Mary Morrell Folger | |
---|---|
Born | Mary Morrell (Morrel/Morrill/Morrills/Morill) Circa 1620 [ citation needed] |
Died | 1704 |
Known for | Grandmother of Benjamin Franklin and being noted in Herman Melville's fictional Moby-Dick |
Spouse | Peter Folger |
Children | Nine, including Abiah, wife of Josiah Franklin |
Relatives | Grandson, Founding Father Benjamin Franklin, Great-Grandson, Founder of Cornell University Ezra Cornell |
Mary Folger ( née Morrell (Morrel/Morrill/Morrills/Morill); c. 1620–1704) was the maternal grandmother of Benjamin Franklin, a Founding Father of the United States. [1] In Herman Melville's 1851 novel Moby-Dick, she was cited as an ancestor of the Folger whalers.
Folger immigrated to Massachusetts Bay Colony from Norwich, England in 1635 [2] with Rev. Hugh Peters and his family. She was an indentured servant, working for the family as a maid [3] [4] on the same ship as Peter Folger and his parents. [2] Peter Folger paid Hugh Peters the sum of 20 pounds to pay off Mary's servitude, which he declared was the best appropriation of money he had ever made. [5] [4]
She married Peter Folger in 1644. [3] They lived in Watertown, Massachusetts before moving in 1660 to Martha's Vineyard, where he was acquainted with the Mayhews. He was a strict teacher, surveyor, and translator for the Wampanoag people. [2]
They had nine children, eight of whom were born on Martha's Vineyard. [6] In 1663, they moved to Nantucket, [2] where they were among the few people of European heritage. [3] Their youngest daughter, Abiah (1667–1752) was born there. She married Boston candle-maker Josiah Franklin and they had a son, Benjamin Franklin. [1] [7]
Her husband died in 1690, [2] and she died in 1704. [3]
Folger was referenced in defense of the whaling industry in Herman Melville's fictional Moby-Dick. [8] In it, Melville sets up a series of objections to that industry, one of which is "No good blood in their veins?" The response is:
They have something better than royal blood there. The grandmother of Benjamin Franklin was Mary Morrel; afterwards, by marriage, Mary Folger, one of the old settlers of Nantucket, and the ancestress to a long line of Folgers and harpooneers—all kith and kin to noble Benjamin—this day darting the barbed iron from one side of the world to the other.
— Herman Melville, Moby-Dick [8]