Genealogy Data Page 214 (Notes Pages)

Note: John Billington came on the Mayflower with his wife Ellen [or Elinor] and children John and Francis. Billington, who was not one of the Leyden group, became a Mayflower Passenger at Southampton.

Billington troubles are noted from the start. While still on board ship in Provincetown Harbor, Young Francis Billington nearly blew up the Mayflower while it was sitting in Provincetown Harbor--he shot off a gun near an open barrel of gun powder inside the Mayflower's cabin, a near disaster for the ship and passengers. Of this Bradford writes "and yet, by God's mercy, no harm done." (MF5G V:31)

Shortly after settling down at Plymouth, John Billington the elder was charged with contempt when he bad-mouthed and insulted Myles Standish, and was sentenced to have his neck and heels tied together, but he humbled himself and was forgiven. A few months later, John Billington the younger wandered off into the woods, and was taken by the Nauset Indians to Cape Cod, where he lived for about a month before he was returned.

In 1624, John Billington the Elder was implicated in the Oldham-Lyford scandal, in which blasphemous letters were secretly being written and sent to England trying to undermine the Plymouth Colony. However, Billington claimed he was a scapegoat, and there was not enough evidence to show he was a party to the scandal so the matter was dropped.

In 1630, John Billington the Elder was tried and executed for the murder of John Newcomen, whom Billington had shot with a musket in a quarrel over a past dispute between the two. He was found guilty by a grand and petty jury, "by plain and notorious evidence", and became the first Englishman to be hanged in New England.

They consulted Governor Winthrop and other Bay Colony leaders. Perhaps Bradford was just being cautious, for fear of possibly looking too revengeful, since Billington, by his rebellious behavior over the years, had long made himself obnoxious to them, and thus they asked for concurrence of their new neighbor for the death penalty. The Bay Colony advised that Billington ought to die and the land be purged of blood, and Billington was hanged in September 1630.

Bradford's writings, however, continue to present Billington as contentious, unmanageable and undesirable. In a 1625 letter to Robert Cushman in England (Governor Bradford's Letter Book,MD V:79, New-Plymouth, June 9, 1625), Bradford writes: "Billington still rails against you, and threatens to arrest you, I know not wherefore; he is a knave, and so will live and die." [Mr. "Cusksnan" died before this letter arrived.]

Finally, in the only known eyewitness account, Bradford relates (Bradford History MF5G V:33) that in 1630 "John Billington the elder, one that came over with the first, was arraigned, and both by grand and petty jury found guilty of wilful murder, by plain and notorious evidence. And was for the same accordingly executed . . ." " He and some of his had been often punished for miscarriages before, being one of the profanest families amongst them; they came from London, and I know not 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."

In 1642 (Records of the Town of Plymouth 1:12) numerous of the children were put out. "Concerneing the placeing and disposing of ffrancis Billingtons children according to the Act and order of the Court:

"It is ordered and agreed upon that John Cooke the yonger shall have Joseph until hee shalbe of the age of twenty and one years (being now about vi or vii years old) and fynd him meat drink and apparell during the said terme." One can imagine the psychological hurt of a young child being put out of hishome, and it is noted in the records that as a child (MF5G V:39) "he (Joseph) repeatedly ran away from his master to return to his parents; in July 1643 he and they were sternly admonished." This Joseph, who is later found at Block Island, was apparently considered lazy and shiftless. He is repeatedly ordered in the town records to go to work and support his family.(NEHGR 105:179, Notes on Block Islanders of Seventeenth Century.) A probable son Elisha is cited as having following his father's shiftless ways. (NEHGR: 106:105, Two Block Island Documents)