See also

Family of Francis * EATON and Sarah *

Husband: Francis * EATON (1596-1633)
Wife: Sarah * (1606-1621)
Children: Samuel * EATON (1620-1684)

Husband: Francis * EATON

picture

Francis * EATON

Name: Francis * EATON
Sex: Male
Father: Richard * EATON (1565- )
Mother: Elizabeth * SHEAPHEARD (1569-1636)
Birth 11 Sep 1596 Bristol, Gloucestershire, England
Death 18 Nov 1633 (age 37) Plymouth, Plymouth, MA, US
Burial Burial Hill
Plymouth, Plymouth, MA, US

Wife: Sarah *

picture

Sarah *

Name: Sarah *
Sex: Female
Father: -
Mother: -
Birth 1606
Death 1621 (age 14-15)

Child 1: Samuel * EATON

picture

Samuel * EATON

Name: Samuel * EATON
Sex: Male
Spouse 1: Elizabeth (c. 1620- )
Spouse 2: Martha * BILLINGTON (1639-1704)
Birth 4 Apr 1620 Avon, Gloucestershire, England
Immigration 1620 (age 0) to Plymouth Colony, Plymouth, MA, US from England
Mayflower as an infant
Death 29 Oct 1684 (age 64) Middleborough, Plymouth, MA, US
Burial Burial Hill
Plymouth, Plymouth, MA, US

Note on Husband: Francis * EATON

MAYFLOWER! Francis Eaton was born in Bristol, England and baptized on September 11, 1596. It is believed he died in in 1633 in Plymouth, between March 25 when he was named on a tax list, and November 8, with the probate-related inventory of his possessions.[1][2]

Contents

[hide]

 

1 Life in England

2 On the Mayflower and in Plymouth

3 Marriage and family

4 Children of Francis Eaton:

5 Death and burial

6 References

7 Further reading

 

[edit] Life in England

 

Francis Eaton was identified as a house carpenter in Bristol records. His parents were John Eaton and Dorothy Smith. All of their children were known to have died before adulthood, with only Francis surviving. The children apparently died from a sickness that spread throughout the household in 1603/1604. No records of his own family exist in Bristol, indicating that he may have lived elsewhere in England prior to sailing on the Mayflower.[3][4][5]

"The Embarkation of the Pilgrims" (1857) by the American painter Robert Walter Weir at the Brooklyn Museum in New York City

[edit] On the Mayflower and in Plymouth

 

The Mayflower was destined for the Colony of Virginia (present day Long Island). The vessel left England on September 1620 and was a grueling 66-day journey marked by disease, which claimed two lives. The weather and the seas forced the ship to drop anchor inside the hook tip of Cape Cod Harbor. While still aboard ship Eaton signed the Mayflower Compact, which has been called the world's first written constitution.[6][7][8]

 

Francis Eaton, his wife Sarah, and infant son Samuel traveled on the Mayflower in 1620. Samuel had been born in 1620. He signed the Mayflower Compact on November 11, 1620 (OS).[9][10]

The Mayflower Compact, a painting by Jean Leon Gerome Ferris which was widely reproduced through much of the 20th century

 

In the 1623 Division of Land, Eaton received four shares - one for himself, one for his deceased first wife Sarah, one for his son Samuel, and one share for his current wife Dorothy, all of whom came on the Mayflower.[11]

 

By the time of his death in 1633, Francis Eaton was a freeman and Plymouth property owner. His possession inventory at his death indicated it was for “Fr Eaton carpenter of Plymouth” and that his debts were more than his estate value.[12][13]

[edit] Marriage and family

 

Francis Eaton married:

 

(1) Sarah _____ in England. She died of “general sickness” in the first winter.

 

(2) Dorothy _____ - generally thought to have been a maidservant of Mayflower passenger, John Carver, the first Plymouth governor. She married Francis Eaton sometime after the deaths of John Carver and his wife Katherine in early 1621. Dorothy died within a year or two after her marriage. They had no children.

 

(3) about 1626 - Christian Penn. She had arrived in Plymouth in the summer of 1623, either on the ship ‘Anne’ or ‘Little James’. They had three children. Christian Penn later married (2) Francis Billington, son of John Billington. They had nine children. She died in Middlebor about 1684..[14][15][16]

 

 

[edit] Children of Francis Eaton:

 

Son of Francis and Sarah Eaton:

 

Samuel Eaton grew up in Plymouth, later moving to Duxbury and then Middleboro, where he died in 1684.

 

Samuel Eaton married:

(1) Elizabeth _____ before March 10, 1646 and had two children.

(2) Martha Billington, his step-sister, on January 10, 1660/1. They had four children.

 

Children of Francis and Christian Eaton:

 

Rachel Eaton, born about 1625-5.

 

She married Joseph Ramsdell (Ramsden) and had at least one son. She died in Plymouth between June 1656 and October 1661.

 

Benjamin Eaton, born about March 1627/8.

 

He married Sarah Hoskins on December 4, 1660 and had four children. He died in Plympton on January 16, 1711/2.

 

(one child) - unknown - William Bradford said the child was “an idiot”. Died sometime after 1651.

 

[edit] Death and burial

 

Francis Eaton died on November 18, 1633 and was buried on Burial Hill in Plymouth. Death and burial information about the three wives of Francis Eaton:

 

(1) Sarah Eaton died in 1621. Burial place unknown.

 

(2) Dorothy Eaton died in 1622. Burial place unknown.

 

(3) Christian Penn Easton Billington died in July 1684. Burial place unknown.[17][18][19]

 

+++++++++++++++++

 

Francis - Francis Eaton was one of the Mayflower Company and a carpenter. The following copyrighted information was found at: http://members.aol.com/calebj/eaton.html Frances Eaton ANCESTRAL SUMMARY: The English ancestry of Francis Eaton was only recently discovered. In 1929, Charles E. Banks in his English Ancestry and Homes of the Pilgrim Fathers brought to light a Bristol apprenticeship document dated 4 December 1626, in which John Morgan son of Edward Morgan was apprenticed to Francis Eaton, carpenter, and his wife Dorothy. In the margin the document it says "The Mr at New England", and on the reverse it states John Morgan would receive 25 acres of land in New England and 15 bushels of wheat.In Mayflower Families for Five Generations: Francis Eaton (volume 1, updated in volume 9) and Plymouth Colony: Its History and Its People, this record was rejected as relating to Francis Eaton of the Mayflower because by 1626 Francis' wife was Christiana Penn, not somebody named Dorothy, and further the record says Eaton was "at New England" and "of Bristol", instead of being listed as "of Plymouth". The rejection of this record was challenged by myself on this web page in September 1995, and was again challenged by David Greene, editor of The American Genealogist in his review of Mayflower Families: Eaton (The American Genealogist, April 1996, p. 125-6). The reasons for our objection was that the Francis Eaton listed in the Bristol records is called a carpenter, as was the Francis Eaton of the Mayflower. And further, there are no records of any Francis Eaton in America by 1626, except for the Francis Eaton of the Mayflower. The slow travel of news could easily be the cause for the delayed information about the death of Francis Eaton's wife. In response, David Greene requested Neil D. Thompson, FASG, to search the parish registers of Bristol for information on the Francis Eaton in the apprentice record, to see if he was the Mayflower passenger. The results of the successful search were published in The American Genealogist, 72:301-309. The baptismal record of Francis Eaton of the Mayflower was discovered in the parish of St. Thomas, Bristol, on 11 September 1596, son of John Eaton. Two years earlier, the marriage of his parents were discovered: John Eaton and Dorothy Smith were married on 14 October 1594. Francis had other siblings as well: John (bp. 26 July 1595), Jane (bp. 20 January 1598/9), Samuel (bp. 8 November 1600), and Welthian (buried 20 March 1603/4). Francis' brother John died within three days of his baptism; and Jane, Samuel, and Welthian all died in March 1603/4 suggesting an illness wiped out the young children. The only brother Francis would remember would be Samuel--a significant find, since Francis Eaton of the Mayflower named his first son Samuel. Another record shows that in the 1615 will of Christopher Cary of Bristol, he gives to his eldest son "a garden ground, with a lodge in the same, in the parish of St. Phillip's, now in the occupation of Frances sic Eaton, house carpenter."

Note on Wife: Sarah *

MAYFLOWER!!