| Notes |
- A Genealogy of the Folsom Family By Jacob Chapman
Lieutenant Jonathan Folsom, brother of General Nathaniel Folsom, of Exeter, though not so widely known as his brother, was not less brave or patriotic. He was born in Exeter in 1724 and married (1) a Gilman, (2) Deborah, daughter of Joseph Hall. He lived in Newmarket and in Epping, and had a large family. Late in life he made his home in New Durham, with his eldest son, Jonathan, where he died about 1800.
In 1745, at the age of 21, he was lieutenant in Captain Somersby Gilman's company, which fought under Sir William Pepperel, at the first capture of Louisburg. Ten years later, in 1755, he was in the expedition to Lake George against Crown Point, where many of his fellow soldiers fell in battle, and where his brother, then captain, acquired much honor by his bold and successful attack upon the French and Indians. At this battle he received a dangerous bullet wound through his shoulder under the collarbone, the scars of which he carried through life.
Having fought so often and exposed his life in defence of the English government, he would naturally feel reluctant to engage in opposition to it. So when the Stamp Act was repealed, in 1766, and there was a prospect of peace, there was much rejoicing. At the celebration, May 19, 1766, he lost one leg by the bursting of a cannon. It is said to have been an old swivel which had been buried nearly twenty years, which the enthusiastic citizens in the excitement of the occasion had dug up and had brought into use, without the precaution of testing its strength. One would suppose that under these circumstances it was time for him to retire. But when the Revolutionary war commenced, he set out for another campaign, and found his way to Bunker Hill. Here he hobbled into battle on his wooden leg, and took charge of a mortar. It is said that at the second shot he threw a bomb upon the deck of a British man-o-war, which led her to draw on as soon as possible into safer quarters.
His posterity have become numerous and widely scattered, many of them in the West. His son, Jonathan, was many years town-clerk in New Durham. Among his descendants are Captain Hawley Folsom, of the Boston police, Dr. James Folsom, Commercial street, Boston, Thomas J. Pinkham, Esq., Lynn, Mass., W. F. Durgin, Medford, Mass.
|
Old Dead Relatives
1724 - Abt 1800 (76 years)
