Family of Gregory ARMSTRONG and Eleanor * NEWTON

Husband: Gregory ARMSTRONG

Wife: Eleanor * NEWTON

Eleanor * NEWTON

Note on Husband: Gregory ARMSTRONG

Had liberty to dwell at Yarmouth 3 Sept 1638.¹

Note on Wife: Eleanor * NEWTON

Mayflower! 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. Source: Mayflower History Web Site, http://www.mayflowerhistory.com/Passengers/EleanorBillington.php

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