the least strained or stupid.

She finally settled down in Bath, England, with her husband, and when General Winfield Scott visited her in 1816 she had become, from bad health, prematurely old, a very near approach to a ghost, and was rolled about in an easy chair. Still maintaining some of her fire she exclaimed to him, pointing to heaven with both hands, "Would to God I, too, had been a patriot.”

At a ball given by the English officers in New York, General Sir Henry Clinton requested the band to play "Britons Strike Home," whereupon Miss Franks exclaimed, "The Commander-in-Chief has made a mistake, he meant to say Britons Go Home.'

His adherence to the British side caused the confiscation of David Franks's property and, November 22, 1780, Woodford went to Thomas Paschall, son of Stephen Paschall and a friend of Benjamin Franklin. William Lewis, a famous advocate, also lived in it and finally, in 1793, it came into the Wharton family, Isaac Wharton being the purchaser. Isaac Wharton was born September 15, 1745, the son of Joseph and Hannah Carpenter Wharton and the grandson of Thomas and Rachel Thomas Wharton. He was married to Margaret Rawle, daughter of Francis and Rebecca Warner Rawle. Isaac's father, Joseph Wharton, was the owner of Walnut Grove

in Southwark where the "Mischianza was held in May, 1778. At Isaac Wharton's death in 1778, the partition of the estate brought the seat to his son, Francis Rawle Wharton, who married Juliana Matilda, daughter of Isaac Gouverneur of New York. He was the last private owner of Woodford and it came to Fairmount Park in 1868. It was occupied by Chief Engineers John C. Cresson and Russell Thayer and since May 16, 1887, has been used as a guardhouse. The two small lodge-houses on the place are still standing and in use.