Abiah Folger was born in Nantucket, Massachusetts, on August 15, 1667, to Peter Folger, a miller and schoolteacher, and his wife, Mary Morrell Folger, a former indentured servant. She came from a Puritan family that was among the first to flee to Massachusetts for religious freedom, when King Charles I of England began persecuting Puritans. Folger's sister, Bethshua was an active and theatric participant in the events surrounding the Salem witch trials. She suffered “hysterical blindness” and convulsions, and in the middle of one trial she threw a shoe at an accused person’s head. Her accusations contributed to the death-sentence of at least one convicted witch, Martha Corey.