1606 - 1684

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• Birth	Abt 1606	England
  Gender	Male
  Died	3 Dec 1684	Middleboro, Massachusetts   [1]
  Person ID	I6232	Wanicki/Rozhon and Kapusta/Jemiola
  Last Modified	27 Feb 2005 18:46:05
  Father	John BILLINGTON, b. Abt 1580, Possibly Spaulding, Lincolnshire, England
  Mother	ELEANOR, b. Abt 1580
  Family ID	F2443	Group Sheet
  Family	Christian PENN
  Married	Jul 1634	Plymouth, Massachusetts   [1]
  Children	1. Unknown BILLINGTON   2. Elizabeth BILLINGTON, b. 10 Jul 1635, Plymouth, Massachusetts   3. Joseph BILLINGTON, b. Abt Feb 1635/1636, Plymouth, Massachusetts   4. Martha BILLINGTON, b. Abt 1638   5. Mary BILLINGTON, b. Abt 1640   6. Isaac BILLINGTON, b. Abt 1644   7. Rebecca BILLINGTON, b. 8 Jun 1648   8. Dorcas BILLINGTON, b. Abt 1650 > 9. Mercy BILLINGTON, b. 25 Feb 1651/1652, Plymouth, Massachusetts
  Family ID	F2442	Group Sheet

• Notes

  Francis Billington lived at Plymouth until 1669, when he moved to Middleboro and occupied land granted to him as one of the "First Comers." He lived there until his death, except for a few years during King Philip's War when he fled to Plymouth for safety. On 18 April 1642 his daughter Elizabeth was apprenticed and 14 January 1642/3 he bound out son Joseph, "aged vi or vii" and two daughters, probably Martha and Mary, one five years old and the other even younger. Bradford stated in 1651 that Francis Billington had eight children. In his old age Francis was dependent on his son Isaac for support and died intestate. No probate record appears, although son Isaac petitioned the probate court in 1703/4 for title to all his father's Middleboro lands, stating he had had sole care of his parents in ther old age. A Plymouth County court case of Sept. 1722, brought by Isaac's daughter Desire Bonney and her husband, James shows that Francis Billington died intestate leaving issue two sons and five daughters, viz: sons Joseph (eldest who inherited a double portion) and Isaac; daughters Elizabeth, Mary, Dorcas, Mercy and Martha, with a total of eight shares in the estate. A 1719 quitclaim deed from Francis's grandson Francis Billington, reading "my father Francis and grandfather (unnamed) Billington" seems to imply a son Francis, Jr. but in the absence of any mention of such a son in contemporaneous Plymouth records, coupled with the fact that Francis's deed evidently transferred the shares of Joseph Billington, we conclude that the deed contains a clerical error. The original must have read " my father Joseph and grandfather Francis Billington." Indications are that the seven children named in the Bonney suit and their progeny were the only survivors of Francis Billington. Francis Billington came with his parents and brother John. He was born about 1606 and was too young to sign the Mayflower Compact. He nearly blew up the Mayflower" when he discharged a firearm near a small barrel of gun powder. About January 1, 1621, he mounted the top of a tree on a high hill and announced that he had discovered in the distance another great sea. A week later he went with one of the master's mates to have a view of the place. They found the water divided into two lakes; the large one had five or six miles compass, the smaller one had three miles. Thereafter the larger was known as Billington Sea. He married at Plymouth in July 1634 Christian (Penn) Eaton, widow of Francis Eaton. She died at Middleborough about 1684. They seemed to have ill fortune because they were forced to bind out most of their children to secure means for their existence. Francis was occasionally sued and fined and once had the choice of a whipping or paying twenty pounds. In later life he did better and served on committees, etc. He died at Middleborough, December 13, 1684. Source: Cameron F. Hutt

• Sources

  [S61] Cameron F. Hutt, cam_hutt@lycos.com.