Person:Thomas Follansbee (2)

Thomas came to America from England around 1642. As a 'joiner, he finished Portsmouth church and schoolhouse. In 1671 he had moved from Great Isl, and hired the Abraham Corbett house near the meetinghouse , when Mr. Henry Dering, also removing to Strawberry Bank, hired the same house under a better title, whereupon the sheriffs turned Thomas out without notice in the depth of winter with no habitation provided for 'his wife and many smale children. On another record, In 1673 his wife Mary +/-34, ab. midnight hearing Rachel Webster cry murder, rose up and went to the window and asked said Webster why out of her house at that time of night, end of record. In 1674 his 'boy' had done work for the town. There are two records about Thomas's next residence. 1. Best recorded- Another strip of the same size as this [26 feet wide on the street and running back one hundred and eighteen feet], and on the eastern side of it, had got into the hands of Thomas Follingsby, of Newbury, and his wife Mary. They had the frame of a house det up on the lot when they sold it with the frame to Mr. Tucker for 14 pounds, Dec. 7, 1677. [This appears to be land near Greenleafs Lane going down to Watts Cellar: now in Newburyport. 2. Thomas and family moved to W. Newbury in 1677 where he presumably built a house on 262 Main St.

1.   Savage, James. A Genealogical Dictionary of the First Settlers of New England: Showing Three Generations of Those Who Came Before May, 1692, on the Basis of Farmer's Register. (Boston: Little, Brown, and Co, 1860-1862)
   2:178.

   "Follansbee, Thomas, Portsmouth, rem. a. 1667 to Newbury, prob. bring. w. Sarah, and perhaps ch. Rebecca, and Thomas, had Francis, b. 22 Oct. 1677, and Hannah, 10 Apr. 1680. Sarah, prob. his w. d. 6 Nov. 1683. Rebecca m. 22 Nov. 1677, Thomas Chase THOMAS, Newbury, perhaps s. of the preced. by w. Abigail, had Mary, b. 4 Apr. 1695; Thomas, 28 Mar. 1697; Francis, 13 June 1699; and William, 14 Mar. 1701."