Deborah Morris and John Franklin

Deborah helped patriot prisoners held at the New York City Hall, the Battery, and sugar houses.

She and her son rowed a boat out to the prison ships in the New York Harbor at night to deliver food and other necessary supplies.

[5] Between 1757 and 1773, Deborah and John had eight children, Sarah, Mary, Thomas, Phoebe, Elizabeth, Anthony, Rebecca, and Walter.

[12] He was a partner of the international trading firm, Franklin, Robinson & Company as well as a member of the Provincial Congress.

[14][15] British Commander Henry Clinton said that he was "no longer able to hear or to bear the daily account of her contributing with unbounded liberality to the relief of her fellow-citizens, banished her, without regard to her station, her sex, or the inclemency of the season, from the city, by which act of cruelty, she became deprived the use of her feet.

[14] Deborah's father died in 1780 and she inherited a brick building at Walnut and Front Streets along the Delaware River, near the Morris Wharf.

[16] In December 1780, General George Washington offered John the position of Agent to the Prisoners, with the caveat that Henry Clinton would allow him to return to New York.

[2][3][12] Washington wrote Franklin on February 14, 1781, stating that Clinton objected to John holding the position in New York.

[2][3] The Daughters of the American Revolution planted a tree and installed a marker at the Gracie Mansion garden in New York City in her memory in 1928.