My Revolutionary War Ancestors - George Fint of Reading, Massachusetts

 

The George Flint House in North Reading, Mass.

This is the 12th post I have written about a Revolutionary War veteran ancestor.  George Flint, my 5th great grandfather, was the son of George Flint (b. 1686) and Jerusha Pope, born on 16 November 1728 in what is now the town of North Reading, Massachusetts.  His mother, Jerusha, was the daughter of Joseph Pope and Bethshua Folger (the sister to Abiah Folger, Benjamin Franklin's mother).  Joseph and Bethshua Pope were notorious witnesses in the 1692 Salem witch trials, and accused their neighbors John Proctor, Martha Corey, and Rebecca Nurse of witchcraft.  

On 13 November 1753 George Flint married Hannah Phelps in Andover, Massachusetts.  Hannah is a "brickwall ancestor", and I have not been able to identify her parents or her ancestors. Phelps is a very common name in Andover, Massachusetts.  George and Hannah had seven children between 1755 and 1770, including my 4th great grandmother, Phebe Flint, born on 8 March 1763 in North Reading.  Phebe married her cousin, John Flint, who was the son of Jonathan Flint and Lydia Proctor.  Jonathan Flint is the son of Mary Collston, also imprisoned for witchcraft along with her mother and grandmother.  Lydia Proctor is the granddaughter of John Proctor, who was accused by the Pope (see the paragraph above) and hanged as a witch on 19 August 1692.  This family tree is full of people who both survived and also died during the 1692 hysteria.  

George Flint served in the American Revolution as a Sargent.  He first answered the Lexington Alarm under Colonel David Green in the 2nd Middlesex County Regiment. David Green is the great grandson of my ancestor Thomas Green of Malden, Massachusetts.  He later served under Captains Amos Upton and John Flint (a cousin) in the 3rd Reading Company.  

George Flint died on 31 August 1808 in North Reading.  His wife, Hannah, had died three years earlier on 5 May 1805. I have not been able to locate a gravestone or burial site for either George or Hannah Flint. He apparently died intestate. 

For the truly curious:

Genealogical and Personal Memoirs Relating to the Families of Boston and Eastern Massachusetts, by William Richard Cutter, Volume 1, page 267.  

Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors in the War of the Revolution, Volume 16, page 226. 

Other blog posts about my Revolutionary War Ancestors: 

#1 Colonel Joshua Burnham of Milford, NH:  https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2026/02/my-revolutionary-war-patriots-colonel.html  

#2  Major Andrew Munroe of Lexington, MA:  https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2026/03/my-revolutionary-war-patriots-major.html  

#3 Jonathan Flint of Reading, Massachusetts:    https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2026/03/my-revolutionary-war-patriots-jonathan.html   

#4 Daniel Glover of Marblehead, Massachusetts:    https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2026/04/my-revolutionary-war-patriots-daniel.html  

#5 Levi Younger of Gloucester, Massachusetts:    https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2026/04/my-revolutionary-war-patriots-levi.html  

#6 Nathaniel Treadwell of Ipswich, Massachusetts:    https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2026/04/my-revolutionary-war-patriots-nathaniel.html 

#7 Captain Westley Burnham of Essex, Massachusetts:   https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2026/04/my-revolutionary-war-patriots-captain.html  

#8 Abner Poland, Sr. of Essex, Massachusetts    https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2026/05/my-revolutionary-war-patriots-abner_02014071889.html   

#9 Abner Poland, Jr. of Essex, Massachusetts    https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2026/05/my-revolutionary-war-patriots-abner_02014071889.html  

#10  Robert Wilson of Danvers, Massachusetts    https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2026/03/my-revolutionary-war-patriots-robert.html   

#11  Amos Burnham of Ipswich, Massachusetts   https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2026/06/my-revolutionary-war-ancestors-amos.html   

-------------------------

To cite/link to this blog post: Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "My Revolutionary War Ancestors - George Fint of Reading, Massachusetts", Nutfield Genealogy, posted July 21, 2026, ( https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2026/07/my-revolutionary-war-ancestors-george.html: accessed [access date]). 

Surname Saturday ~ POPE of Salem, Massachusetts

The Pope Chest, dated 1679
At the Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, Massachusetts

POPE

The English origins of Joseph Pope, my 8^th great grandfather,  are unknown, but the records in Salem are full of stories about him and his family.  He arrived in Massachusetts in 1634 aboard the ship Mary and John and settled in Salem, Massachusetts.  He joined the First Church (Puritan) in 1636, but he was also in the first group of early Quakers in Salem.  There is a long list of fines levied against him in the court records, for absence from church until they were finally excommunicated.  Many other Quakers in Salem were whipped and jailed.

The Quaker persecution in Salem ended when Samuel Shattuck went to London in 1661 to deliver a plea to King Charles II, who sent a mandamus to Massachusetts and ended the Quaker persecutions.  It is unknown whether or not Shattuck is related to Joseph Pope.  Joseph named “my bothers George and Richard and Joseph Gardner and cousin Samuell Shatok the elder to be overseers”  of his last will and testament.  All these families were Quaker.  In a TAG article in 1954 the author was unable to find a genealogical relationship between these families [The American Genealogist, Volume 30: 164-66]

Joseph Pope, Jr. is my 7^th great grandfather.  He was the constable for Salem Village (now the town of Danvers) in 1683, and was one of the more wealthy citizens according to a tax list.  He ran a saw mill with his brother, Benjamin, and brother-in-law, Joshua Buffum.  The Buffums were also a Salem Quaker family (another sister, Hannah Pope, married Joshua’s brother, Caleb Buffum).   I descend from Joshua’s sister, Deborah Buffum, who married Robert Wilson (my 9^th great grandparents) and was whipped for appearing  “naked” in the Puritan church to protest these persecutions of the Quakers (she was also probably suffering from some sort of mental illness).   Click HERE for that story.

Joseph Pope, Jr. and his bride, Bethshua Folger, were married in 1679.  This year, and their initials, was carved into a valuables chest attributed to the Symonds furniture shop of Salem.   This chest was passed on in the family as the “Franklin Chest” because Joseph and Bethshua Pope were the uncle and aunt to Benjamin Franklin (Bethshua’s sister, Abiah, was Benjamin Franklin’s mother).   When the chest was sold at a Christies Auction on 20 January 2000 it was bought by the Peabody Essex Museum for a record breaking $2,422,500.   Now it is on display as the “Pope Chest”.  To read more about this chest, click HERE. 

The Popes were witnesses against some of their Salem neighbors in the 1692 Salem witch trials.  Perhaps this was payback for  all the earlier the Quaker persecutions?  Besides being connected to the infamous Witch Hysteria, they were also related to founding father Benjamin Franklin.  Bethshua's sister, Abiah Folger, was Franklin's mother.  This branch of my family tree touches a lot of interesting American history! 

For more information on the Pope family:

The Great Migration, by Robert Charles Anderson, NEHGS, 2007, Volume V, pages 487-491.

A History of the Dorchester Pope Family, 1634 – 1888 by Charles Henry Pope, (Boston 1888) pages 299 – 301.

Also see The Records of the First Church in Salem, Massachusetts, 1629 -1736, and The Records and Files of the Quarterly Courts of Essex County, Massachusetts (too many to list here, see the sketch at The Great Migration for details on the volumes and page numbers)

Also, please see last week's "Surname Saturday" post on the FOLGER family at this link:
http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2014/11/surname-saturday-folger-of-watertown.html

My POPE genealogy:

Generation 1:  Joseph Pope, born about 1606 in England, died 1667 in Salem, Massachusetts; married first to Damaris Unknown (mother of 8 children); married second to Gertrude Unknown.  She died 27 April 1667 in Salem.

Generation 2:  Joseph Pope, baptized 27 October 1650 in Salem, Massachusetts, died in February 1712 in Salem; married in 1679 in Salem Village (now Danvers), Massachusetts to Bethshua Folger, daughter of Peter Folger and Mary Merrill.  She was born about 1650 on Nantucket.  Nine children.

Generation 3:  Jerusha Pope, born 1 April 1695 in Salem, died 29 June 1781; married on 9 July 1713 to George Flint, son of George Flint and Elizabeth Putnam.  He was born on 1 April 1686 in Reading, Massachusetts. Seven children.

Generation 4:  George Flint m. Hannah Phelps 

Generation 5:  Phebe Flint m. John Flint

Generation 6:  Olive Flint m. Luther Simonds Munroe

Generation 7:  Phebe Cross Munroe m. Robert Wilson Wilkinson

Generation 8: Albert Munroe Wilkinson m. Isabella Lyons Bill

Generation 9: Donald Munroe Wilkinson m. Bertha Louise Roberts (my grandparents)

----------------------------------

The URL for this post is

http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2014/11/surname-saturday-pope-of-salem.html

Copyright © 2014, Heather Wilkinson Rojo

Surname Saturday ~ FOLGER of Watertown, Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket, Massachusetts

A replica of the Pope Valuables Chest
at Plimoth Plantation

FOLGER

John Folger (my 9^th great grandfather), his wife Meribah, and son Peter arrived in New England on board the ship Abigail with the Reverend Hugh Peter in 1635. He lived first at Watertown, and then removed to the island of Martha’s Vineyard with Thomas Mayhew (my 10^th great grandfather).  He died intestate about 1660. 

In the second generation, Peter Folger was my 8^th great grandfather, and his wife Mary Morrill was an indentured servant for Rev. Hugh Peters.  Peter saved his money for seven years and paid 20 pounds to buy her out of servitude and declared “it was the best appropriation of money he ever made”.  There is too much information about Peter Folger to include in one blog post, but I'll put the highlights here. 

Peter went to Nantucket in 1663 to be an Indian interpreter for Tristram Coffin.  He was very influential in assisting the first settlers on this island with negotiations with the native people.  In the records Peter appears as a surveyor, miller, weaver, blacksmith, school master, and the clerk of the records.  His poem “A Looking Glass for the Time” was published on 23 April 1676. This poem gives his opinions on religious freedom and government, including freedom of speech.  

In the next generation, Peter had 12 children. One daughter was Bethshua, my 7^th great grandmother, and another was Abiah, mother of the famous Benjamin Franklin.  Several authors have attributed Benjamin Franklin’s wit to his grandfather, Peter.  Others have compared Franklin’s concepts of religious freedom and free speech in the Articles of Confederation with his grandfather’s writing. 

My 7^th great grandmother, Bethshua Folger, married Joseph Pope and lived in Salem, Massachusetts.   Their initials and wedding date is carved upon a "Valuables Chest” that was passed down in the family and auctioned off at Christie’s in 2000 for a record breaking $2,422,500.00  [see the link below for the full story].  The Popes were wealthy Quakers, who had been persecuted by the Salem authorities in earlier days.  During the witch craft hysteria of 1692 Joseph and Bethshua were accusers against John Proctor (also my ancestor), and Bethshua claimed to be tortured by some of the accused witches, including Giles and Martha Corey, and Rebecca Nurse (sister to another ancestor, Edmund Towne, my 9^th great grandfather).   When he died, Joseph Pope’s gravestone was described as “a pretentious stone of slate” by Jasper Marsh  [in the Historical Collections of the Danvers Historical Society, Volume 10, page 93].

Some sources for more information on the Folger family:

Mayflower Quarterly, Volume 72, pages 243- 264 (Peter Folger and his descendants)

Away Off Shore: Nantucket and Its People, by Nathaniel Phibrick, New York: Penguin Books, 2011

History of Martha’s Vineyard by Charles Edward Banks, Boston, 1911

History of Watertown, by Henry Bond and Horatio Gates Jones, Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1860.

“The Folger Family” by William Coleman Folger in the NEHGS Register July 1862, Volume XVI, pages 269 – 274.

The Devil Hath Been Raised: A Documentary History of the Salem Village Witchcraft Outbreak of March 1692, by Richard B. Trask, Danvers, Massachusetts: Danvers Historical Society, 1992, pages 38 and 57.

A previous blog post about Joseph Pope and Bethshua Folger’s “Valuables Chest”

http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2009/09/treasure-chest-thursday-at.html

My Folger lineage:

Generation 1:  John Folger, born about 1590 in Norwich, Norfolk, England, died about 1660 on the island of Martha’s Vineyard, in Massachusetts;  married before 1618 in England to Meribah Gibbs, daughter of John Gibbs and Alice Elmy.  She was born about 1595 in Freyn, Norwich, Norfolk, England and died about 1635 on Martha’s Vineyard.  They had five children.

Generation 2:  Peter Folger, born about 1618 in Norfolk and died about 1690 in Edgartown on Martha’s Vineyard; married on 23 June 1644 in Watertown, Massachusetts to Mary Morrill.  She was born about 1623 in England and died 1704 on Nantucket.  They had twelve children.

Generation 3:  Bethshua Folger, born about 1650 on Nantucket island and died in Salem, Massachusetts; married in 1679 in Salem Village (now Danvers), Massachusetts to Joseph Pope, son of Joseph Pope and Damaris Unknown.  Nine children

Generation 4:  Jerusha Pope m. George Flint

Generation 5: George Flint m. Hannah Phelps

Generation 6: Phebe Flint m. John Flint

Generation 7: Olive Flint m. Luther Simonds Munroe

Generation 8: Phebe Cross Munroe m. Robert Wilson Wilkinson

Generation 9: Albert Munroe Wilkinson m. Isabella Lyons Bill

Generation 10: Donald Munroe Wilkinson m. Bertha Louise Roberts (my grandparents)

----------------------------

To cite/link to this blog post: Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "Surname Saturday ~ FOLGER of Watertown, Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket, Massachusetts", Nutfield Genealogy, posted November 1, 2014, ( http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2014/11/surname-saturday-folger-of-watertown.html: accessed [access date]). 

Peabody Essex Museum - Not so Wordless Wednesday

The East India Marine Society was founded in 1799 in Salem, Massachusetts. Membership was limited to those captains who had sailed around Cape Horn or the Cape of Good Hope. They shared information on voyages, started a library, and provided benefits to widows and children of members who died at sea. Part of their mission was to also collect “natural and artificial curiosities”. By 1824 there were more than 3,000 items In the collections, so a new museum was created in 1825. At the dedication ceremony there were dignitaries from near and far, including President John Quincy Adams, and Salem’s own justice on the US Supreme Court, Joseph Story. John White Treadwell (1785 – 1857), the secretary of the East India Marine Society, read a toast to the president at the dinner that followed. He was my second cousin six generations removed, great grandson of our common ancestor, Nathaniel Treadwell of Ipswich (1677-1723).

Marine Hall in March
(complete with a pile of dirty snow)

Over the years many of my Salem ancestors were part of the East India Marine Society, the Essex Institute and the Peabody Essex Museum. Dr. Andrew Nichols (1785 – 1853) was the president of the Essex Institute from 1836 – 1848). His grandson, another Dr. Andrew Nichols (1862-1897) married Mary Ann Bill (1861-1910) sister to my great grandmother Isabella Lyons Bill. My Great great grandfather, Peter Hoogerzeil (1841 – 1908) sailed around the world collecting curiosities which were donated to the museum. The most famous family member, George Jacobs (1612-1692) who was hung as a witch, was an exhibit himself. His finger bones and canes were exhibited in the museum as curiosities when I was a child, but I haven’t seen them on display in many years. I guess it's not politically correct anymore to display something like that.

In 1992 the Essex and Peabody Institutes merged into the Peabody Essex Museum. There are more than 840,000 works of art and culture, from maritime and American art to Asian, Oceanic and African art and export art. Today it is more of an art museum, and the mummies, stuffed animals and curiosities I remember seeing as a child are only a small portion of the exhibits.

We visited the PEM again last weekend, and I saw more things related to our family’s long history in Salem. Some I remember from years ago, and others were new to me. I guess that with nearly a million items in storage, they are constantly showing new things, and changing the displays. Here are a sampling…


Chest built by Symonds of Salem for
Benjamin Putnam (1664-1715)
brother to my ancestor Elizabeth Putnam,
who married George Flint in 1679



This is a logbook by Thorndike Proctor
(a descendant of my ancestor John Proctor (1631-1692) hung as a witch)
from the brig Ocean on a voyage to Hispanola in 1783-84
M856 1783o / Log 1783o

The salon of the yacht Cleopatra's Barge
built by Retire Becket (1754 - 1831) my 2nd cousin many generations removed
see the story from January 2011 for the Becket family of Salem.
The yacht was sold to King Kamehameha II, and it sunk off the coast of Hawaii

Chest by Symonds of Salem built for my 7 x great grandparents
Joseph Pope and Bathsheba Folger married in 1679
(see the inscription with their initial and date)
see this link for more on the Pope Valuable Chest-
it's a long, interesting story!

If you have ancestors who lived in Salem or nearby, the PEM's Phillips Library should be on your list of places for research. The website contains schedules, which is important because it is only open two days a week. You can also check out the card catalog online. Their collections are superb for early colonial, maritime and trade history (especially Aisian export trade), containing manuscripts, newspapers and other rare documents. The museum also has photographs and nautical navigation charts.

Peabody Essex Museum http://www.pem.org/

East India Marine Hall http://www.salemweb.com/tales/eastindiamarinehall.shtml

A list of the original 1800 members of the East India Marine Society can be found at this link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_India_Marine_Society

-------------------

Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "Peabody Essex Museum - Not so Wordless Wednesday", Nutfield Genealogy, posted March 9, 2011, ( https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2011/03/peabody-essex-museum-not-so-wordless.html: accessed [access date]).

Amanuensis Monday - A Horrific Accident!

My 7x great grandfather, George Flint, lived in what is now Reading, Massachusetts. It was considered a frontier town, on the edge of the wilderness, when he settled there in about 1682. He built a garrison house, for his family and to protect his neighbors.

From “Genealogical History of the Town of Reading, Massachusetts”, pages 72-3.

“Tradition says that his was the first framed house in the Precinct, and that it was early used as a garrison house in the Precinct, while there were hostile Indians in the Colony. Another circumstance connected with this family is, that on a certain Sabbath all the family were absent at church (five miles distant) but two daughters of Sergt. Flint, who were left at home in charge of the house. During their absence, one of the daughters took a pistol, and aiming it at the other, said: "Suppose you were an Indian, how easily I could shoot you!" At that moment the pistol went off and lodged its contents in the shoulder of her sister, which crippled her for life. Mary, the wounded daughter, is listed as a cripple in her father's will. Sergt. Flint was selectmen of the town and a very influential citizen.”

Grandfather, Nathaniel Putnam also gave Mary Flint a double portion in his will “because she hath a lame arm”. Mary Flint never married. It is unknown which sister caused the accident, or how old the girls were when this horrific accident happened.

This story is also repeated in “New England Families, Genealogical and Memorial” by William Richard Cutter, Volume II, page 1384; in “The Vermont Historical Gazeteer” Volume II, page 1024, 1871, in the article “Deacon Samuel Flint” by Mrs. Mary A. Flint Keyes; and also in “Genealogical and Family History of the State of New Hampshire”, Volume II, page 629, by the Lewis Publishing Company, Chicago, 1908.

The Flint Family:

Generation 1. Thomas Flint, born about 1603 in Wales, died 15 April 1663 in Salem Village (now Danvers), Massachusetts; married in Salem about 1644 to Ann (maiden name unknown), who died 1710. She remarried after Thomas’s death to John Southwick, who is my 9x great Grandfather in a different lineage. Thomas Flint is my 8x great grandfather.

Generation 2. George Flint, born 6 January 1652 in Salem, died 23 June 1720 in the North Precinct (now Reading, Massachusetts); married in Salem on 2 March 1679 to Elizabeth Putnam, daughter of Nathaniel Putnam and Elizabeth Hutchinson, born 11 August 1662 in Salem, died 6 March 1697 in Salem Village. George is my 7x great grandfather, and his brother Thomas is also my 7x great grandfather. George remarried after Elizabeth’s death to Susannah Gardner on 2 March 1699, she was the granddaughter of Thomas Gardner and Margaret Frier, my 9x great grandparents in another lineage.

Elizabeth’s second cousin, Thomas Putnam married Ann Carr in Salem in 1678. She was the infamous “Ann Putnam” who was the most outspoken witness against her neighbors in the 1692 witch trials. Ann Putnam, Jr. was one of the “afflicted” teen aged witnesses against many Salem citizens. She begged for forgiveness in 1706 and read a confession in front of the Salem Village congregation.

Children:

1. Elizabeth Flint, born 19 August 1685, married Ebenezer Damon

2. George Flint, born 1 April 1686, married Jerusha Pope (my 6x great grandparents)

3. Anna Flint, born 18 April 1687, married Jonathan Parker (he was the grandson of Thomas Kendal and Rebecca Payne, my 9x great grandparents in another lineage)

4. Ebenezer Flint, born 16 December 1689, married Tabitha Burnap

5. Nathaniel Flint, born 21 Oct 1690, died young

6. Mary Flint, born November 1691(the crippled child)

7. Mercy Flint, born 7 October 1692, married Benjamin Damon (brother to Ebenezer above)

8. Nathaniel Flint, born January 1694, married Mary Stearns

9. Hannah Flint, born 12 February 1695, married John Hunt

10. John Flint, born 4 March 1696, died young

------------------------
Copyright 2010, Heather Wilkinson Rojo

Abiah Folger and Josiah Franklin

This simple obelisk is located at the Granary Burial Ground in Boston. Benjamin Franklin erected this memorial to his parents, Abiah Folger and Josiah Franklin, and I decided to write about it this week for Independence Day. After all, it was the day the Declaration of Independence was ratified, and Ben was one of the signers.

Abiah Folger, Franklin’s mother, was born 15 August 1667 on the island of Nantucket, Massachusetts, daughter of Peter Folger and Mary Morrill. Peter Folger came from Norwich, England to Massachusetts with his father John in 1635. In 1663 he went to Nantucket as an Indian interpreter for Tristram Coffin. Mary Morrill was a servant to Reverend Hugh Peters, so Peter bought her for 20 pounds to pay off her servitude. He declared it was the best appropriation of money he ever made. Now you know where Benjamin got is sense of humor! (from History of Nantucket, by Obed Macy, 1835)

Abiah Folger married Josiah Franklin on 25 November 1689 at the Old South Church in Boston. Josiah was from Ecton, Northamptonshire, born on 23 December 1657, and he died on 16 January 1745. He had previously been married to Anne Child, who left him with seven children when she died on 9 July 1689. You can see he wasted no time in remarrying Abiah, who not only raised his other children, but she had ten more! Benjamin was number eight, and the youngest son.

How do I know so much about this family? Well, my 7x great grandmother was Bethshua Folger, Abiah’s sister! Yes, Benjamin Franklin is my first cousin 8 generations removed. Bethshua (also known as Bathsheba) was born about 1650 on Nantucket Island, and she married Joseph Pope in 1679 in Salem, Massachusetts.

I previously blogged about my Franklin connection here in my post http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2009/09/treasure-chest-thursday-at.html about the Franklin Chest, also known as the Pope Valuables Chest.

For more FRANKLIN blog posts, click here:
https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/search/label/Franklin 

For my POPE family genealogy:
https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2014/11/surname-saturday-pope-of-salem.html 


-------------------------

Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "Abiah Folger and Josiah Franklin", Nutfield Genealogy, posted June 29, 2010, (  https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2010/06/abiah-folger-and-josiah-franklin.html: accessed [access date]).

Treasure Chest Thursday - Benjamin Franklin's Chest? or Pope Valuables Chest?

The Plimoth Plantation Reproduction of the Pope Chest

a detail of the workmanship inside the reproduced Pope Chest

copying the simple techniques used in the original chest
reproduction at the Plimoth Plantation Craft Center

This is my first contribution to Treasure Chest Thursday at GeneaBloggers, and I couldn’t resist the theme. There was a treasure chest beyond compare in my family tree, but unfortunately it wasn’t in my own attic. The distant cousins who cashed in on this treasure chest really have contributed not only to their own bank accounts, but to a great museum collection and to the living history at Plimoth Plantation.

Bethshua Folger and Joseph Pope were married in 1679 in Salem Village, now Danvers, Massachusetts. Joseph Pope paid a tax of four shilling, putting him in the top quarter of all the tax payers in Salem Village. His gravestone was described as a “pretentious stone of slate” by Jasper Marsh (Historical Collections of the Danvers Historical Society, Volume 10, page 93). Mr. and Mrs. Pope were central characters in the witchcraft trials, too. Joseph testified that he heard John Proctor (popularly known as the main character in “The Crucible”) say he would “Drive the Divell out” of one of the accused. Bethshua (also known as Bathsheba) claimed to be afflicted by the defendants, and during Martha Corey’s trial she threw her shoe and struck Corey in the head.

Joseph and Bethshua also owned a “valuables cabinet” made for them by the Salem Symonds furniture shop. Its provenance is impeccable, since it stayed in the same family for over three hundred years, and it is engraved with the initials JP and BF with the date 1679. It was passed along in the family as the “Franklin Chest” because of the fact that Bethshua’s sister, Abiah, was Benjamin Franklin’s mother. This myth helped to preserve the chest, which in my opinion is quite ugly. It might have been trashed or lost if not for the ongoing myth of a connection to Benjamin Franklin. It traveled around New England with the descendants, finally settling in Cape Cod until the family finally decided to auction it off.

On January 20, 2000 Christie’s Auction sold the Pope Valuable Chest to the Peabody Essex Museum for a record breaking $2,422,500.00 As descendants of the Pope family, but very distant cousins of the final owners of the chest, we all waited until it went on display at PEM, not ever having seen the chest before. The curator emailed me when it was catalogued, cleaned and ready for the public, and we all rushed down to Salem for the big reveal.

I was shocked to see how tiny it was, not really a piece of furniture but the size of a silverware chest. It was cracked, and the boards in the back were loose and warped. It had been painted garish colors that had faded, but were still visible. Except for it’s interesting family history, it’s the sort of thing I wouldn’t pick up at a tag sale, let alone pay millions for at an auction.

Since the auction, I’ve come to love the chest. We visit it often at the Peabody Essex Museum, and even though it sits in a gallery with other more beautiful and exotic treasures from around the world it has become one of my favorite exhibits. At first it was displayed with a wonderful video describing it’s provenance and the famous auction, but now it sits alone with just a small tag describing it as an early American Salem antique. It has come home to Salem.

As an example of early American furniture, the Plimoth Plantation has permission for its artisans in the Crafts Center to reproduce the Pope Valuables Chest. They built the first two reproductions for the two siblings who auctioned off the chest, and now they have other samples on display at the museum in Plymouth. A wood carver explained to me the reasons why it represented a typical chest of the period, and typical techniques of the time, and the authentic paint schemes of the colonial era. I still think it’s simple, ugly and garish, but I also love it for the wonderful family connections!

Pope Lineage

Gen. 1. Joseph Pope, b. 1606 in probably Yorkshire, England, d. 1667 in Salem, Massachusetts; married first to Damaris (?); married second to Gertrude Shattuck. Eight children with his first wife.

Gen. 2. Joseph Pope, b. about 27 Oct 1650 in Salem, d. Feb 1711/12 in Salem; married in 1679 in Salem Village to Bethshua Folger, daughter of Peter Folger and Mary Morrill, b. about 1650 on Nantucket Island. Joseph and Bethshua are my 7x Great Grandparents. They had nine children, and I descend from their daughter Jerusha Pope (1695 - 1781) who married George Flint in 1713.

------------

Folger Lineage

Gen. 1. John Folger, b. about 1590 in Diss, Norwich, Norfolk, England, d. about 1660 on Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts; married before 1618 in England to Meribah Gibbs, daughter of John Gibbs and Alice Elmy, b. about 1595, d. about 1635. Five children.

Gen. 2. Peter Folger, b. 1617 in Norfolk, England, d. 1690 in Edgartown on Martha’s Vineyard; married on 23 Jun. 1644 in Watertown, Massachusetts to Mary Morrill, b. about 1623 in England and d. 1704 on Nantucket. Twelve children.

Gen. 3. Bethshua Folger (see above)

Also Abiah Folger, b. 15 Aug. 1667 on Nantucket, d. 18 May 1752 in Boston; married on 25 Nov. 1689 at the Old South Church, Boston to Josiah Franklin, b. 23 Dec. 1657 in Ecton, Northamptonshire, England, d. 16 Jan 1744/45 in Boston. Abiah and Josiah Franklin are buried at the Granary Burial Ground in Boston, with a large monolith donated by their son, the statesman Benjamin Franklin.

--------------------------
The URL for this post is
http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2009/09/treasure-chest-thursday-at.html
Copyright 2009, Heather Wilkinson Rojo