DISTINGUISHED NANTUCKETERS. 107 



Walter Folger. 



This great astronomer and mathematician was a 

 direct descendant of u Peter Ffoulger " (page 178), one 

 of the early settlers of the island. Wm. C. Folger, 

 Esq., is authority for the following account of ihis truly 

 remarkable man, — the peer if not the superior of the 

 illustrious Franklin, who was himself a descendant of 

 the same " Peter Ffoulger." 



" Walter Folger, Jr., was born in the house which 

 then stood at the northeast corner of Winter Street, 

 near Liberty, June 12, 1765. He married, Sept. 29, 

 1785, Anna Ray, daughter of Alexander and Elizabeth. 

 They had eleven children, of whom but three are now 

 living ; viz., Alexander M., Roland, and Edward R., 

 the latter being his youngest child. Mr. Folger stud- 

 ied medicine, and afterwards law, and was successively 

 chief justice of the Court of Sessions, a counsellor 

 at law, a member of both branches of the State Legis- 

 lature, and represented this district of Massachusetts 

 for four years in the Congress of the United States. 



" For two years he made the astronomical calcula- 

 tions for l Low's Almanac,' and in 1789 calculated an 

 almanac for the year 1790 which was published in Bos- 

 ton in his own name, and of which I now have a copy. 



" He also made a great many thermometers and sev- 

 eral telescopes, — the last of which, I think, was made 

 since 1821, and which showed very plainly the moun- 

 tains in the moon, the satellites of Jupiter and Saturn, 

 etc. , and which is now in our Athenseum museum. 



" He acted as surveyor of land, repaired watches, 

 clocks, and chronometers, made compasses, engraved 



