Feb 03 2008
Bentons connected to the Mayflower and the Pilgrims
Have you ever wanted to find a tie back to a famous relative? I always thought it would be cool to say I’m a descendant of someone famous.
Now here’s a little link to some Benton family fame. This information comes from Joan Benton Barber… (her grandfather is the brother of Robert Hugh Benton, who is the father of Gordon Benton, my grandfather). Joan has provided me with the geneology of the Benton family back to some of the passengers on the Mayflower and the first settlers in Plymouth. Some of these ancestors were also present at that famous 1621 Thanksgiving that we celebrate each year!
I have also heard that Paul Benton you also have this information connecting the Benton’s back to the Mayflower. It would be nice for us to get that information together and verified with what you have.
So here is the genealogy according to Joan.
- Robert Hugh Benton
- Hugh Henry Benton married Mary Abbie Morse
- Josiah Henry Benton married Harriet Buxton Niles
- Nathaniel Niles married Silence Sawyer
- Jonathan Sawyer married Tabitha Palmer
- Ichabod Palmer married Phebe Broughton
- John Broughton married Tabithia Kingsley
- John Kingsley married Sarah Sabin
- Samuel Sabin married Mary Billington
- Francis Billington married Christian Penn
- John Billington married Eleanor
John and Eleanor were on the Mayflower and settled in Plymouth. I am a 12th generation descendant of John Billington. Read on below for a little more details about our ancestor John Billington.
The Billington Family
John and his family (wife Eleanor and sons John and Francis) came over on the Mayflower and were part of the original Plymouth colony. Check out the mayflower history page for details
If you look at the details about John Billington we learn that ” The Billington family was Plymouth Colony’s troublemakers.” John was hung for murder in 1630 and his oldest son went missing before he died. We are decendents of his younger son Francis.
According to the Crime and Punishment in the Plymouth Colony page
“The first person executed for murder was Mayflower passenger John Billington, who was hanged in September 1630. He had gunned down John Newcomen, apparently the result of an ongoing quarrel.”
On a positive note Eleanor was one of only five adult women to survive the first winter and only one of four to participate in the famous 1621 Thanksgiving. This is according Eleanor’s mayflower history page.
Well there you have it. Please post any comments and any information related to this geneology!
Oh my!! Very exciting to link back to the Mayflower and the Plymouth Colony!! I hadn’t realized that only 4 women survived to participate in the First Thanksgiving and your ancestor was one of them. Wow!!
I actually didn’t have the Mayflower line info. There is a lot of info on the web about the above family members by doing a google search using “Mayflower history”. Apparently their son almost blew the whole ship up! As a link to another famous relative is “David Farragut”(1801-1870) a civil war hero. He was a US naval commander and at the battle of Mobile Bay and he is qouted as saying, “Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!”. He is a second cousin twice removed to Mary Henry. Mary was married to Caleb Prouty, who was Josiah Henry Benton’s Maternal Grandfather. Also, Hugh Henry Benton, My Great Grandfather, was named after Mary’s Great Grandfather, Hugh Henry. Our Henry line goes back to Scotland and Ireland ( above info is from posts/fmily trees on Ancestery.com) By the way we have an LDS relative I discovered in Rescue, CA- Keith Benton. He has quite a few posts and has done quite a bit of research along our lines. Thanks Keith. And thank you Mike for all the work you are doing and sharing! Uncle , Paul
Paul,
Do you have an ancestry.com account? I do and I’d like to invite you to visit my trees and such so we can coordinate the genealogy. Also if have links to the other stuff on ancestry.com if you could post them… then we could have them documented here.
Thanks
This is awesome - My sister did a geneology search for my sons - Brandon and Jeremy - They are also the 12th Great Grandsons of John Billington - The separation occurs in the Sabin Family - We are descendants of Israel Sabin - We live in the Hudson Valley in NY