Who was Phoebe the Spy?

There is no record of a Phoebe Fraunces ever existing. The name does not appear with Samuel Fraunces's children in birth or baptismal records, and she is not mentioned in his will. The 1790 U.S. Census for New York lists Sameul Fraunces as a "free white male" and a slaveholder, so if a Phoebe existed she may have been a woman enslaved or employed by him, rather than his daughter.