That He Was A Man Of Early
Middle Age Is Inferable From The Fact That He Married The Widow
Martha Ford, Who Came In The FORTUNE In 1621.
As she then was the
mother of three children, it is improbable that she would have
married a very young man.
He appears, from certain collateral
evidence, to have been a mechanic of some kind, but it is not clear
what his handicraft was or whence he came.
John Billington (Bradford sometimes spells it Billinton) and his family,
Bradford tells us, "were from London." They were evidently an
ill-conditioned lot, and unfit for the company of the planters, and
Bradford says, "I know not by what friend shuffled into their
Company." As he had a wife and two children, the elder of whom must
have been about sixteen years old, he was apparently over
thirty-five years of age. There is a tradition that he was a
countryman bred, which certain facts seem to confirm. (See land
allotments for data as to age of boys, 1632.) He was the only one
of the original colonists to suffer the "death penalty" for crime.
Mrs. Ellen (or "Elen") Billington, as Bradford spells the name, was
evidently of comporting age to her husband's, perhaps a little
younger. Their two sons, John and Francis, were lively urchins who
frequently made matters interesting for the colonists, afloat and
ashore. The family was radically bad throughout, but they have had
not a few worthy descendants. Mrs. Billington married Gregory
Armstrong, and their antenuptial agreement is the first of record
known in America.
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