| Sources |
- [S50] Plymouth Colony- Its History and People; AncestryView for Windows:, (Name: CD ROM;), Biographical Sketches.
Eaton, Francis Plymouth Colony, p.286 —A 1620 Mayflower passenger, Francis Eaton arrived with his wife Sarah and son Samuel. Bradford wrote "his first wife dyed in the generall sicknes; and he maried againe, and his 2 wife dyed, and he maried the 3 and had by her 3 children. One of them is maried and hath a child; the other are living, but one of them is an ideote. He dyed about 16 years agoe. His son Samuell, who came over a sucking child, is allso maried, and hath a child" (Bradford [Ford] 2:400, 410). Some genealogists believe that Eaton's second wife was Carver's unnamed maid servant who "maried, and dyed a year or two after, here in this place" (Bradford [Ford] 2:402). Eaton's third wife was Christian Penn. The first five generations of his descendants are given in MF 1. He died in the 1633 epidemic. His children were Samuel, Rachel, Benjamin, and a child, called by Bradford an idiot, of whom there is no further record. The first three children had issue. Eaton's inventory called him a carpenter and itemized a number of carpenter's tools (MD 1:197-99). Banks, English Ancestry, p. 52, found a record apprenticing a John Morgan to Francis Eaton, of Bristol, England, carpenter, but this was dated after Eaton was in Plymouth. However, first names and occupations frequently recur in the same family, and Waters, Genealogical Gleanings, 2:1034, summarizes the will of Christopher Cary of Bristol, England, dated 30 October 1615, in which he leaves to his wife a lodge and garden in the parish of St. Philip's, "now in the occupation of Frances Eaton, house carpenter;" this fact may be useful for further research. For additional information on the family of his daughter Rachel Eaton, who married Joseph Ramsden, see Robert S. Wakefield, "The Ramsden Family of Plymouth, Mass.," MD 36:187.
- [S167] GEDCOM: 224075 Robert Kingsley d.1534, (Name: Cf also gen rep 224075 John BILLINGTON b1580.doc;), 224075.
5. MARTHA3 BILLINGTON (FRANCIS2, JOHN1) was born Abt. 1638 in Plymouth, Plymouth Co., Massachusetts, and died Aft. 09 July 1704. She married (1) SAMUEL (1) EATON, son of FRANCIS EATON and SARAH UNKNOWN.
- [S394] Ancestry.com, Public Member Trees, (Name: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc.; Location: Provo, UT, USA; Date: 2006;), Database online., Skinner/Schinzel-Ahlemeyer/Haines Tree J_Ahlemeyer.
Record for Francis Eaton
- [S50] Plymouth Colony- Its History and People; AncestryView for Windows:, (Name: CD ROM;), Biographical sketches.
- [S595] Colonial Gazzette, the, (Location: www.mayflowerfamilies.com;).
http://www.mayflowerfamilies.com/enquirer/billington.htm Billington: Not a Bradford Favorite! cf Notes.- jcw 29.02.2012
http://www.mayflowerfamilies.com/enquirer/billington.htm
Billington: Not a Bradford Favorite!
John Billington, his wife Elinor, and two adolescent sons, John and Francis were passengers on the Mayflower. Billington, who was not one of the Leyden group, became a Mayflower Passenger at Southampton. Ten years later he was executed for the murder of "one John Newcomen. . ." (Mayflower Families Through Five Generations, V, 31+)
It seems that nearly all that we know of the Billingtons comes from Governor William Bradford's references to the family, and, for good reason or not, it is evident that he felt a hearty dislike for the family.
Billington troubles are noted from the start. While still on board ship in Provincetown Harbor, one of the young sons (unknown) fired a gun near an open half-keg of gun powder posing a near disaster for the ship and passengers. Of this Bradford writes "and yet, by God's mercy, no harm done." (MF5G V:31) In 1621 Billington was sentenced to have his neck and heels tied together for "oppribrious" speeches against Miles Standish. "Craving pardon," he was forgiven." (MF5G V:32)
On a more cheerful note, Francis Billington, shortly after the settlement of Plymouth, climbed to the top of a tree on a hilltop and discovered two lakes known from then until now as "Billington Sea." (Actually I think this was John Billington, his brother- jcw 29.02.2012)
Bradford's writings, however, continue to present Billington as contentious, unmanageable and undesirable. In a 1625 letter to Robert Cushman in England (Governor Bradford's Letter Book,MD V:79, New-Plymouth, June 9, 1625), Bradford writes: "Billington still rails against you, and threatens to arrest you, I know not wherefore; he is a knave, and so will live and die." [Mr. "Cusksnan" died before this letter arrived.]
Finally, in the only known eyewitness account, Bradford relates (Bradford History MF5G V:33) that in 1630 "John Billington the elder, one that came over with the first, was arraigned, and both by grand and petty jury found guilty of wilful murder, by plain and notorious evidence. And was for the same accordingly executed . . ." " He and some of his had been often punished for miscarriages before, being one of the profanest families amongst them; they came from London, and I know not what friends shuffled into their company. His fact was that he waylaid a young man, one John Newcomen, about a former quarrel and shot him with a gun, whereof he died."
Upon his death he left his wife Eleanor (Elinor) and son Francis -- his son John having died previously. About eight years later, his wife would remarry a Gregory Armstrong.
Son Francis married Christian Penn Eaton in 1634, widow of Pilgrim Francis Eaton. She brought to the marriage three children Rachel, Benjamin and another of unknown name. Together they had an additional nine children.
In 1642 (Records of the Town of Plymouth 1:12) numerous of the children were put out. "Concerneing the placeing and disposing of ffrancis Billingtons children according to the Act and order of the Court:
"It is ordered and agreed upon that John Cooke the yonger shall have Joseph until hee shalbe of the age of twenty and one years (being now about vi or vii years old) and fynd him meat drink and apparell during the said terme."
One can imagine the psychological hurt of a young child being put out of his home, and it is noted in the records that as a child (MF5G V:39) "he (Joseph) repeatedly ran away from his master to return to his parents; in July 1643 he and they were sternly admonished." This Joseph, who is later found at Block Island, was apparently considered lazy and shiftless. He is repeatedly ordered in the town records to go to work and support his family.(NEHGR 105:179, Notes on Block Islanders of Seventeenth Century.) A probable son Elisha is cited as having following his father's shiftless ways. (NEHGR: 106:105, Two Block Island Documents)
It is ordered that Benjamin Eaton his eldest Boy shalbe with John Winslow upon these conditions untill he shall accomplish the age of xxi years being about xv years in march next . . ."
It is ordered and agreed also that Gyles Rickett shall take another of his children a gerle aboute five years of age and shall keepe her and find her meat drink and apparell . . ."
It is ordered and agreed likewise That Gabriell ffallowell shall have another of his children a gerle about ______ years of age . . ."
Tragedy seemed to follow some members of the early family. A surviving daughter Elizabeth, one of those apprenticed out, married first Richard Bullock in 1660, Rehobeth, who died in 1667. She married second in 1673 a Robert Beere who was killed by the Indians in March of 1676. She married third Thomas Patey/Patte of Providence who drowned in the Seekonk River 1695. (MF5G V:37,38).
Sources:
Mayflower Families Through Five Generations, V, John Billington, General Society of Mayflower Descendants, 1991
Records of the Town of Plymouth, Volume 1, 1636-1705, Plymouth, Avery & Doten, Book and Job Printers, 1889.
New England Historic and Genealogical Register, V 105,106.
Mayflower Descendant,Volume V, Editor,George Ernest Bowman, Published by the Massachusetts Society of Mayflower Descendants.
For additional information on this family visit the Mayflower Site
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- [S50] Plymouth Colony- Its History and People; AncestryView for Windows:, (Name: CD ROM;), Biographical Sketches.
—A 1620 Mayflower passenger, Francis Eaton arrived with his wife Sarah and son Samuel. Bradford wrote "his first wife dyed in the generall sicknes; and he maried againe, and his 2 wife dyed, and he maried the 3 and had by her 3 children. One of them is maried and hath a child; the other are living, but one of them is an ideote. He dyed about 16 years agoe. His son Samuell, who came over a sucking child, is allso maried, and hath a child" (Bradford [Ford] 2:400, 410). Some genealogists believe that Eaton's second wife was Carver's unnamed maid servant who "maried, and dyed a year or two after, here in this place" (Bradford [Ford] 2:402). Eaton's third wife was Christian Penn. The first five generations of his descendants are given in MF 1. He died in the 1633 epidemic. His children were Samuel, Rachel, Benjamin, and a child, called by Bradford an idiot, of whom there is no further record. The first three children had issue. Eaton's inventory called him a carpenter and itemized a number of carpenter's tools (MD 1:197-99).
- [S50] Plymouth Colony- Its History and People; AncestryView for Windows:, (Name: CD ROM;), Biographical Sketches.
Eaton's third wife was Christian Penn. The first five generations of his descendants are given in MF 1. He died in the 1633 epidemic. His children were Samuel, Rachel, Benjamin, and a child, called by Bradford an idiot, of whom there is no further record. The first three children had issue. ...
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1596 - 1633 (37 years)
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