| Sources |
- [S901] Public Member Trees, **** 201411 KathyLaQuey, Database online.
Record for Eleanor Bradford - THE BILLINGTON FAMILY - Eleanor - Mayflower and The Great Migration
THE BILLINGTON FAMILY
JOHN and his family (wife ELEANOR and sons John and FRANCIS) came over on the Mayflower and were part of the original Plymouth Colony. (Check out the Mayflower history page for details) Look at the details about JOHN BILLINGTON and you"ll seE that " The BILLINGTON FAMILY was Plymouth Colony’s troublemakers." JOHN was hung for murder in 1630 and his oldest son went missing before he died..
.
According to the Crime and Punishment in the Plymouth Colony page. "The first person executed for murder was Mayflower passenger JOHN BILLINGTON, who was hanged in September 1630. He had gunned down John Newcomen, apparently the result of an ongoing quarrel." On a positive note ELEANOR was one of only five adult women to survive the first winter and only one of four to participate in the famous 1621 Thanksgiving. This is according ELEANOR'S Mayflower history page ..
==.
Three hundred and seventy-seven years ago this month (Sep 2007) Mayflower passenger, JOHN BILLINGTON, was hung for murder. He was, in fact, the first white man hung in North America. He was know as a ruffian and a "knave" fond of brawling and social turbulence. The Governor at the time, William Bradford, had an obvious distaste for the BILLINGTON FAMILY and wrote the following about JOHN BILLINGTON in The History of Plymouth Colony: "This year JOHN BILLINGTON the elder, one of those who came over first, was arraigned, and both by grand and petty jury found guilty of willful murder by plain and notorious evidence, and was accordingly executed. This, the first execution among them was a great sadness to them. They took all possible pains in the trial, and consulted Mr. Winthrop, and the other leading men at the Bay of Massachusetts recently arrived, who concurred with them that he ought to die, and the land be purged of blood. He and some of his relatives had often been punished for misconduct before, being one of the profanest families among them. They came from London, and I know not by what influence they were shuffled into the first body of settlers. The charge against him was that he waylaid a young man, one John Newcomin, about a former quarrel, and shot him with a gun, whereof he died.".
.
Four years after JOHN'S death, his son FRANCIS married CHRISTIAN PENN, who was born on September 2nd, 1613..
.
This information can be found in Edward Winslow and John Billington for Five Generations contains the best, most thorough and completely researched genealogy on John and Eleanor Billington and their two children John and Francis. It covers every known descendant for the first five generations, to the birth of the sixth generation. This book is packed full of pure genealogical research. Published by the General Society of Mayflower Descendants. .
.
Sources:.
1.) Mayflower Families: .
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=0930270177/themayflowwebpag .
2.) Edward Winslow and John Billington for Five Generations .
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=0930270045/themayflowwebpag.
==.
Eleanor
The Billington family may have originated from around Cowbit and Spaulding, in Lincolnshire, England. Eleanor came to Plymouth on the Mayflower in 1620 with husband John, and children John and Francis. Eleanor was one of only five adult women to survive the first winter, and one of only four who was still alive to partake in the famous 1621 Thanksgiving.
Her family is remembered as rather ill-behaved, however. Just after arrival, young Francis Billington shot off his father's musket in the Mayflower's cabin, showering sparks around open barrels of gunpowder, nearly causing a catastrophe. A few months later in March 1621, husband John was brought before the company for "contempt of the Captain's lawful command with opprobrious speeches", and was sentenced to have his neck and heels tied together: "but upon humbling himself and craving pardon, and it being the first offence, he is forgiven." Son John wandered off in May 1621, and was brought by Nauset Indians to Cape Cod, where he was later retrieved. In 1624, husband John Billington was implicated in the Oldham-Lyford scandal (a failed revolt against the Plymouth church), but he played ignorant and was never officially punished for involvement. In 1630, Eleanor's husband shot and killed John Newcomen, and he was hanged for the murder in September 1630. .
Eleanor herself was not exempt from ill-behavior, as she was sentenced to sit in the stocks and be whipped for slandering John Doane in 1636. Two years later Eleanor remarried, to Gregory Armstrong, but had no additional children. .
lorrigaines1
lorrigaines1 originally shared this to Godwin Family Tree
?09 Feb 2008 ?story
From Mayflowerhistory.com
KathyLaQuey
KathyLaQuey added this to Jan Kirkland Darby Family Tree
?27 Jul 2010
balls56
balls56 originally shared this to PUTZ FAMILY TREE
?09 Mar 2010 ?story
KathyLaQuey
KathyLaQuey added this to Jan Kirkland Darby Family Tree
?27 Jul 2010
Public Comments (from all member trees)
?
viviloel0626 John Billington: Parts of this story are untrue.Billington shot in the sky and it hit something and then hit the Newcomber. The man was trespassing on John Billinton's land and hunting. John Billington was a Catholic and many of the Puritans held that against him.
19 Apr 2012
wetzupdoc1 I read that they had feuded in the past and that they found themselves hunting the same game and they started shooting at each other, apparently Billington being the better, or luckier, shot. What's a reliable source?
Just now
_________________
Mayflower and The Great Migration
In the 1623 Plymouth land division, John Billington received 3 acres as a passenger on the Mayflower. In the 1627 Plymouth cattle division, John Billington Sr., Hellen Billington and Francis Billington were the eleventh through thirteenth persons in the 7th company, and John Billington Jr. was the 10th person in the 9th company. John Billington was born about 1582 based on estimated date of marriage. He was hanged in September 1630 at Plymouth. He was married by about 1607 to Elinor Bradford. She married the second time between the 14th and 21st of Sept in 1638 to Gregory Armstrong and was living as late as 2 March 1642/3..
Children of John and Elinor/Eleanor were: John, born about 1604, died in Plymouth between 22 May 1627 and Sept. 1630, and Francis, born about 1606 (deposed 10 July 1674 "68 years of age"), married in Plymouth in July 1634 to Christian Eaton. She was Christian Penn Eaton, widow of Francis Eaton..
In his list of passengers on the Mayflower, Bradford includes "John Billington and Ellen his wife, and two sons, John and Francis". In his 1651 accounting of the Mayflower families, Bradford reported that "John Billington, after he had been here ten years, was executed for killing a man, and his eldest son died before him but his second son in alive and married and hath eight children". (The man murdered by Billington was John Newcomen.).
In a Survey of 1650 for the manor of Spalding in Lincolnshire is a lease for three lives in which one of the lives is "Francis Billington son of John Billington." In describing the three lives involved, we are told that "Franscis Billington (as it is informed) was living about a year since in New England aged 40 years or thereabouts." The estimated age for Francis Billington is probably less accurate than his own deposition in 1674, but this record does provide an excellent clue for further research on the English origin of the family,..
The family of John Billington has been treated thoroughly by Harriet Woodbury Hodge in the 5th volume of the Five Generations Project of the General Society of Mayflower Descendants, and she lists the many occasions on which John Billington or his sons were in trouble with the Plymouth authorities in the first decade of the colony's existence..
JeanHumbleFineran
JeanHumbleFineran originally shared this to Humble Family Tree
?29 Oct 2008 ?story
Robert Charles Anderson, Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England, 1620-33, Provo, UT. (Database on-line. Original data R C Anderson, Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England, 1620-33. Vol. 1-3. Boston MA, New England Historical Society
KathyLaQuey
KathyLaQuey added this to Jan Kirkland Darby Family Tree
?27 Jul 2010
- [S394] Ancestry.com, Public Member Trees, (Name: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc.; Location: Provo, UT, USA; Date: 2006;), Skinner/Schinzel-Ahlemeyer/Haines Tree J_Ahlemeyer.
Record for John Billington (128) facts
20251104GHLn- edited
John Billington
The Billington family may have originated from around Cowbit and Spaulding, in Lincolnshire, England, where Francis Longland named young Francis Billington son of John Billington an heir. In 1650, a survey indicated that Francis Billington was then in New England. However, research has thus far failed to turn up any other records of the family's residence there.
The Billington family was Plymouth Colony's troublemakers. Just after arrival, young Francis Billington shot off his father's musket in the Mayflower's cabin, showering sparks around open barrels of gunpowder, nearly causing a catastrophe. A few months later in March 1621, father John was brought before the company for "contempt of the Captain's lawful command with opprobrious speeches", and was sentenced to have his neck and heels tied together: "but upon humbling himself and craving pardon, and it being the first offence, he is forgiven." Son John wandered off in May 1621, and was brought by Nauset Indians to Cape Cod, where he was later retrieved. In 1624, Billington was implicated in the Oldham-Lyford scandal (a failed revolt against the Plymouth church), but played ignorant and was never officially punished for involvement. In 1625, Governor Bradford wrote a letter to Robert Cushman saying "Billington still rails against you, ... he is a knave, and so will live and die." In 1630, Billington shot and killed John Newcomen, they having been common enemies of one another for some time. Billington was tried by jury and hanged in September 1630 for the murder. In 1636, wife Eleanor (sometimes Helen) was sentenced to sit in the stocks and be whipped for slandering John Doane. Eleanor would later remarry to Gregory Armstrong in 1638.
- taken from MayflowerHistory.com
KarenGray90added this on 3 Apr 2009 srichardson219originally submitted this to McKee / Rice / Richardson Family Tree on 14 Jan 2009
___________________________________
Mayflower Passenger
John Billington was a signer of the Mayflower Compact and was also the first man to be hanged for a crime in the Plymouth Colony.
John Billington (c. 1580- September 30, 1630) was the first Englishman,[1] to be convicted of murder in what would become the United States and the first to be hanged for any crime in New England.
He came to the Plymouth Colony on the famous voyage of the "Mayflower" in 1620 with his wife and two sons. He soon made enemies with many aboard the ship. He was known as a "foul mouthed miscreant" and "knave." He was not a member of the separatist Brownist congregation that dominated the colony's life, but rather, he fled England to escape creditors. His sons were also seen as troublemakers.
In March, 1621 Billington was convicted of contempt for insulting Captain Miles Standish. His punishment was to have his heels tied to his neck. Billington apologized profusely and was spared from the penalty.
In 1624, Billington became a follower of the Reverend John Lyford, who was banished from Plymouth Colony in 1625 for being a danger to the community. Though Billington was nearly convicted as Lyford's accomplice, he was permitted to remain in Plymouth Colony.
In September 1630, after a heated argument over hunting rights, Billington fatally shot fellow colonist John Newcomen in the shoulder with a Blunderbuss. After counseling with Governor John Winthrop, Governor William Bradford concluded that capital punishment was the necessary penalty. Billington was convicted of murder and hanged at Plymouth, Massachusetts.
KarenGray90added this on 3 Apr 2009 smonsma00originally submitted this to Labbee/Robinson Family Tree on 20 Nov 2007
_________________________________________
Mayflower Compact
John Billington was a signer of the Mayflower Compact in 1620, the first document in America to establish rule by the people.
Mayflower Compact (1620)
The following is a very careful letter-for-letter and line-by-line transcription made by me of the Mayflower Compact, as it is found in the original page of William Bradford's History Of Plymouth Plantation. Spelling and punctuation have not been modernized. The original from which this transcription was made can be seen in the graphic at the bottom of this page.
In ye name of God Amen· We whose names are vnderwriten,
the loyall subjects of our dread soueraigne Lord King James
by ye grace of God, of great Britaine, franc, & Ireland king,
defender of ye faith, &c
Haueing vndertaken, for ye glorie of God, and aduancemente
of ye christian ^faith and honour of our king & countrie, a voyage to
plant ye first colonie in ye Northerne parts of Virginia· doe
by these presents solemnly & mutualy in ye presence of God, and
one of another, couenant, & combine our selues togeather into a
ciuill body politick; for ye our better ordering, & preseruation & fur=
therance of ye ends aforesaid; and by vertue hearof, to enacte,
constitute, and frame shuch just & equall lawes, ordinances,
Acts, constitutions, & offices, from time to time, as shall be thought
most meete & conuenient for ye generall good of ye colonie: vnto
which we promise all due submission and obedience. In witnes
wherof we haue herevnder subscribed our names at Cap=
Codd ye ·11· of Nouember, in ye year of ye raigne of our soueraigne
Lord king James of England, france, & Ireland ye eighteenth
and of Scotland ye fiftie fourth. Ano: Dom ·1620·
SIGNERS:
John CarverEdward TilleyDegory PriestWilliam BradfordJohn TilleyThomas WilliamsEdward WinslowFrancis CookeGilbert WinslowWilliam BrewsterThomas RogersEdmund MargessonIsaac AllertonThomas TinkerPeter BrownMyles StandishJohn RigsdaleRichard BritteridgeJohn AldenEdward FullerGeorge SouleSamuel FullerJohn TurnerRichard ClarkeChristopher MartinFrancis EatonRichard GardinarWilliam MullinsJames ChiltonJohn AllertonWilliam WhiteJohn CrackstoneThomas EnglishRichard WarrenJohn BillingtonEdward DotyJohn HowlandMoses FletcherEdward LeisterStephen HopkinsJohn Goodman
KarenGray90added this on 3 Apr 2009 smonsma00originally submitted this to Labbee/Robinson Family Tree on 15 Jul 2008
____________________________________________
20251104GHLn-
https://famouskin.com/family-group.php?name=2810%20john%20billington&ahnum=1
Notes:
BIOGRAPHY: Mayflower passenger. DEATH: Hanged for the murder of John Newcomen. The only contemporary eyewitness account was written by William Bradford, "1630 - This year 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. This, as it was the first execution amongst them, so was it a matter of great sadness unto them. They used all due means about this trial and took the advice of Mr. Winthrop and other the ablest gentlemen in Bay of the Massachusetts, that were then newly come over, who concurred with them that he ought to die, and the land to be purged from blood. 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 by 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." - Taken from Mayflower Families 5 Generations Vol. 21.
Sources for John Billington
1 NEHGS NEXUS: New England Across the United States, 1988, Vol. 5, p. 21.
2 Anderson, Robert Charles, The Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England 1620-1633, Vol. 1, A-F, Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society (1995), 173-174, 609.
3 Anderson, Robert Charles, The Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England 1620-1633, Vol. 3, P-W, Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society (1995), 1423.
4 Anderson, Robert Charles, The Great Migration Directory: Immigrants to New England, 1620-1640, A Concise Compendium, Boston, Massachusetts: New England Historic Genealogical Society (2015), 29.
5 Originally compiled by Harriet W. Hodge; Revised by Robert S. Wakefield, F.A.S.G., Mayflower Families Through Five Generations: Vol. 21, John Billington, Plymouth, Massachusetts: General Society of Mayflower Descendants (2001), 5.
6 Roberts, Gary Boyd, "No. 74 Royal Descents, Notable Kin, and Printed Sources: The New England Ancestry of Actor Richard [Tiffany] Gere", (accessed 10/10/2014).
7 Roberts, Gary Boyd, Notable Kin, Volume 2, Santa Clarita, California: Carl Boyer, 3rd (1999), 95.
8 Roberts, Gary Boyd, The Mayflower 500: Five Hundred Notable Descendants of the Founding Families on the Mayflower, Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society (2020), 4, 255, 314, 370, 378, 585, 603, 682, 787.
- [S341] Brøderbund Software, Inc., World Family Tree European Origins Vol. E1, Ed. 1, (Name: Release date: September 15, 1997;), Tree #0361.
Date of Import: 22 May 2001
- [S341] Brøderbund Software, Inc., World Family Tree European Origins Vol. E1, Ed. 1, (Name: Release date: September 15, 1997;), ****Tree #0361.
Date of Import: 22 May 2001 ...................... (199)
20200918HAv-
Date of Import: 22 May 2001 (6) facts ....... (200)
Edmund BANGS
|
1605 - 1692 (87 years)
[1] 
