The table was first illustrated in a 1923 issue of Antiques (on p. 12) as the property of Mr. Percival Rolfe of Portland, Maine. According to Rolfe, it was acquired "some years ago" from Mrs. S.A. Arnold. She had owned it for over 50 years, after having inherited it from "her husband's grandfather, Judge Hill of Phippsburg." Like several Franklin-attributed objects, it was described in 1923 as having been bought by the Judge "when the Franklin things were sold."

In conversation with Mr. Albert Sack, it was described as having been bought by Sack Antiques from a descendant of Mark Langdon Hill, who had bought it when Franklin objects were sold in Bath, Maine. Mr. Sack gave the date as 1923. According to an undated advertisement in Antiques, it was illustrated in Antiques again in 1967.

It is important to remember that the Franklins were a large New England family. According to the article cited above, Mr. Rolfe, the then-owner, assumed that table had belonged to Franklin's father.