.536 F O L 
lomot. — A flinty pebble was of a dark green colour, and 
the exterior cortex of a fMomort colour, Woodward. 
FOLK,/, [pole, Sax. woUt, Dut. it is properly a noun 
collective, anci has no plural but by modern corruption.] 
People, in familiar language ; nations; mankind.—Thou 
fhalt judge the folk righteoufly, and govern the nations 
upon earth. P/a!, lvii. 4.—Any kind of people as dif- 
criminated from others.—Anger is a kind of balenefs; as 
it appears well in the weaknefs of children, women, old 
/oiks, and Tick folks. Bacon, 
The river thrice hath flow’d, no ebb between! 
A,nd the old folk, time’s doting chronicles, 
Say it did fo a little time before. Shake/peare. 
It is now ufed only in familiar or burlefque language : 
He walk’d and wore a threadbare cloak; 
He din’d and flipp’d at charge of other folk. Swi/t. 
FOLKES (Martin), a philofopher and antiquary, fon 
of a counfellorat law, born in the city of Weftminfter in 
1690. He was educated at Clare-hall, Cambridge, where 
lie purfued his mathematical and philofophical ftudies 
with great fuccefs. He was eledfed a member of the 
royal fociety in his twenty-third year; and obtained the 
friendfliip of the illuftrious Newton. He redded for feve- 
ral years in Italy, improving himfelf in the knowledge 
of claffical antiquities. He particularly confulted the 
cabinets in ®rder to inform himfelf with accuracy of the- 
weight and value of ancient coins ; and, upon his return, 
he orefented to the fociety of antiquaries, of which he 
was’a member, a diflertation upon this fubjedt. He alfo 
read before the fame body memoirs upon the meafure- 
ments of Trajan’s and Antonine’s pillars, and other re¬ 
mains of antiquity. A table with which he prefented 
them of all the Englifli gold coins, was afterwards printed 
at the requeft of the fociety. He alfo communicated to 
the royal fociety feveral of the fruits of his obfervations ; 
among which were, Remarks on the (landard meafure 
preferved in the Capitol of Rome; and a model of an 
ancient fphere preferved in the Farnefian palace. In 
1739, Mr. Folkes paid a literary vifit to Paris, where he 
was very refpedtfully received, and introduced to all the 
men of eminence for learning and fcience in that capital. 
On the refignation of fir Hans Sloane in 1741, he was 
elected to the honourable office of prefident of the royal 
fociety of London ; and, not long after, he was nominated 
to fucceed Dr. Halley, as one of the eight foreign mem¬ 
bers of the royal academy of fcien.res at Paris. In 1745, 
he publilhed his valuable work entitled A Table of Eng¬ 
lifli Silver Coins, from the Norman Conqueft to the pre- 
fent Time, with their Weights, intriniic Values, and 
fome Remarks upon the r everal Pieces. Along with this 
he reprinted his table of gold coins : and he intended to 
have illuArated both with plates, which he prepared, 
but did not live to publilh. After his death they were 
purchafed by the antiquarian fociety, and annexed to a 
new edition of the work publilhed under its aufpices in 
1763. To the honours beftowed upon Mr. Folkes were 
added the degree of doctor of laws conferred by both 
univerfities, and the preiidentlhip of the fociety of anti¬ 
quaries. He'continued occafionally to furnilh learned 
papers to the Philofophical TranlaCtions, till a llroke of 
the palfy unfitted him for farther literary labours. The 
repetition of it put a period to his life in 1754. He 
left a large and valuable cabinet and library, which came 
to public fale. In his private character he was polite, 
generous, and friendly. 
FOLK'INGllAM, a fmall market-town in Lincoln- 
fhire, pleafantly iituated on a gentle eminence, on the 
road from London to Lincoln, in a healthy and fine ('port¬ 
ing country, abounding with woods, cryflal fprings, and 
hills, fome of which command pleafant and extendve 
views into the Fens, towards Kolion, Spalding, See. It 
is d i If ant from Grantham twelve miles, from Lincoln 
twenty-feven, from Stamford nineteen, and from London 
F O L 
iotS. It is a place of very little trade : market on Thurf- 
days. There are feveral confiderable fairs : Palm-Mon¬ 
day and Alh-Wednefday for flock; May .12, flock ar.d 
town fair; June 15 and 16, for horfes ; July 3, 4, and 5, 
for all kinds of goods; the firfl Thurfday after old Mi¬ 
chaelmas for flteep ; November 22, flock and toys. 
FTere are the ruins of a caflle, which was deftroyed by 
Oliver Cromwell. The church is well-built and has a 
lofty tower. Here is alfo the new-built county-jail, at 
which the feffions are held quarterly. 
Near Folkinghatn are two pieces of decayed magnifi¬ 
cence ; one, the old monaftery of Sempringham, the feat 
of the Gilbertine nuns, famous for their aufterity ; and 
the other, the ancient domain of the lord Clinton, queen 
Elizabeth’s admiral, where that great and noble perfon 
once lived in the utmoll fplendour. The manflon, though 
in full decay, fnevvs what it has been ; and the plafter of 
the ceilings and walls in fome rooms is fo fine, firm, and 
entire, that it breaks off in large flakes, and will bear 
writing on with a pencil or fteel-pen, like the leaves of a 
table-book. 
FOI.K'LANDS./i [Saxon.] Copylrold lands ; fo call¬ 
ed in the time of the Saxons, as charter lands were called 
boclands. Kitch. 174. Folkland was terra vulgi, or popu- 
laris , the land of the vulgar people, who had no certain 
eflate therein, but held the fame under the rents and fer- 
vices accuflomed or agreed, at the will only of their lord 
the thane ; and it was therefore not put in writing, but 
accounted praedium rujlicum & ignobile. Spclrn. 0/Feuds, c. 5, 
FOI.K'MOTE, /. [poljemo'E, Sax. compounded of 
polk, populus ; and mote or gemote, convenire.'] A ge¬ 
neral affembly of the people to confider of, and order 
matters of, the commonwealth. Leg. Edw. Con/e/f. c. 35. 
Spelman fays tfle folkmote w r as a fort of annual parlia¬ 
ment or convention of the bifliops, thanes, aldermen, 
and freemen, upon every May-day yearly; where the 
laymen were fworn to defend one another, and the king, 
and to preferve the laws of the kingdom; and then con¬ 
fulted of the common fafety. But Dr. Brady infers from 
the laws' of our Saxon kings that it was an inferior court, 
held before the king’s reeve or fteward, every month, to 
do folk right, or compofe fmaller differences, from whence 
there lay appeal to the fuperior courts. Brady's Glojf. p. 48. 
Squire feems to think the folkmote not diftinbt from the 
fhiremote, or common general meeting of the county. 
Angl. Sax. Gov. 155. n. Manwood mentions folkmote as 
a court holden in London, “ wherein all the folk and 
people of the city did complain of the mayor and aider- 
men for mifgovernment within the faid city:” and this 
word in Stowe’s time continued in ufe among the Lon¬ 
doners ; and denoted celebrcm ex tota civitate convertum. 
Stowe's Survey. According to Kennet, the folkmote was 
a common council of all the inhabitants of a city, town, 
or borough, convened often by found of bell to the mote- 
hall or houfe ; or it was applied to a larger congrefs of 
all the freemen within a county, called the Ihire-mote, 
where formerly all knights and military tenants did fealty 
to the king, and eledted the annual flteriff on the firfl of 
Odtober; till this popular election, to avoid tumults and 
riots, devolved to the king’s nomination. After which 
the city folkmote was fwallowed up in a feledt commit¬ 
tee or common council, and the county folkmote in the 
Iheriff’s tourn and affile. The word folkmote was alfo 
ufed for any kind of popular or public meeting; as of 
all the tenants at the court-leet or court baron, in which 
fignification it was of a lefs extent. Paroch:Antiq. 120. 
FOLK'STONE, a pleafant and confiderable town 
in Kent, Iituated on the Englifli channel, feventy-two 
miles from London, fixteen from Canterbury, and feven 
fouth-weft of Dover ; of which place it is a member, and 
gives the title of vifcount Folkftone. It has a market on 
Thurfdays, and a fair for pedlars’ goods on the 28th of 
June. The town is governed by a mayor, twelve jurats, 
twenty-four commoners, a recorder, town-clerk, and 
chamberlain; the mayor and chamberlain are annually 
chofen 
