The Great Migration Begins, Mayflower edition: 12th great-grandfather John BILLINGTON

I'm descended from two Mayflower families, so I thought it would be appropriate as Thanksigiving approaches to post on them. Today we'll look at John BILLINGTON.

From The Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England, 1620-33 by Robert Charles Anderson:

JOHN BILLINGTON

ORIGIN: Unknown
MIGRATION: 1620 on Mayflower
FIRST RESIDENCE: Plymouth
ESTATE: In the 1623 Plymouth land division John Billington received three acres as a passenger on the Mayflower [PCR 12:4]. In the 1627 Plymouth cattle division John Billington Senior, Hellen Billington and Francis Billington were the eleventh through thirteenth persons in the seventh company, and John Billington [Jr.] was the tenth person in the ninth company [PCR 12:11, 12].
BIRTH: By about 1582 based on estimated date of marriage.
DEATH: Hanged September 1630 at Plymouth [Bradford 234; WJ 1:43].
MARRIAGE: By about 1607 Elinor _____; she married (2) between 14 and 21 September 1638 Gregory Armstrong and was living as late as 2 March 1642/3 [MF 5:34].
CHILDREN:
i JOHN, b. say 1604; d. Plymouth between 22 May 1627 and September 1630.

ii FRANCIS, b. about 1606 (deposed 10 July 1674 "68 years of age" [MD 2:46, citing PCR 1:81]); in the Plymouth tax list of 25 March 1633 and 27 March 1634 assessed 9s. [PCR 1:10, 27]; m. Plymouth __ July 1634 "Christian Eaton" [PCR 1:31]. She was CHRISTIAN (PENN) EATON, widow of FRANCIS EATON.

COMMENTS: In his list of passengers on the Mayflower Bradford includes "John Billington and Ellen his wife, and two sons, John and Francis" [Bradford 442]. 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 is alive and married and hath eight children" [Bradford 446]. (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 "Francis Billington (as it is informed) was living about a year since in New England aged forty years or thereabouts" [NEHGR 124:116-18]. 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 fifth 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 [MF 5:31-34].
Among these incidents the most significant was Billington's outspoken support for Lyford and Oldham in their revolt against Bradford and the rest of the Leiden contingent [Bradford 156-57].

Billington and his family appear from the record to be, frankly, bad news. They were "Strangers", people who were not part of the English community that had left England to temporarily settle in Leiden, Holland-- and were therefore not trusted in the first place. The Billingtons may have even been Catholics, which, if true, would have done nothing to improve their popularity.

John Billington apparently encouraged mutiny onboard the Mayflower, disobeyed Captain Miles Standish, followed a minister who was later accused of rape, and was the first Englishman in the new world to be convicted of murder and hanged. His son Francis had come close to blowing up the Mayflowerwhen he shot off a musket near where the gunpowder was stored; his wife Eleanor was later put in stocks for insulting a high-standing member of the Pilgrim community.

But consider that everything we basically know about John and his family came from fellow Mayflower passenger and Plymouth Governor William Bradford, who despised the Billingtons. What if the only source of information about your life came from someone who hated you?

For this reason, I try to cut John Billington and his family a bit of slack.

Billington Sea, Plymouth, MA: discovered by John Billington's adventurous adolescent son Francis, who mistook this large pond for a sea.

Line: John BILLINGTON - Francis BILLINGTON - Mary BILLINGTON - Israel SABIN - Jeremiah SABIN I - Jeremiah SABIN II - Sarah SABIN - Samuel THURBER - Margaret THURBER - Hannah SPECHT - Jessie BAKER - Estelle SIMMONDS - Henry HOWES - S. HOWES - Me.

Comments

[Heather Wilkinson Rojo]

For some reason I couldn't post a link to your post at my compendium at http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2011/11/my-mayflower-passenger-ancestors.html
Can you send me a permanent link that will work?

[Karen K]

Heather, thanks for linking this-- just emailed you the url to it:

http://www.theroadbackward.com/blog/2011/11/22/the-great-migration-begins-mayflower-edition-12th-great-gran.html

I had just changed the title of the post, which also unfortunately changed the link-- I'm guessing that was the problem.

[Ryan O.]

Hi Karen - thanks for your comment on my blog earlier today. Have you researched Boston’s Great Fire of 1872? It was the largest fire in Boston’s history, destroying something like 65 acres and 800 buildings. It also resulted in 20 lost lives. Depending on the timing, your great-great uncle may have been involved in fighting that fire. The Boston Public Library has a rather extensive set of photographs online at:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/boston_public_library/sets/72157624805421584/with/5121569166/

Great blog, by the way - my wife and children also descend from the Billingtons mentioned in this post. They are among our more "colorful" ancestors. :) Have you been to Plymouth Plantation?

[Karen K]

Hey Ryan, thanks for coming over and saying hello.

Your wife is descended from the Billingtons? They don't have as many descendants as many other Mayflower passengers, because he had only two children, sons John Jr. and Francis, and John Jr. died unmarried and without issue. So all Billington descendants come through Francis.

And they certainly seem to have been "colorful", ha-- even if only half of what Governor Bradford said about them was fact, they must have been quite a crew! I sort of envision them as that family in the neighborhood that everyone else in the neighborhood wishes would move.

I haven't been to New England at all since I was 3 years old, so no, I haven't seen Plymouth Plantation yet. Really want to take a trip up to MA and NH one of these days. Some cousins of my mom's still live up there, and it would be great to meet them.

Re the Great Fire of 1872, that's a really interesting topic, though tragic. My great-great uncle Jim wasn't involved (he was just a baby at the time), but I found an article about him, along with an obituary; here's a link to that entry if you're interested.