3 Wannacomet Road
Acquired 1959; sold to the Nantucket Land Bank 2021
Peter Folger (1617–1689) was one of fourteen tradesmen invited by the original proprietors to settle on Nantucket and work in their designated trades in exchange for a half-share of the island.
Folger brought invaluable talents as interpreter to the Indians, miller, and surveyor. No trace of Folger’s house remains, but he left an important legacy in his many contributions to the success of the early settlement. In 1959, Nantucket celebrated its tercentenary and Thomas Hallowell donated a portion of his land at the corner of Madaket and Wannacomet roads — in Roger’s Field — as a site for a memorial to Peter Folger and his family. A wooden bench carved with the names of Peter and his wife, Mary Morrils, and their eight children commemorates the site of the Folger homestead. A brass plaque on a large boulder elaborates on Peter Folger’s contributions to Nantucket, noting that his youngest child, Abiah (1667–1752), the only one of his children born on Nantucket, married Josiah Franklin of Boston and was the mother of Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790).
Excerpt from the Nantucket Historical Association Properties Guide, Folger-Franklin Memorial Boulder & Bench by Betsy Tyler, 2015.
Banner image of Will Gardner at the Folger-Franklin Memorial Boulder and Bench, 1959. (P3980)