Private Life
Folsom was born into a large family in Exeter, New Hampshire. His ancestors were among Exeter's earliest settlers, having arrived with the Gilman family, to whom they were related, from Hingham, Massachusetts, where both families settled for a time before moving on to New Hampshire. (The original spelling of the family name was Foulsham. The Folsoms continued to hold land outside Hingham, Norfolk, England, many years after leaving for the Massachusetts Bay Colony. In 1673, John Folsom of Exeter gave his son Peter 50 acres (200,000 m2) of land in Norfolk County, England, which he had inherited from his family.) Nathaniel Folsom's father, Jonathan (c. 1685–1740) married Ann Ladd (1691–1742), and she gave birth to Anna, Sarah, Lydia, Elizabeth, Abigail, John, Mary, Nathaniel, Jonathan, Samuel, Josiah and Trueworthy (named for Folsom's Treworgy ancestors).
When Folsom's father died, in January 1740, the thirteen-year-old went to work for a merchant. He invested in timber and opened a saw-mill. Then in 1761, he went into business with some distant cousins, Joseph and Josiah Gilman. They became Folsom, Gilman & Gilman and opened a general store, built ships, and carried on an import/export business. The firm operated in Exeter and Portsmouth. Though the partners went their separate ways in 1768, Folsom continued in foreign commerce, timber, and lumber operations for the rest of his life.
Folsom married twice, first to Dorothy Smith (1726–1776). Their children included: Nathaniel, Dorothy, Jonathan, Anna, Arthur, and Mary (1751–1812), and Deborah; (Deborah was New Hampshire Governor John Taylor Gilman's first wife, Mary his second). By his second wife, Mary Sprague, he had one daughter, Ruth Weare Folsom.
Read more about this topic: Nathaniel Folsom
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