LAPHAM

The first Lapham that came to America was John Lapham, born 1635 in Devonshire, England and was a weaver by trade. He settled in Providence, Rhode Island about 1660 and was made a freeman in 1673. He was appointed to the office of Constable and was also Deputy to the General Convention. In 1682 he moved to Dartmouth. He was an ardent Quaker at the outbreak of the King Philip Indian War in 1676 when Providence was burned and his dwelling was destroyed. He, with the rest of the inhabitants, fled to Newport and remained there a number of years. It was there that he met and married, at the Friends Meeting House Mary Mann, daughter of William Mann and Francis Hopkins of Providence.

John and Mary’s son John, born December 13, 1677, married Mary Russell of Dartmouth. She was the daughter of Joseph Russell and Elizabeth Forbes. Their son Benjamin Lapham married first Lydia Ballow and then secondly Mary Man (not of the same family just mentioned, they spelled their name with one "n"). Benjamin Lapham and Mary Man’s son Stephen married Rachel Hussey on April 18,1777. Stephen and Rachel’s daughter Mary Lapham married Aaron Folger , son of Daniel Folger Jr. and Judith Worth, on March 22, 1798.