John Folger

In 1635 John Folger (or Foulger), his son Peter, and others including Peter’s servant, Mary Morrill, whom Peter ‘purchased’ for £20 (and who later became the 18-year old Peter Folger’s wife in America), and a controversial half-Flemish preacher by the name of Hugh Peters[xii] (who later would hang for his role during the English Civil War for condoning the regicide of Charles I), boarded the ship ‘Abigail’ for New England. They were part of a great exodus that emptied out the Eastern Counties of England. So much so that later historians claimed 2/3 of all those claiming English descent in America could trace their ancestry from East Anglia.[xiii]

In the New World the Folgers prospered. John (a widower) married Mirabah Gibbs (another Norfolk native). Although we do not know Mirabah’s ancestry, as one historian put it: “Two generations had now passed since the great immigration [from Flanders] to Norwich and by this time a very large proportion of the citizens must have acquired a share” of Flemish DNA.[xiv]

http://flemishamerican.blogspot.com/2009/02/franklins-flemish-foref...

John Folger came from Norwich, England to America in 1638.

John and Meribah (Gibbs) Folger

John FOLGER - b. about 1593, Norwich, Norfolk, England; d. 1660, Martha's Vineyard, Dukes Co., MA. Son of John FOLGER (b. about 1569) and Elizabeth (b. about 1571). Peter immigrated with his parents from Norwich County, Norfolk, England in 1635 when he was about 18 years old. Just when they settled in Watertown, MA is not known, but John owned a homestead and 6 acres there in 1642. Married about 1615, Norwich, Norfolk, England.

Meribah GIBBS - b. 1595, Frenze Hall, Diss, Norfolk, England; d. after 1664, Martha's Vineyard, Dukes Co., MA. Daughter of John GIBBS (b. about 1572; d. 1608) and Alice ELMY (b. about 1574). Meribah may not have been the first wife of John FOLGER, since a tradition says that he arrived in America as a widower.

Son of John Folger

  1. Peter - b. 1618, Norwich, Norfolk, England; d. 1690, Nantucket, Nantucket Co., MA

Notes from http://awt.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=:1456081&id=I6945...

Note: He was probable son of Flemish refugees who migrated to New England on ship "Abigail" landing in Boston 6 OCT 1635. They lived in Dedham and Watertown, MA; moved to Martha's Vineyard about 1648.

John Folger, born Bet. 1590 - 1595 in Norwich, Norfolk, England; died 1660 in Martha's Vineyard, Dukes, Massachusetts. He was the son of John Folger and Elizabeth XXXX.

He married 907. Meribiah Gibbs Bet. 1615 - January 1616/17 in Norwich, Norfolk, England.

http://familytreemaker.genealogy.com/users/p/o/h/Pamela-J-Pohly/GEN...

He married 907. Meribiah Gibbs Bet. 1615 - January 1616/17 in Norwich, Norfolk, England.

http://familytreemaker.genealogy.com/users/p/o/h/Pamela-J-Pohly/GEN...

GEDCOM Note

Category:Nantucket, Massachusetts Category:Norwich, Norfolk

Biography

John was born about 1592/93 in Diss, Norfolk, England or Norwich, Norfolk, England. He married by 1615/16 in Norwich, England, Gibbs-372|Meribah Gibbs.: Others (1862) say he was a widower when he emigrated; therefore he married her after he arrived.<ref>William C Folger, "The Folger Family," in NEHGR, 16 (1862):269- link for subscribers</ref>:: BUT: G. Andrews Moriarty (in 1932) points out that Savage calls Folger of Norwich, co. Norfolk; was from Diss, co. Norfolk; his wife, Meribeh Gibbs, was the daughter of John Gibbs of Freudes Hall in that neighborhood, as is proved by the will of John Gibbs, 1609, in which he mentioned his daughter, "Merraba Folger."<ref>G. Andrews Moriarty, "Miscellaneous Records of Various Families," in NEHGR, 86 (1932):86</ref> "John, 'came from the city of Norwich in England in 1636,' ——, [and died] 1660, P.R. 38" in Nantucket, Dukes County (now Nantucket) Massachusetts. <ref> Massachusetts Vital Records to 1850' (Online Database: AmericanAncestors.org, New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2001-2010): Nantucket Vital Records, Vol. 5, Page 266</ref> : Others say he emigrated 1633/34. "John and son Peter came from Norwich County, Norfolk, England in 1635when Peter was about 18 years old. Just when they settled in Watertown, MA. is not known, but John owned a homestead and 6 acres there in 1642. It is probable that John and Peter accompanied Thomas Mayhew Jr. to Martha's Vineyard about this time and John purchased a house and considerable land there as shown by the records of the Vineyard. John died about 1660 and his widow Meribell was living in 1664.<ref>William CFolger, "The Folger Family," in NEHGR, 16 (1862):269- link for subscribers</ref><ref>New Englanders in Nova Scotia Manuscript. R. Stanton Avery Special Collections, New England Historic Genealogical Society, Boston, MA. (Online database. AmericanAncestors.org. New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2010.), p 25</ref>

He settled in Watertown, Massachusetts. He died about 1660 in Martha's Vineyard, Dukes, Massachusetts.

Great grandfather of Benjamin Franklin.

Sources

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See also:

• * Nathan W Murphy, "Gibbs and Robertson Ancestry of Merrable Gibbs, wife of John Folger...," in The American Genealogist, 88 (Oct 2016)286-301
• http://www.bakerancestry.org/public/pedigree/834.htm
• 20850783