{"id":100482,"date":"2024-09-13T12:06:57","date_gmt":"2024-09-13T16:06:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.genealogybank.com\/?p=100482"},"modified":"2024-09-25T06:49:48","modified_gmt":"2024-09-25T10:49:48","slug":"mayflower-descendants-whos-who-part-39-part-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/mayflower-descendants-whos-who-part-39-part-2.html","title":{"rendered":"Mayflower Descendants: Who\u2019s Who, Part 39 (part 2)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Introduction:<\/em><\/strong> In this article, Melissa Davenport Berry continues her series on Mayflower descendants, focusing on the family lines of William Brewster and John Billington. Melissa is a genealogist who has a website, americana-archives.com<\/a>, and a Facebook group, New England Family Genealogy and History<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Today I continue with my series on \u201cMayflower Descendants: Who\u2019s Who,\u201d again focusing on Elizabeth Anne (Annis) Coughlin, a direct descendant of Mayflower<\/em> passengers Elder William Brewster, the spiritual leader of Plymouth Colony, and the not-so-pious but very colorful John Billington.<\/p>\n

Of the 102 passengers who came to the New World on the Mayflower<\/em>, about half were Separatists \u2013 Puritans who wanted to break from the Church of England and find religious freedom on the other side of the Atlantic. The other half were tradespeople hired by the Mayflower\u2019s<\/em> investors to help the new colony succeed. The religious contingent called themselves \u201cSaints\u201d (William Brewster was one) and called the tradespeople \u201cStrangers\u201d (this group included John Billington).<\/p>\n

\"Photo:
Photo: Pilgrims Point \u2013 The Mayflower Steps. This historical marker is in Plymouth, England, at the point where the Pilgrims are believed to have onboarded the Mayflower. Credit: Michael Herrick, Historic Database.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

To recap: Recently I have been working with two separate Massachusetts families on their applications for membership into the General Society of Mayflower Descendants. Both descend from William Brewster through his daughter Patience, who married Governor Thomas Prence.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/a>
Milwaukee Journal (Milwaukee, Wisconsin), 27 November 1957, page 8<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Elizabeth Anne (Annis) Coughlin<\/strong><\/p>\n

My first client, Elizabeth Anne (Annis) Coughlin, descends from William Brewster through her paternal side via the marriage of her second gr. great grandmother Sarah Jane Worthylake to Arthur H. Annis, son of Elisha Gardner and Jane Ewart (Bryden) Annis. (See Part 1<\/a> for the full lineage.)<\/p>\n

\"Photo:
Photo: Elizabeth Anne (Annis) Coughlin. Credit: Elizabeth Coughlin.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Sarah Jane (Worthylake) Annis (1860-1940) was born in Nova Scotia to George Edward and Mary E. (Tibbits) Worthylake, and is a direct descendant of George Worthylake, the first lighthouse keeper of Boston whose story is worthy of the annals.<\/p>\n

The Billington Clan<\/strong><\/p>\n

However, before we begin with the keeper of light, I must include another ancestor in Elizabeth Anne (Annis) Coughlin\u2019s tree who sailed on the Mayflower<\/em> \u2013 and that is John Billington.<\/p>\n

Here is Elizabeth\u2019s lineage match to John Billington.<\/p>\n

\"Photo:
Photo: Elizabeth Coughlin\u2019s lineage match to John Billington. Credit: Elizabeth Coughlin.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Elizabeth descends from Billington\u2019s son Francis, who along with his brother John Jr. created chaos in the new colony. In fact, Francis<\/a> nearly blew up the Mayflower<\/em> before it even landed on shore.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
Omaha World-Herald (Omaha, Nebraska), 22 November 1959, page 103<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In fact, the Billington brothers have been dubbed \u201cAmerica\u2019s First Juvenile Delinquents<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"An<\/a>
Omaha World-Herald (Omaha, Nebraska), 22 November 1959, page 103<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This article reports:<\/p>\n

The Mayflower was still riding at anchor off the tip of Cape Cod, when Francis was accused of nearly blowing the sturdy three-master sky high.<\/p>\n

His prank is recorded in full detail in \u201cMourt\u2019s Relation,\u201d a journal written by William Bradford and Edward Winslow to attract new settlers to the colony.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fifth day (of December, 1620),\u201d so the journal relates, \u201cwe through God\u2019s mercy escaped a great danger by the foolishness of a boy, one Francis of Billington\u2019s sonnes, who in his father\u2019s absence had got gun powder and shot off a piece or two and made squibs (pellets), and there being a fowling piece charged in his father\u2019s cabbin shot her off in the cabbin.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere being a little barrell of powder halfe full scattered in and about the cabbin, the fire being within foure foote of the bed betweene deckes and many flints and iron things about and so many people about the fire. And yet by God\u2019s mercy no harme was done.\u201d<\/p>\n

The brothers\u2019 parents had their own share of drama: Daddy Billington was the first among the adults to commit murder. He was hanged 10 years after the Mayflower<\/em> landed; and Mama Billington<\/a> was sentenced to sit in the stock and be whipped for slander against John Doane<\/a>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Below are photos of Elizabeth\u2019s grandfather and father, the 12th and 13th generations of Mayflower<\/em> passengers William Brewster, Patience Brewster, John Billington, and Francis Billington.<\/p>\n

\"Photos:
Photos: (left to right) Rupert Ellsworth Annis II (1915-1991) and Rupert \u201cTony\u201d Ellsworth Annis III (1944). Credit: Elizabeth Anne (Annis) Coughlin.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

There is no historian who serves up the skinny on the Plymouth Pilgrims better than Edward Rowe Snow<\/a>, historian, Flying Santa<\/a>, and himself a direct descendant of Mayflower<\/em> passengers.<\/p>\n

Here is Snow\u2019s intel on John Billington and his family, published in the Patriot Ledger<\/em> from his column \u201cSea and Shore Gleanings.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"An<\/a>
Patriot Ledger (Quincy, Massachusetts), 11 November 1965, page 41<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This article reports:<\/p>\n

John Billington with his wife, Eleanor<\/a>, and their two boys, John and Francis, came across the ocean in the Mayflower in 1620. Like some of the other Pilgrims, they were not members of the church, but were willing to cast their lot with those visitors to the New World.<\/p>\n

Eleanor was a quiet, pious woman, kind, generous, and faultless, until made insane by \u201cthe deep damnation\u201d of her husband\u2019s \u201ctaking off,\u201d according to family tradition.<\/p>\n

The Billingtons possessed more worldly goods than most of the Pilgrims, and built one of the first dwelling houses in the colony.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"Illustration:
Illustration: Henry Glassie\u2019s drawing of the proposed Billington house (1973). Credit: The Plymouth Colony Archive Project Illustrations for Seventeenth-Century Timber Framing.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The father and sons were strong and healthy, fond of the woods. They enjoyed hunting and fishing, which helped support the sufferers during the terrible scourge of the first winter.<\/p>\n

The Billington family, with Elder Brewster and two or three others who escaped the terrible pestilence, devoted all their energies to waiting upon their sick and suffering companions. Governor Bradford and Thomas Morton both wrote that they were much loved, a family of industry and enterprise.<\/p>\n

The elder Billington was selected by Miles Standish as his chief lieutenant and man-at-arms, and he joined in all military exploits. He signed the Mayflower contract, stood by the others faithfully in all encounters with the natives, and bore all the burdens of toil and difficulty.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"Photo:
Photo: reenactor playing John Billington at Plimouth Plantation, 24 November 2014. Credit: Brian Snyder.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

However, all the years of kindness and companionship counted for nothing when trials and misfortune came upon him.<\/p>\n

Billington had evidently incurred Governor Bradford\u2019s bitter enmity in some way, and in spite of his earlier praise, Bradford eventually turned against him.<\/p>\n

The whole story of John Billington\u2019s accusation, trial, and execution is clouded in mystery and contradiction. Bradford gave it 11 lines in his journal<\/a> which he wrote 20 years after the occurrence.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

To be continued\u2026<\/p>\n

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Note on the header image:<\/em><\/strong> \u201cMayflower in Plymouth Harbor,\u201d by William Halsall, 1882. Credit: Wikimedia Commons.<\/p>\n

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