Mayflower in Plymouth Harbor by William Halsall

When Joseph Billington lay near death in a neighbor’s home in South Kingstown, Rhode Island in October 1790, he might have prayed that his life, after the death of his oldest, errant son, would be the end of a long trajectory of tragedy, poverty, intransigence, and indenture that had fallen over several generations of the family. All under the long shadow of his great grandfather’s legacy as being the first man executed in Plymouth Colony.

That man, John Billington, had arrived in Plymouth with his wife Elinor and their teenaged sons John Jr. aged about 16, and Francis, aged about 14 years old in the hold of the Mayflower. From the start, they were viewed as having come from “ a bad lot”, John and his sons being among those who had often been punished during the journey.

As the ship lay offshore, he distinguished himself by becoming the first charged with the criminal complaint of “contempt of the Captain’s lawful command” by refusing to obey orders, and given the punishment of having his heels drawn up behind him and his ankles tied to his neck[i].

While the Mayflower lay anchored off Cape Cod in December 1620, Francis Billington fired a gun near a barrel of gunpowder, setting off a fire that could easily have become catastrophic, but as Bradford recorded, ‘through God’s mercy was quickly put out”. This was but the first of a series of inconveniences the family brought to authorities in the new settlement of Plymouth Plantation. The Billingtons in fact, seemed to have gotten off on the wrong foot from the moment they stepped ashore

Young Francis went missing one afternoon in January 1621, resulting in a search party being formed and finding him some three miles into the woods. As recorded in Mourt’s Relation,

“This Day Francis Billington, having the week before seen from the top of a tree on a high hill a great sea, as he thought, went with one of his master’s mates to see it. They went three miles and then came to a great water, divided into two great lakes; the bigger of them five or six miles in circuit…They are fine fresh water, full of fish and fowl. A brook issues from it; it will be an excellent place for us in time[ii]”.

His older brother John had also caused a stir when he went missing while exploring the following summer. After surviving for five days on berries, plants and water, he had been found by a band of indigenous people and taken to Nauset on Cape Cod.

Despite these early transgressions, John Billington signed the Mayflower Compact and seemed to have settled into establishing a homestead, that is until 1630 when he found himself accused of murder. As Governor William Bradford recorded in his journal,

“This year John Billington the elder , one that came over with the first, was arraigned, and both by Grand and Petty jury found guilty of willful murder, by plan and notorious evidence. And was for the same accordingly executed. This, as it was the first execution amongst them, so it was a matter of great sadness…They used all due means about his trial and took the advice of Mr. Winthrop and others (of) the ablest gentlemen in the Bay of Massachusetts, that were then newly come over, who concurred with them that he ought to die, and the land be purged from blood.

He and some of his had been often punished for miscarriages before, being one of the profanest families amongst them; they were from London , and I know not by what friends shuffled into their company. His fact was that he waylaid a young man, one John Newcomen, about a former quarrel, and shot him with a gun, whereof he died[iii]”.

Billington had many friends among the small community who protested that the confrontation with the victim came about because Billington suspected that Newcomen was stealing from his traps. His reputation as a good hunter also belies the facts about the shooting as the victim was shot haphazardly in the shoulder while fleeing the scene, though the accused reputedly would let no other take responsibility. His written confession sealed his fate and he was the first man to be hung in the colonies.

His brother Francis remained in Plymouth and married Christian Penn Eaton, widow of Mayflower passenger Francis Eaton in July 1634. Among their nine children, were Elizabeth 1635-1707) their first, then Joseph (1637 -1685), Martha (1638-1723), and Mary(1640-1717). By 1640, the family was struggling. Despite inheriting his mother’s property in 1637, Francis had made land investments that he could not afford to maintain. The family fell into debt, and on 2 January 1640, it was ordered by the court in Plymouth that

“Francis Billington & Christian, his wife, shall give Jonathan Brewster & Luke Brewster possession of her thirds the lands bought of them; and then Jonathan Brewster to pay him in corne the remainder…[iv]”.

In April of 1642, the court recorded that the Billingtons had “put Elizabeth their daughter, apprentis to John Barnes and Mary, his wife, to dwell with them and to do service until shee shall accpmplish the age of twenty years, (shee being now seaven years of age July next), the said John Barnes & Mary, his wife, finding her meate, drink, & cloathes during said term.

The following January, the parents were forced to bound out their young daughters Martha and Mary, aged five and three, along with their only son Joseph who was six years old. By Court order, he was bound out to one Joseph Cook of the town. Almost immediately, Joseph began to run away from his master, most often returning home. By July of 1643, authorities took the parents to court and declared that

“Whereas Joseph, the sonn of Francis Billington, accordint to the order of the Court, was by the towne of Plymouth placed with John Cooke the yonger, and hath since beene enveagled, and did oft de(spi)te his said masters service…doth order and appoint that the said Joseph shalbe returned to his said master again immediately,and so shall remaine with him during his terme[v]”.

But the court went further, issuing a warning to the parents as well as a stepbrother living in the home that

“if either the said Francis, or Christian, his wife, do rescue him, if he shall againe dept from his said master without his lycence, that the said Francis, and Christian, his wife, shalbe sett in the stocks every…day during the time thereof, as often as he or shee shall so rescue him[vi]”.

Historically, the poor of any community relied upon family or neighbors for assistance. Plymouth County instructed towns to keep a herd of cattle that could be farmed out to those in need so they would be provided with milk and other dairy products, as well as birthing calves while the cows were in their custody[vii].

Other towns bid out the oversight of elderly and infirm inhabitants, a system that left many of the most vulnerable at risk. Boston had established a poorhouse as early as 1660, but by the 18th century adopted the system of venue, auctioning off their poor to the lowest bidder.

But for the tragedy that fell upon the family in these early years, the saga of the Billingtons would be similar to many poor to middling families that arrived with the hope of a better life in the colonies. For the Billingtons, having limited family, and a notoriety with authorities in the town likely made finding work and seeking relief from such hardship difficult.

Their saga then, also gives us a glimpse into how communities within the growing colonies and then states, struggled to support growing populations of indigent citizens, while passing laws that kept other transients who would likely become “chargeable to the town” from settling in, and adding to the poor population.

Francis and his wife continued to live in Plymouth, he swore an oath as a freeman in 1657, and they had five more children. Those children who had been bound out however, left the County behind when their indenture ended.

Francis and Christian also left Plymouth and settled in Middleboro, Massachusetts where their means were provided by their second son Isaac who petitioned the court in 1704 to “have his father’s land settled on him as recompense for having taken care of his father. He states that his father had become impoverished following the Indian Wars and had begged him to move to Middleboro. He did this, uprooting his family from a comfortable life in Marshfield, and cared for his parents…for 7 years until their death[viii]”. The sisters would provide for themselves by signing a deed that let them earn income from the lands they had received from their parents estate.

Elizabeth Billington would marry three times and ultimately settle with third husband Thomas Patey in Providence. Her sister Mary would wed Samuel Sabin and settle in Rehoboth, Massachusetts where they raised six children. Joseph too would marry Grace Phillip and settle on Block Island sometime before 1676 when their first son Francis was born. Tragedy would strike the family again in 1680 when a second son named Elisha was born, and Grace died shortly after.

Francis Billington II would return to Plymouth as an adult, marrying Abigail Churchill in 1702, and having their first child Sarah in December of that year. The couple would have six more children, one named Elisha who died in childbirth, and two more, Abigail and Joseph, who lived but a year or less, Their remaining children, Marcy, Jemima, and Content, along with Sarah would have twenty-two children among them.

Elisha Billington would also leave the Island, marrying in 1712 and settling with his spouse in South Kingstown, where their first child Daniel was born the following year. Their second son Joseph was born in Kingston, two years later, and daughters Sarah, and Mary were born within the next four years.

Daniel and Joseph remained in South Kingstown into adulthood, raising families there. Daniel married Mary Austin in 1736 and they raised five sons: John, Joseph, Samuel, Elisha, and Thomas, as well as daughters Sarah (Croucher) and Jemina (Granger). Joseph married Abigail Brahmin in 1737 in South Kingstown, their first son, Joseph Jr, was born in 1747 and four more children, Sarah, Jane, Elisha, and Abigail were born between 1758 and 1768.

By 1773, Joseph had become insolvent. Even more troubling was that his wife was pregnant yet again. The Town Council voted that he appear

“before ye towne council with all his Children under his care in order ye ye council may bettore Know how he maintains & Supports himself & Children[ix]”.

The following year, Abigail gave birth to a son, but died from the complications of childbirth. The Town Council voted

”…that Elisha Billington (an infant son to Josph Billington), being one of the Poor of this Town be Bound out as an Apprentice to James Gardner of this Town until he shall arrive to ye age of Twenty one Years[x]”.

Gardner was charged as the boy’s master to teach him to read and write, to lodge, feed, and clothe him throughout the agreed term, and most practically for the town; to trade him in the art of weaving so that he might be a contributing participant in the town’s economy one day.

The Town Council also bound out Jane Billington to Rowse Potter “utill she arrive to ye age of eighteen” with the stipulation that Potter “Learn her to Read & to be Dismist...with one new sute of apparel…[xi]”. Unfortunately, the twelve year old girl died on December 19, 1774 before she had served even a year of her term.

Abigail, the youngest daughter was also taken from the family to “be taken care of by ye overseer of ye poor George Gardiner & that he endeavor to find a suitable place to take her as an apprentice as soon as may be”.

In August 1776, she was bound out to Peleg Gardner on the same terms as her sibling. The town awarded Gardner thirty shillings “to cloath sd Girl with at this Present Time[xii]”.

The council minced no words when it came to twenty-seven year old Joseph Billington Jr. The body voted for George Gardner to

“take care and Bind out Joseph Billington Junior (who is an Idle indolent Person & likely to become chargeable to ye town) to some suitable person for one Year on ye best Terms he can, or Ship him a voige to Sea agreeable to ye Laws of this Colony[xiii]”.

By 1781, the Council was forced to address his welfare again:

“Wheeras this Council hath had many and Repeated Complaints of The Eregular Life of Joseph Billington Jr. upon which this council vote and hereby Require Daniel Shearman Jr. one of the Overseers of the Poor…to keep the said…Billington to Laboour Or bind him to some Sutable person to be kept in Labour for the Support of himself and his Aged father Joseph Billington[xiv]”.

By this time, South Kingstown along with many towns adapted the practice of “warning out”, or evicting those who had not proven means of support. While many came to join families in communities, they were still given a timeline in which to establish or find work in a trade. Often families vouched for members, and some. Were given reprieve; but for those who were without family or someone to vouch for them, they were given notice to leave town.

As the law required, those “warned out” were removed to the town of their last legal residence which by the law was responsible for their welfare. This sometimes resulted in disputes between towns, and in one case, an episode where a sickly woman was carted from one Rhode Island town to another, being refused at every refuge sought.

These “warning outs” increased in the years leading up to the Revolutionary War. In South Kingstown, Rhode Island, between 1772 and 1776, the town council spent much of its time allotting the care of infirm persons to relations or neighbors, but also brought before the Council an increasing number of transients. Most were “removed” to the town of their birth, such as Joseph Larkin, “removed to Charlestown” in 1772, or Joanna Brown, “removed to Providence” in that same year. From then on, the Town Council saw an increasing number of indigent person brought before them, some twenty-nine cases in the next three years, involving both individuals and entire families.

The town supported those who were established inhabitants, such as Content Lee, “an aantient woman belonging to this town”, or widow Marberry Potter, whose brother was paid for her care.

As the Billington’s had been raised in South Kingstown, it seems the Council did all they could to support the family.

Joseph’s brother Daniel Billington’s family had also fallen on hard times. In December 1774, Gardiner had been sent under town order to

“fetch all ye goods belonging to Daniel Billington who is now under ye Care of this Town[xv]”

The census of 1774 shows that his household contained himself, his wife Mary, presumably listed with two other females over sixteen, and two males under sixteen[xvi]. These were likely grandchildren living with the family.

At the April 1776 meeting of the Town Council, a list was presented of “all the Inhabitants & other persons now residing in this Town who are unable to eqip themselves[xvii]”. The list contained some fifty individuals.

In June 1777, the town voted to pay for the expenses of Dr. William Chase for his treatment of the ”Daniel Billington family”.

Mentioned also in that Town Meeting was that Daniel’s wife Mary Billington was now listed in the care of overseer Gardner who was later paid thirty pounds for his keep from the 15th of February until the 10th of May 1779[xviii]. Mary was still living in the Gardner household through November when the town paid for flannel cloth to be provided for her.

It appears that Gardner, as an Overseer of the Poor was running a profitable home for transient people at this time, having within the household during these months Freelove Shearman, long a dependent of the town, as well as Mary Marshall. He would later take in George Helme and Mary Campbell.

In April of 1780 the town awarded him an additional two hundred and thirty-three pounds, eleven shillings for their care[xix].

Mary Billington continued to live in the Gardner household through September 1781, when she and George Helme were moved to the home of Daniel Shearman who was paid five shillings a week for their care[xx]. Helme was later taken in by Job Watson while Mary continued to live at Shearman’s home at 3 shillings per week expense. Within a year she was back at Gardner’s, records show he was paid ten pounds for her care in September 1782[xxi].

The town continued to provide for her, paying for cloth for shifts, continuing to pay Gardner as well through 1783. By March of 1784 however, she was back in Shearman’s home, sharing a household with Freelove Shearman, and Penelope Fisher, who would soon give birth. Likely believing that Mary might be useful in such a situation, Shearman agreed to keep Mary for “what the Town shall think reasonable[xxii]”.

By May however, Mary and Freelove were back in the Gardner home. Penelope Fisher and her infant child had been sent to the home of Thomas Braman.

By 1785, Daniel Billington was listed as living in the household of Amos Baker. The town agreed to pay Baker eight dollars rent for his time there[xxiii].

Within two years, Mary Billington was again at the Shearman household at the expense of eighteen shillings per week. With her was husband Daniel, giving the couple what seems to have been their first opportunity in a decade to be under the same roof. But it was not for long for them to remain in South Kiingstown. By March the Town Council had warned out the parents, paying William Little six pounds for “transporting Danl Billington and his wife to the Town of East Greenwich…[xxiv]’. The couple had been wed there forty-one years before, on March 10, 1736.

The town appears to have received them, but by September, Mary was back in the home of Shearman, and the town is paying 18 shillings a week for her care. In November, the town paid for a thick jacket, petticoat, flannel for a shift and 1 pair of shoes for her comfort, and paid seven pounds for her care through the months she lived there.

In December she was moved to the home of Paris Gardner at the expense of twelve shillings per week. The following February she was moved to the home of Rowse Potter at eleven shillings per week[xxv], and by April, back with Paris Gardner.

The following year Mary was sent once more to the home of Rowse Potter, where she seems to have found a stable home; continuing to live there until 1794[xxvi].

Joseph Billington also remained dependent upon the town. He had lived in the home of Rufus Sweet from January to March of 1787[xxvii]. That same year the Council awarded Lawrence Pearce for ”providing for Joseph Billington & Son”. It was also voted by the town to grant Pearce the right to “dispose of all the goods belonging to Joseph Billington to the best advantage he can” to defray the town’s longstanding expense.

The following month, the elder Billington was moved into the house of Thomas Champlin, an apparent humanitarian gesture as it was at Champlin’s own expense

So poor was Joseph, that in October to town provided for him 2 flannel shirts, a thick coat, one long pair of breeches, one pair of stockings, shoes, and a “thick Cap[xxviii]”.

By mid-November, he was boarding in the house of Mr. Christopher Hazard, who was paid accordingly for rent through December. He continued to live in the house through March 1788.

After that time he seems to have been moved once again, to the home of Jeffrey Champlin and remained there until November 1788. Champlin would be paid thirty-one pounds ten shillings for boarding Joseph for thirty-five weeks per order of the Council meeting of April 1789[xxix]. He would subsequently be paid eight pounds, and in November of that year “Thirty five Bushels and twenty five quarts of corn” as well as providing Billington with 2 shirts and a pair of trousers[xxx]. Champlin was paid expenditures of eleven pounds, eleven shillings, and one pence at the close of the year. Joseph seems to have been moved once again to the home of Thomas Champlin.

Joseph Billington and his son Joseph Jr. appear in the town records one last time in October 1790[xxxi] when the Town Council voted to pay Dr. Joshua Perry for medicines and visits to both men, among other poor of the town.

Did the children of the brothers fare better?

Of Joseph’s children, Sarah Billington who had been spared indenture as the oldest child, would marry William Tourgee Sr. on January 8, 1775. They would raise six children, losing two others in childbirth. She died in South Kingstown in 1836[xxxii].

Abigail Billington would serve her term of indenture and continue to live a long life in South Kingstown. She is listed in the 1840 United States census as a single female 60-69, living alone in the household[xxxiii].

Elisha Billington, who had been bound out as an infant married Abigail Brown in December 1, 1796[xxxiv]. By 1810 the couple were living in Newport and had raised at least two sons.

Of Daniel’s offspring,

Sarah, the oldest daughter, had married John Croucher on 2, February 1772 before the collapse of her family would continue to reside in South Kingstown. The couple had one son named John Jr. in 1774[xxxv].

Her sister Jemina would marry Ithema Granger of Hampden, Massachusetts and raise four children, Lucy, George Washington Granger, Daniel, and Mary “Polly” Granger who would all grow into adulthood, marry, and contribute to the next generation of that community[xxxvi]. There is evidence that when her father Daniel was warned out of South Kingstown, and apparently rejected as well by East Greenwich, he spent his last years in his daughter’s Hampden home.

Less is known of his sons. Daniel Jr. appears to have died sometime around 1774, Details of John’s life are even scarcer. Joseph, (born 1741) is also listed as dying “after 30, March 1774” at the age of thirty-three. The life of Samuel, (born 1742) is equally bereft of information.

Of the two youngest sons, Thomas would marry Mary Smith of South Kingstown and the couple would have three sons, James, Daniel and Robert, as well as daughter Harriet Byron Billington[xxxvii].

Elisha would marry South Kingstown native Sarah Tennant on 22 January 1775[xxxviii]. They had one son named John together, and both could be said to have lived a long and content life, even as he met an unfortunate end. On one Saturday evening in August 1821, the nearly eighty year old Elisha set out with his friend John Simmons to retrieve some lobsters from traps around the harbor. Somehow their boat overturned or they were cast overboard. Come sunup the boat was found, sunken but upright in the shallow waters off Rose Island, the masts standing upright above the waterline[xxxix].

His body was later found and interred at Brenton Neck[xl]. Sarah would outlive her husband by five years, dying sometime after 1836 at the age of eighty-seven.

Though it had taken four generations, the Billingtons had risen above poverty and the ties to a system of indenture that had bound members of the family for so long. More importantly, they had avoided the desperation and indignity of dependence that their ancestors had faced and established roots in South County for future generations.

[i] General Society of Mayflower Descendants, The Billington Family https://themayflowersociety.org/passenger-profile/passenger-profiles/the-billington-family/ accessed 12/12/22

[ii] Mourt’s Relation, p. 27

[iii] Morison, ed. Bradford, William Of Plymouth Plantation 1620-1647 Knopf 1970 pp. 156-7, 234

[iv] Shurtleff, Plymouth County Records, Vol. 2 p. 6

[v] Ibid. pp. 58-59

[vi] Ibid.

[vii] A Poorhouse in Each New England State New England historical Society http://newenglandhistoricalsociety.org Accessed 9/28/22

[viii] Wikitree, Francis Billington, Research notes https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Billinton-2

[ix] Stutz, Jean C. ed., South Kingstown Rhode Island Town Council Records 1771-1775 Pettasquamscutt Historical Society, 1988 p. 32

[x] Ibid. p. 48

[xi] Ibid.

[xii] Ibid. p.70

[xiii] Stutz, ed. South Kingstown Rhode Island Town Council Records 1771-1775 p. 48

[xiv] Ibid, p. 126

[xv] Stutz, ed. Stutz, ed. South Kingstown Rhode Island Town Council Records 1771-1775 pp.47-48

[xvi] Bartlett, John ed. Census of the Inhabitants of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations 1774 Genealogical Publishing Co. 1999 p. 84

[xvii]

[xvii] Stutz, ed. South Kingstown Rhode Island Town Council Records 1771-1775 p. 66

[xviii] Ibid, p. 79

[xix] Ibid, p. 113

[xx] Ibid, p.124

[xxi] Ibid, p. 134

[xxii] Ibid, p. 154

[xxiii] Stutz, ed. South Kingstown Rhode Island Town Council Records 1771-1775 pp. 178-179

[xxiv] Ibid, pp. 200, 202

[xxv] Ibid, p. 219

[xxvi] Ibid, p. 305

[xxvii] Stutz, ed. South Kingstown Rhode Island Town Council Records 1771-1775 p. 205

[xxviii] Ibid, p. 210

[xxix] Ibid, p. 242

[xxx] Ibid, p. 249

[xxxi] Several genealogical websites have Billington dying in 1782, but the clear delineation of the elder and junior Billingtons appears to refute that date.

[xxxii] https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Billington-5 accessed 11/15/22

[xxxiii] National Archives, United States Census 1840, South Kingstown, Rhode Island https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/3384678:8057 accessed 11/15/22

[xxxiv] Arnold, James A. Vital Record of Rhode Island 1636-1850: Births, Marriages, Deaths First Series Narragansett Historical Publishing Co. 1891 p. 7

[xxxv] https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Billington-517 accessed 11/16/22

[xxxvi] https://www.geni.com/people/Jemima-Granger/6000000000463295105 accessed 11/16/22

[xxxvii] https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/70604272/thomas-billington accessed 11/16/22

[xxxviii] https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Billington-518 accessed 11/16/22

[xxxix] Published in the Providence Patriot August 29, 1821. The story was also reported in the Newport Republican.

[xl] As reported in the Newport Mercury August 25, 1821.