Family of John * BILLINGTON and Eleanor * NEWTON

Husband:	John * BILLINGTON (1580-1630)
Wife:	Eleanor * NEWTON (1582-1642)
Children:	John BILLINGTON (1604- )
	Francis * BILLINGTON (1606-1684)
Marriage	16051

Husband: John * BILLINGTON

Name:	John * BILLINGTON
Sex:	Male
Father:	John * BILLINGTON (1546- )
Mother:	Anne * PROCTOR (1568-1605)
Birth	1580	Spalding, Lincolnshire, England
Death	Sep 1630 (age 49-50)	Plymouth, Plymouth, MA, US
	Cause: executed for murder

Wife: Eleanor * NEWTON

Child 1: John BILLINGTON

Name:	John BILLINGTON
Sex:	Male
Birth	1604

Child 2: Francis * BILLINGTON

Note on Husband: John * BILLINGTON

MAYFLOWER!!John Billington (Francis Billington's father) (c. 1580 – September 30, 1630) was an Englishman[1] who was convicted of murder in what would become the United States, and the first to be hanged for any crime in New England. Billington was also a signer of the Mayflower Compact.

 

Billington 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".[cite this quote] He was not a member of the separatist Brownist congregation that dominated the colony's life, but had fled England to escape creditors. His sons were also seen as troublemakers.

 

In March 1621, Billington was convicted of contempt for insulting Captain Myles 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. The inland pond known as Billington Sea was named after his son, Francis.[2]

 

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John Billington Birth: 1580 in Spaulding, Lincolnshire, England. Death: SEP 1630 in Plymouth , Plymouth co., MA 1 One of the non-Separatists on the 1620 Mayflower, John Billington increasingly got into trouble with the Plymouth leaders. In 1621 he was tried before the whole company for disobeying a lawful command of Capt. Myles Standish, and was sentenced to have his neck and heels tied together, but on humbling himself and craving pardon, and it being his first offence, he was forgiven (Bradford [Ford) 2:112 fn). In 1624 John Lyford named him as one of his supporters, but Billington denied it. In 1625 Bradford wrote to Robert Cushman, "Billington still rails against you, and threatens to arrest you, I know not wherefore; he is a knave, and so will live and die" (Bradford, Letter Book, p. 13). In September 1630 Billington was hanged for murdering John Newcomen. His wife was Eleanor or Ellen, and he arrived with her and their two sons, John and Francis

 

M Eleanor Lockwood - Birth: 1580 in Lincolnshire, England. Death: AFT MAR 1642/43 in Probably Plymouth, Plymouth, MA. Married: BEF 1605 in England . The wife of John Billington, Eleanor was with him in 1620 on the Mayflower. Her maiden name is not known, though some have speculated that it might have been Newton, since her son Francis inherited land in Lincolnshire, England, with a co-heir named Newton. However, Billington researcher Harriett Hodge thinks that the surname could be Longland. On 1636 Eleanor was fined 45 and sentenced to sit in the stocks and be whipped for slandering John Doane (PCR 1:42). She was married between 28 August 1638 and 21 September 1638 to (2) Gregory Armstrong (PCR 12:33. 37), but there is no record of her having any children by him.²

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

Sources

1	"US and International Marriage Records, 1550-1900" (on-line, Yates Publishing, Provo, UT).

2	"Ancestry.com - record of rbholmes22".