Note: "John Folger (Foulgier, Ffoulger), Jr. was born in 1594 in Diss, Norwich, Norfolk Co., England to John and Elizabeth Folger. Diss, a market town on the Waveney River, was actually 19 miles southwest of Norwich. Folger's great-grandson, Benjamin Franklin, once said he believed John was the son of Flemish refugees who migrated to England in the time of Elizabeth 1. That corresponds with history for, according to Tourtellot's Benjamin Franklin: The Shaping of Genius, in the later part of the 16th century, the Flemish were increasingly dissatisfied with the theology forced on Flanders and Walloon by Charles V's Holy Roman Empire. After Philip II, King of Spain, succeeded Charles V, the Council of Blood was established in 1567 to end all Protestant opposition to the Roman Church. The Flemish and Walloons fled and migrated to Protestant England. They were an industrious, artistic people whose primary trade was cloth weaving. Many of the refugees settled in Norwich, which had been the weaving center of England since the late 1300's. Norwich was an ancient city dating back before 900 AD At the Norman Conquest in 1066 AD, Norwich was one of England's largest cities with a population of 5500. According to Tourtellot, many Flemish had settled in the Norwich area earlier. They had migrated to England after King Edward III had married Philippa, daughter of William, Count of Holland and Flanders. The area was rich with Flemish master weavers. Tourtellot emphasized that in 1582, 3300 Netherlanders and 1400 of their English born children were living in Norwich, totaling over one-fourth of the city's population. And it was in Frenze Hall, Norfolk County where John's future wife, Merebah or Meribel, was born to John and, possibly, Alice, Gibbs sometime after 1599. According to Directory of the Ancestral Heads of New England and Families, Gibbs was a surname from "Gib", a nickname of Gilbert. The Gibbs family was a well-established family in Norfolk. In 1615, John Folger and Merebah Gibbs were married in Frenze Hall, two miles from Diss. According to Papers of Benianin Franklin, their son Peter was born in 1617 in Diss, Norfolk Co. Their daughter was born later. In Franklin, David Freeman Hawke described Folger family members as having large square, homely faces, heavy chests and shoulders and hazel eyes. Widespread government controls and taxes on the cloth industry, a renewed war in the Netherlands disturbing the market there, coupled with high unemployment and a depression in the cloth making centers developed in the 1620 s. Netherlands and Spain prohibited import of English woolens, according to This New Man, The American. In 1629, partly because of bad harvests, widespread riots took place in southeastern among the unemployed weavers. And when Queen Elizabeth I died, she was succeeded by James I who, according to Tourtellot, "denounced the non-conforming Protestants when he met with his first parliament in 1603". With the succession of Charles 1, the problem was enhanced. Civil War was closer to a reality and many Flemish Protestants fled, some back to Holland, more to the New World. Among them were John Folger and his family. He left Norwich because he refused to "put up with repression as his father before had refused to do in Flanders." Tourtellot went on to write "The very fact that the Folgers were a refugee family in Norwich made them both less inclined to stay there in the face of repression (England wasn't really home to then ) and less tolerant of the oppressiveness which, having been unwilling to put up with it in their homeland, they were not likely to accept it passively in an adopted land." John's wife, Merebah Gibbs, was from a family who had rebelled against tyranny as far back as the 1230's. Since that time, periodic trouble had &risen between the wealthy monasteries of Norwich and the poor people in the area. A major Saxon town, Norwich boasted more than 30 medieval cathedrals and a Norman cathedral. There had been a bloody riot against the cathedral monks in 1272. In 1381 was the Peasants' Riot. In 1540, a rebel army of 20,000 Norwich farmers were defeated by the Earl of Warwick and their rebel leader was hung in Norwich Castle. By 1549, 3,000 of those Norwich rebels had died resisting enclosure of lands. So in 1635, John and Peter Folger were listed as passengers on the "Abigail", landing in Boston on October 6. Merebah and Mary were not listed. Merebah and Mary may have followed on a different ship or, being women, may have been considered unimportant and left off of the "Abigail" passenger list. Alexander Starbuck, in History of Nantucket stated that John Folger emigrated to America as a widower. However, since there was proof of their marriage in Diss, England, and since Merebah was buried next to John on Martha's Vineyard, it was highly unlikely. More likely they emigrated on separate ships, perhaps with the males of the family going ahead to prepare the way. The Boston of 1635 was only five years old when the passengers of the "Abigail' arrived. It had one church, no schools and no commerce. In 1638, John Folger was proposed for property at Dedham, "a rude frontier community concentrated in a row of tiny cottages... with thatched roofs and no window glass,, according to Tourtellot. The Folgers soon left and moved to the prosperous town of Watertown, three miles from Boston. But in 1642, John left a large house on six acres in Watertown to help settle Martha's Vineyard. At Martha's Vineyard, John Folger owned a house; upland commonage and meadowlands. John died in 1662 on Martha's Vineyard. His wife Merebah died in 1664 and was buried beside her husband on Tower Hill, Great Harbor, Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts. The sale of Merebah's estate was dated October 18, 1664 and was handled by her son Peter. Thomas Mayhew purchased the estate." Southold Connections: Historical and Biographical Sketches of Northeastern Long Island by Judy Jacobson

Thomas Mayhew Sr., of Watertown, obtained the rights to Martha's Vineyard, Nantucket and the Elizabeth Islands in 1641, and is said to have moved to the Vineyard as early as 1642, bringing some of his Watertown neighbors with him. John's son Peter is said to have removed to the Vinyard with Maynew and his daughter Joanna Folger is said to have been born on the Island in 1645 or 1646. This would place him there as early as 1645. John's date of arrival on the Vineyard isn't known. Its probable that he arrived in 1640'. Banks has this to say of John's arrival: "of Peter we may infer that he resided with his father at Dedham and Watertown, and came with him to the Vineyard, although our first record of Peter at Edgartown antedates that of his father by five years." John's earliest official appearance in the Dukes County records was on 1 Sep 1652 when he was chosen as hog reeve along with his son Peter and two others.[10/v.2-66] Eight months later he drew a lot in the 8 May 1653 division of the Planting Field; and the same again at Crackatuxett on 21 Oct 1660. The latter share is noted as being to John "or his heirs" and Banks supposed this to approximate the time of John's death since a little over three years later his "Widow" drew a Lot at Quanomica "on his share".[ibid]

John Folger died intestate and testimony was taken in the Court on 30 Mar 1665 to record a "noncupative" Will for him. "The testemony of John Pease sayth that Goodman Foulger said to him that his will then was that his wife should have that estate he left during her life to use for her comfortable living: though she spend it all for her livelyhood: this was a little before he sickened and died." "The Testemony of Mary Pease the wife of John Pease, saith she heard Goodman Folger the elder say upon his last sickness that the estate he left his wife should have after him during her life:" "The testemony of Goodwife Arey before the town was: she said that she went to John Folgers when he was sick before he died and saith she heard him say - wife to have all he had as long as she lived. Eleazer to have the house and land after his wife's death. Mary to have the cow presently and another after his wife's death. Nothing to Peter, "because he had spent or put away so much before."[12/v1-112][10] Banks describes John Folger's "home lot" as being a half share consisting of five acres. "about halfway between the swimming place and the burial ground on Tower Hill". The house and lot went to Meribah Folger after John's death and then to Peter Folger. He sold it to Thomas Mayhew Sr. in 1664 and it is assumed that Meribah, or as Peter wrote her name "Myrable", was deceased by that time.[10/v2 p67] Concerning the daughters of John and Meribah very little is found. Farmer and Savage mention only his son Peter. [1][9] Banks lists two daughters - Ruth and Joanna, both of whom signed as witnesses to a deed of their mother's in 1663, but says nothing further about them.[10] Judy Jacobson in her "Southold Connections...." of 1991 attributes a daughter Mary to John and Meribah, with the birthdate of about 1617. Another source indicates that she married Peter Paine in about 1643 at Southold, Suffolk Co., Long Island, New York.[4] While possible this seems strange, especially since the marriage was on Long Island, and also also because of the fact that she isn't mentioned in any other sources I've seen. A Mary IS mentioned in the testimony (shown above) of those who were called in to testify during the probate of John's estate. I had always assumed that it was Mary (Morrill) Folger, Peter's wife, since the only other two individuals mentioned were Peter Folger and his son Eleazer. Could it instead have been a reference to a daughter Mary? It is also interesting in this testimony that no mention was made of the other two daughters of John and Meribah, Ruth and Joanna, though they were both living in 1663.