Nathaniel FOLSOM^[1]

Abt 1680 - 1742  (~ 62 years)

• Name	Nathaniel FOLSOM
  Born	Abt 1680
  Gender	Male
  Military Event	Militia - Capt John Gilman’s Co
  Military Flag	Y
  Historical Notes	The Genealogy of the Folsom Family by John Chapman, 1882 During the war of 1744, with the French and Indians, Nottingham was one of the frontier towns, and for several years the settlers in these towns were kept in a state of constant alarm. Many of the inhabitants returned to the older settlements from which they had come, and the few who remained to till the fields and secure the crops that grew in them were compelled to seek shelter in garrison houses nights, and often days, when the enemy were near. There was no safety for man or beast when exposed to the attacks of the cruel savages. There was a garrison at Nottingham Square, an elevated spot, from which the smokes and fires of the Indian camps could be seen at a great distance. Soldiers were drafted from the older towns to guard the inhabitants of the frontiers. If these people were murdered, the towns joining them would be entirely exposed to inroads of the savages. A draft was made in Exeter to protect the settlers of Nottingham, each quota of soldiers to serve two weeks, and then be relieved by another quota. A young unmarried neighbor to Folsom was drafted, but the girl to whom he was engaged made such a distressing lamentation over it that Folsom volunteered to take his place, and, with the others, served out his time. His fellow-soldiers left, without waiting for the new recruits to come and take their places. But Folsom was satisfied that the Indians were about them, for the clothes which the women had spread on the walls of the garrison were cut in the night by tomahawks; and Beard entreated him to stop, saying, "I shall be killed if you go away." So he remained ; and Beard went out to his home (on Fish street, opposite to Rodger's Lane, Nottingham) to cut the tops of his corn-stalks, and Folsom, with his gun, went to guard him. ? At noon they broke some ears of green corn, and went to the house to cook it for dinner. Folsom brought from a spring a pail of water to boil it in, and put down two ears to roast while the rest was boiling. When they had begun to eat their corn the dog growled, and Folsom caught his gun and ran to the door. The Indians instantly shot him, and he fell back into a ladder standing behind him, dead. It seems the ball struck near his heart, for the belt which he wore was long preserved in the family, and shown with the bullet-hole in it. At the same time they shot Mr. Robert Beard through the window. They then went to the house of Mrs. Simpson, having doubtless discovered that she had left the garrison and gone home, where she was about to bake some bread. One named Plasawa or Plausawa) , being the youngest, went into the house and stabbed her in the breast. He said "She blared like a calf." The other two went in and asked her if she could walk (intending, perhaps, to take her a captive to Canada). She said No; so they killed her on the spot and left the place. ? Some years afterwards three Indians, named Sunda, Sabatis, and Plasawa, when intoxicated, told Morrill, the son-in-law of Folsom, that at this time they had been some time in the vicinity; that they had lain three days under a pile of boards in Exeter, and prowled about in the nights ; that their object was to see if the whites were off their guard. They said they did not know as they killed the old, grey-bearded man; but if they did they had killed a bonny spry one, for he jumped over the bars with a pail of water in his hand, and did not spill a drop. They said they did not mean to kill Mrs. Simpson, but to carry her to Canada, hoping, doubtless, to get a large sum for her redemption; but Plasawa had never been out scouting before, and he went in and stabbed her. As she could not travel after receiving such a wound, they finished their work by striking their tomahawks into her head and taking her life. Mrs. Simpson was a large woman, and also lame, so that she could not make a long journey through the forest on foot. The bodies of these persons, — Folsom, Beard, and Mrs. Simpson, — were buried, as I was informed by Col. Joseph Cilley, at Nottingham Square, in a spot back of where the garrison then stood, north of J. H. Butler's house. An account by Mr. Harvey of the death of the two older Indians, by violence, may be the subject of a future communication. ?-- J. CHAPMAN. ?AN ACCOUNT OF THE DEATH OF THE INDIANS SABATIS AND SANDA, WHO KILLED BEARD, FOLSOM, AND MRS. SIMPSON IN NOTTINGHAM. ?EXETER, MARCH 1, 1SS1. ?EDITOR EXETER NEWS-LETTER : — There are, as we should expect, when we consider the circumstances, different accounts of this event. There was no reporter on the ground, and we could not expect the men who did the deeds would put the facts on record and publish them. By so doing they would not only expose themselves to the vengeance of the Indians, but to punishment by the laws of the land. The children of the murdered persons would desire the punishment of the murderers. If their neighbors had knowledge of the transaction, there were many reasons why they would not publish the facts. The tradition which I have received from Mr. D. L. Harvey of Epping, he received from the nephew and niece of Morril, a son-in-law of Folsom, who seems to have been the most prominent man in taking the lives of these Indians. Henry Morril married, in Kingston, Jan. 30, 1739, Susanna, daughter of Nathaniel Folsom, of Exeter. They joined the church there, and had five children baptized between 1742 and 1752. In 1749 he was one of the proprietors of Stevens town, called Salisbury in 1768. Those Indians who had killed and plundered the early settlers in Nottingham could not he contented, but continued to hover about the frontiers. In 1752, some years after the murder of Folsom and his friends, Sabatis, with another Indian named Christi, came to Canterbury, and for more than a month were hospitably entertained. Still, when they left, they took with them as prisoners two negroes, of whom one escaped and the other was sold to a French officer at Crown Point. The next year Sabatis returned again, with two associates, Sanda and Plausawa. When reproached for his misconduct on the year before they became very insolent, and, it is said, threatened some persons who proposed to trade with them. But I will proceed to Mr. Harvey's account. Some men from Newbury, Mass., went up on the Merrimack river hunting cattle. On their return they informed Morril where these Indians were, and how hostile they appeared. He said he would go up and see them. They advised him not to go, but he said he was not afraid of them. [He probably knew them, and had his plan to control them.] So he went up, on horseback, and when he had found them he proposed that they go with him and spend the night at his house. They accepted the invitation, and he took their packs on his horse. That evening they were supplied with liquor at his house, and with a man named Bowen, as fond of drink as themselves, they spent most of the night in a drunken carousal. They bragged of killing Folsom, Beard, and Mrs. Simpson, probably unaware of any relationship between them and the family that was now entertaining them. ?At length they were overcome by liquor and fell asleep. Morril then drew the charges from their guns, and replaced the powder with sand. In the morning, after eating their breakfast, at their request Morril took their baggage on his horse to carry it to their canoes. He happened to be before them, when one of them aimed his gun at him and snapped it. Morril heard it, and turning saw the smoke of the powder that flashed in the pan. The Indian pretended that it was only a joke. They came to a spring by the way, and the Indians, after their drunkenness, were very dry. They said to Bowen and Morril, "White men drink first." Morril answered, "Indian best drink first," and all three lay down to drink. Morril seized two of the tomahawks, and told Bowen to strike one of them. Bowen said, " I cannot." Morril said, " Strike, or I will strike you." They buried the tomahawks in the heads of Sanda and Sabatis, the two older Indians, but Plausawa, the youngest, begged so earnestly for his life that they spared him. Of course he was obliged to flee for his life to his people, and the white people may have thought he was dead, and thus the report was recorded by different writers. This was done on the bank of the Merrimack, near ?the northerly line of Boscawen. The dead bodies were buried under a small bridge in Salisbury, which is called "Indian bridge." The graves were so shallow that the wild beasts dug up the bodies, and the next spring the bones were discovered and buried. Morril and Bowen were arrested, the grand jury found a bill against them, and they were put in irons and lodged in Portsmouth jail. On the night previous to the day of their trial, a mob, collected from the sections of the country that had suffered from the Indians, broke open the jail, and released these prisoners, or, as one says, "carried them off' in triumph." ?Exertions were made to detect the ringleaders of the mob, but without success. The public sentiment of the community, which had suffered so much from the bloody hands of the savages, was in favor of the men who put them out of the way. As the mob returned from Portsmouth, they found, by the roadside, cooked provisions. Though no person was to be seen, they read the invitation, " Eat and welcome." It was hard for those who had suffered so much from the Indians to believe that the murder of peaceable men, women, and children was justified by the laws of war, and that the conclusion of peace between nations should protect individual murderers from punishment for their crimes. So, when Plausawa returned to his old haunts, he found his life in danger, and applied to the governor for a protection. The governor gave it to him, and, in addition, a suit of clothes and a cocked hat. On his way home he happened to call, in Exeter or Brentwood, at the house of Folsom, who had been killed only a few years before by Plausawa's companions in Nottingham. Benjamin, the youngest son, was soon missed, and when found was loading a gun to shoot the Indian. But he was kept out of the way till Plausawa was sent off beyond his reach. Mr. Harvey, who has furnished me with these facts, is great-grands/o Folsom who was killed. His grandmother was Martha Folsom, who. a few years after the death of her father, married Paul Ladd, of Exeter, who removed to Stratham, and soon after to Epping, where his mother, Lois, wife of James Harvey, was born. ?-- J. CHAPMAN.
  Cause of Death	Killed by Indians
  Died	Sep 1742
  Person ID	I11041	Main
  Last Modified	15 Oct 2023

  
  

  Father	Nathaniel FOLSOM,   b. Abt 1644, Hingham, Plymouth, Massachusetts ,   d. 1720, Exeter, Rockingham, New Hampshire  (Age ~ 76 years)
  Mother	Hannah FAXON,   d. Bef 1687
  Married	9 Jun 1674	Hingham, Plymouth, Massachusetts   [2]
  Family ID	F2358	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Family	Susanna MNU,   d. ?
  Last Modified	28 Oct 2023
  Family ID	F3746	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

• Notes

  Settled in Quamscot before 1709, which became a part of Stratham. Aug 1710, he was sentinel in Capt. John Gilman's company. Abt. 1730 he returned and bought lands on the road to Copy Hole, in the part of Exeter which in 1742 became Brentwood. He and his family for many years continued to spell their names in the old way — Foulsham or "Folsham." 1743 he sold his homestead to his son John, and was soon after killed by the Indians in Nottingham.

  
  

• Sources

  [S20] WENTWORTH Genealogy: English and American, Wentworth, John, (Little, Brown, & Co, 1878). [S21] FOLSOM. A Genealogy of the Folsom family : John Folsom and his descendants, 1615-1882, Chapman, Jacob, AM, (Republican Press Association, Concord, NH. 1882).