| Notes |
- 1755 - Commanded a company on the Crown Point Expedition during the French and Indian Wars.
Served as a Colonel in the NH Militia, under Royal Governor John Wentworth.
21 Jul 1774 - 1st Continental Congress @ Philadelphia
May 29, 1775 - after the Lexington & Concord Alarm, he was put in command of the NH Militia by the First Provincial Congress.
1783 - Chief Justice of NH Supreme Ct.
-----
A Genealogy of the Folsom Family By Jacob Chapman
When he was 14 years old his father died, leaving a large family of children, some of them quite small. Nathaniel learned a trade, and became a respectable mechanic, but was early elected an officer in the militia. His services were soon required in the expedition against Crown Point. In 1755 he led his company from New Hampshire through the woods to Albany, and thence to Fort Edward, where the New Hampshire rangers were posted. On the 8th of September, at about 4 o'clock p. M., he met a large body of French and Indians returning from their unsuccessful attack upon Fort George. With eighty New England men and about forty New York soldiers, he attacked them, keeping up the battle till night, with great loss to the enemy. In the report, it is said "they continued an obstinate engagement, with more than a thousand men, about three hours, when night came on, and the French and Indians went off and left all. They killed great numbers of the enemy, and recovered 1,200 packs."
The engagement of the day, thus closed by Capt. Folsom, it is said, " served more than anything else to revive the spirit of the colonies."
In 1767 he was major, and soon after colonel. I know not that the general ever claimed the honor, but a British officer, commanding at Portsmouth, gave him the credit of leading a company of men who surprised the garrison at that place, and took away from the fort the powder and the cannon without shedding any blood, or doing violence to any person. The arms and ammunition taken at that time proved of great value to the colonists, who were poorly prepared to meet the advance of the British army.
He had for several years been a member of the New Hampshire house of representatives, and in July, 1774, was chosen with General John Sullivan to the first general congress, which met at Philadelphia.
Being a firm and ardent patriot, he served during the siege of Boston as brigadier-general. In 1775 he was commissioned major-general ; but in February, 1776, his wife died, leaving a large family of children, and he, being relieved by Gen. Sullivan, returned to Exeter. The same year he was appointed judge of the court of common pleas, an office which he held being part of the time chief-justice till his death in May, 1790.
In 1777 and 1779 he was again a member of congress. In a letter to his friend, Hon. Meshech Weare, president of the council of New Hampshire, he said, " The 8th Article of the Constitution gave him great uneasiness," as it gave the South an exemption from taxation for their slaves, who constituted one third of their wealth, and thus threw a larger burden upon the free states than was equitable.
In 1778 he was chosen councillor, and in 1783 was temporary president of the convention that framed the constitution of New Hampshire.
General Folsom was not brilliant, but was quiet, firm, and judicious — successful in business, leaving a large property to his heirs. He was a patriot and a brave soldier, but he was also "a Christian, and not swift in private battles." He was active and useful at home, being highly respected by his neighbors, and the community sustained a great loss at his death.
-----
SeacoastNH.com
Nathaniel Folsom by Nancy Merrill
As a young man, Nathaniel Folsom took military training, according to the custom of the time. In 1755, on the Crown Point Expedition of the French and Indian Wars, he commanded one of ten companies which marched through the woods to Albany and on to Fort Edward. His troops, well versed in ranger tactics, surprised the French troops of Baron Dieskau and, with the loss of only six men, dispersed the enemy and seized their baggage and ammunition.
He was active in town affairs, too, serving as town meeting moderator and as a delegate to the first Provincial Congress, which met in Exeter on July 21, 1774. This group elected him as one of two delegates to represent New Hampshire at the First Continental Congress in Philadelphia. He was elected to this post two times more in subsequent years, and Exeter continued to send him to the Provincial Congresses.
On May 29, 1775, following the alarm at Lexington and Concord, the New Hampshire Provincial Congress made Folsom commander of the re-organized New Hampshire forces. Meanwhile John Stark, who was at Cambridge with the New Hampshire men, had been named to the same post by the Massachusetts Provincial Congress! This conflict endured until the Continental Army was formed several months later, at which time a third man, John Sullivan of Durham, was appointed to command the New Hampshire forces. Folsom remained commander of troops within New Hampshire, tending to the recruitment of men and the gathering of supplies.
In May, 1775, Folsom was appointed to the New Hampshire Committee of Safety. He became a close political associate of Weare, Peabody and Bartlett. The following January he was elected second justice of the Court of Common Pleas for Rockingham County. When the state constitution was adopted in 1783, he was promoted to chief justice, a post he held until his death on May 26, 1790.
Folsom served in several of the State Constitutional Conventions. Elected president pro tempore of the last Constitutional Convention he had the honor of signing the announcement of the adoption of this Constitution in 1783. It is interesting that Folsom was a member of the Constitutional Conventions, for one of the problems this body sought to correct was the plurality of offices held by one man!
|
Old Dead Relatives
1726 - 1790 (64 years)
