Merrable Gibbs d. Aft 1663 Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts: NH genealogy

Nielsen Hayden genealogy

- Aft 1663

Name	Merrable Gibbs [1]
Gender	Female
Alternate death	Aft 1663	Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts [2]
Death	Aft 1663	Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts [2]
Person ID	I17587	Ancestry of PNH, TNH, and others
Last Modified	15 Dec 2018

Father	John Gibbs, b. Abt 1549 d. Bef 27 Feb 1609, Scole, Norfolk, England (Age ~ 60 years)
Mother	Frances Robertson, b. 21 Sep 1549, Oakley, Suffolk, England
Family ID	F10778	Group Sheet \| Family Chart

Family John Folger, b. Norwich, Norfolk, England d. Abt 1660, Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts

Marriage Bef 25 Jan 1609 [2]

Notes

Some confusion has transpired over whether Merrable Gibbs was the mother of Peter Folger. In his 1862 NEHGR article "The Folger Family," William Coleman Folger wrote "John Folger died about 1660. Meribell Folger his widow was living in 1664. Her surname is supposed to have been Gibbs. According to tradition, John was a widower when he came over [in 1635]; if this be correct, he must have married her after his arrival in America."

But Benjamin Franklin was certainly aware that Merrable Gibbs was the mother of his grandfather Peter Folger. In 1759, M. Foulger of Illington, Norfolk wrote to Franklin that "John Foulger married to Mirriba Gibbs in Old England by hir he had one sone named Peter and one Daughter than married a Pain on Long Island." And in 1932 George Andrews Moriarty discovered and published the will of "John Gibbes of Frendes in the County of Norff[olk] yeoman," dated 25 Jan 1609, which included a bequest to his daughter "Merrable Folser." So the "tradition" that John Folger emigrated as a widower would appear to have been incorrect; he was certainly married to Merrable Gibbs before 25 Jan 1609, and she certainly outlived him by four years and died on Martha's Vineyard in or after 1664.

Children

	1. Peter Folger, b. Abt 1617, Norwich, Norfolk, England d. 1690, Nantucket, New York (Age ~ 73 years)
	2. Mary Folger, b. Aft 1617 d. Bef 18 Jul 1685 (Age < 66 years)

Family ID F10708 Group Sheet | Family Chart

Last Modified 11 Jan 2019

[S76] The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press, 2004-ongoing., calls her "Meriba Gibbs.".
[S2310] Nathan W. Murphy, "Gibbs and Robertson Ancestry of Merrable Gibbs, Wife of John Folger of Martha's Vineyard, and Anne Gibbs, Wife of Rev. John Fiske of Chelmsford, Massachusetts." The American Genealogist 88:286, October 2016.