This was on FamilySearch.org on 17 November 2020. I knew that we had John Billington was one of our Mayflower passengers for almost 10 years.
When I told Andrew that we had a murderer as an ancestor, he put down his utensils [this discussion took place during a meal], and looked at me. I told him it was John Billington on the Mayflower. That was the only time he really paid attention to me when I was talking genealogy!
Our line starts with:
Francis Billington > Mary Billington > Sarah Sabin > Tabitha Kingsley > Phebe Broughton > Eunice Palmer > Jeremiah Fisher > Eleazar Fisher > Olive Uretta Fisher > Frederick George Leonard > Lenoir Inez Leonard > Lorna Lee Triplett > Myra Lee Winch > Andrew Karl Lindgren & Robert Clarke Lindgren.
Click on the link below to see the AmericanAncestors biography of John Billington.
Mayflower Passenger List — MayflowerHistory.com
John Billington's escapades is mentioned in his biography in MayflowerHistory.com. One of the other passengers called him as a "knave" [according to www.dictionary.com is a rascal, rogue, scoundrel].
In 1630 he was tried and found guilty of the murder of John Newcomen. He was hung for his crime and probably buried on his property as was common in that time period.
Elinor, John's wife, was one of four women who survived the first winter in Plimouth Plantation. Elinor's listing includes a notation that she was sentenced in 1636 to the stocks and whipped for slander against John Doane.
John Billington's oldest son John wandered off and got lost in the woods around Plimouth plantation. This took place in May 1621. He had been "kidnapped" or found by the tribe Nauset. The tribe took care of him and he had strings of beads around his neck. John died between 1627 and 1630.
Francis was the youngest son of John and Elinor Billington. He married Christian Penn Eaton the widow of Francis Eaton, who is another direct line ancestor of ours. They had nine children. They moved to Middleboro and both died there in 1684.
Francis is known for firing a gun inside the ship which sent "sparks towards an open barrel of gunpowder." There is a small pod that is known as "Billington's Sea". Francis climbed up a tree and announced that he had seen "a great sea", and so the pod was named for the family.
The Billington Sea is fed by cranberry bog outlets and groundwater. It is 269-acre warm water pond in Plimouth. The average depth is 7 feet with a maximum depth of 11 feet. Seymour Island is in the center of the pond. Microsoft Bing "Billington's Sea" - Bing ©All rights reserved by Pathways in Genealogy. 2018 - 2021. No part of this website/blog be reproduced without the express written permission from the owner.
