William Foulsham

Biography

A Genealogy of the Folsom Family: John Folsom and His ..., Volume 110 By Jacob Chapman. Page 13. < GoogleBooks >

The first traceable ancestor of John Foulsham is

• (1) ROGER Foulsham, of Necton, county of Norfolk, Eng., whose will is dated 1534.
• (2) WILLIAM, his son, married Agnes Smith, alias Foulsham, of Besthorpe, and was father of
• (3) ADAM, of Besthorpe, who married Emma —, and whose will is dated 1565. He owned lands in Besthorpe, Wymondham (Windham), Bunwell, Hingham, and Hackford.
• (4) ADAM, his son, was baptized in 1560; married Grace ; had a home in Hingham and lands in Besthorpe. He died in 1630.
• (5) ADAM, of Hingham, son of the latter, married Agnes, and died in 1627.

The facts in the preceding paragraph, and thus far in the present, are given on the authority of the MSS. of Hon. George Folsom, who visited England and explored every possible source of information. He next states that "Adam," the fourth in descent from "Roger," left a son named "John," -i. e., the first Anglo-American John Foulsham. From this first Anglo-American John Folsom, of Exeter, N. H., and his wife, Mary Gilman Folsom, are descended, so far as we know, all the Folsoms in America, with the exception of one family, with which is connected a story curious enough to be given in a note below.*

[There has been a tradition that the father of the Folsom family was, in England, John Smith, and that his name was changed during the voyage to America. I find little ground for this opinion. John Foulsham, son of Adam, was baptized in Hingham, Eng., in 1615. In 1627, Adam Folsham, alias Smith, made his will, naming three sons,-John, Adam, and Peter. John Foulsham married, in Hingham, Eng., October 4, 1636, Mary, daughter of Edward Gilman, who was baptized August 6, 1615. In 1638 they came to Hingham, Mass., and in 1639 Adam Foulsham followed them. If the family name was ever Smith, it seems it must have been changed before the birth and baptism of John Foulsham, the emigrant to Hingham, Mass.]