Francis Billington

Francis was about 14 when he traveled on the Mayflower with his parents John and Elinor, and older  brother John.  Francis nearly caused a disaster onboard the Mayflower shortly after arrival in Plymouth Harbor, when he shot off his father's gun inside a cabin, causing a fire that sent sparks towards an open barrel of gunpowder.  Another time, about the beginning of January 1620/21, while exploring about three miles from Plymouth, Francis climbed a tree and thought he had discovered a great sea. This turned out to be two ponds which are still called “Billington’s Sea” today.

Following his brother's death shortly after 1627, and his father's execution for murder in 1630, he married Christian (Penn) Eaton, the widow and third wife of Mayflower passenger Francis Eaton and step-mother of Samuel Eaton (Mayflower passenger) in July 1634.  The couple had nine children. Their third child, Martha Billington married step-brother Samuel Eaton. 

Francis was one of the original purchases/proprietors in the 'Twenty-six Men's Purchase', the first purchase of land from the native Indians in 'Middlebury'.

Francis and Christian raised their family in Plymouth, and moved in their later years to the town of Middleboro, where they both died in 1684, Francis on December 3 and Christian on July 16. "Deaths and Burials..."Francis Billington aged 80 years: Deceased on the third day of December in the year one thousand six hundred eighty and four." Middleborough, Massachusetts, Vital Records, Vol. 1, p. 4. 

According to the Pilgrim Museum, both are buried at Nemasket Hill Cemetery. 

Additional historical fact:  On 3 January 1663, Francis Billington of New Plymouth, "Inhabitant of the same," for "natural affection I have unto my children," to my son-in-law Samuel Eaton and my daughter Martha (and their daughter Sarah), half that lot of land upon Namassakett River, called by the Indians Namaquacomaquist, bounded north by the riverside with a pine tree, and higher up with a red oak, and south with a white oak which stands in the middle of the lot; if necessary may erect house on other half of lot, which Francis Billington retains for his own use; also gives "halfe the calves close."  This land given was a portion of Billington's property from the 'Twenty-six Men's Purchase'.  Witnesses: Edward Grey, Allexander Casidey (both by mark).

(Source: Plymouth Colony Records of Deeds, Vol. III, Pt. 1, p. 47.)

Please visit:  https://billingtonfamilysociety.org/

Samuel Eaton, born April 4, 1620, was the only child of Sarah and Francis Eaton, a carpenter from Bristol.  He was an infant when he and his parents arrived in Plymouth in 1620 on the Mayflower.  

Samuel's mother, Sarah, died the first winter of 1621.  Francis remarried (his second wife's last name is unknown, her first name was Dorothy; she is believed to be the unnamed Carver maidservant listed as a Mayflower passenger by Bradford).  Dorothy also died.  Francis' third wife was Christian Penn who had arrived in Plymouth on the Anne in 1623.  Christian and Francis had 3 children - Samuel's half brothers and sisters.  

Samuel's father, Francis, died in 1633.  Samuel was then 13 years old.

After Francis Eaton died, Samuel's stepmother Christian Penn Eaton married Mayflower passenger Francis Billington.   Samuel continued to live with his stepmother Christian and her new husband Francis Billington.  Christian and Francis had 9 children of their own including a daughter named Martha who was born around 1638.

In 1636, at age 16, Samuel Eaton was apprenticed to John Cooke, another Mayflower child grown to adulthood, for  a term of seven years.  At about age 26, Samuel married a woman named Elizabeth (last name unknown) and moved to Duxbury (1646).  They had two children (their names are also unknown, but in his estate there was mention of the children of the first wife to have the sum of twenty shillings each and if they be dead, then the sum tp be paid to their children.)  Elizabeth died before 1661; Samuel remarried on January 10, 1661.  His second wife was his step-sister Martha Billington, daughter of his stepmother Christian by her Mayflower husband Francis Billington.  Samuel and Martha had four children: Sarah, Samuel, Mercy and Bethiah.

At some point during the 1660s, Samuel moved from Duxbury to Middleboro.  Samuel was a freeman 29 May 1670.   He died there in October 1684. 

Four years after Eaton's death, Christian married Francis Billington, who had arrived on the Mayflower as a youth.  He took the responsibility for the four Eaton Children: three from Christian’s marriage to Eaton and one from Eaton’s marriage to first wife Sarah.  One writer suggested that this may have been a love match, or Christian would not have been willing to marry into the disgraced and ostracized Billington family. Together they had nine documented children, with one who died young. They raised their family at Plymouth, and moved in their later years to Middleboro.

Samuel Eaton, though not an original purchaser of land in the 'Twenty-six Men's Purchase', received land from his step-father, Francis BIllington who was among the twenty-six men who purchased in 1661 what became the First Precinct in "Middlebury" that is now Middleborough, Massachusetts. Samuel Eaton also became one of the pioneer settlers of Middleborough. 

Resident 4

Resident 5

Resident 6