Franklin’s first cousin twice removed.

Folger was a Nantucket ship captain, for whom Franklin drew up a petition (c. 1763) to General Amherst, asking that lands near the abundant fisheries of the Gulf of St. Lawrence be opened to settlement.

In 1768 Franklin consulted Folger about irregularity in the British packet service. Folger ascribed the packets’ delays to the Gulf Stream, which he drew on a chart, which was later engraved, and became the first published chart of the Gulf Stream.