Birth: Francis Eaton was born in Bristol, England shortly
before September 11, 1596, the day he was baptized.
Death:
He died in Plymouth sometime in 1633, between March 25 when his
name appeared on a tax list, and November 8, when his possessions were
inventoried for probate.
Ship: Mayflower,
1620
Life in England: The records in Bristol
identify Francis Eaton as a house carpenter. The son of John and Dorothy
(Smith) Eaton, he was the only one of their children known to have
survived to adulthood. No record of his marriage or the birth of his
first child has been found in Bristol, so he may have lived elsewhere in
England before he traveled to New England.
Life in New
England: Francis, his wife Sarah, and infant son Samuel arrived in
New England aboard the Mayflower in November 1620. By the time
of his death he was a freeman and owned various pieces of property in
Plymouth. The inventory of “Fr Eaton carpenter of Plymouth” showed that
his debts far exceeded the value of his estate.He was buried in
Plymouth, but the location is unknown.
Family: Francis
married (1) Sarah _____ in England. She died in the first winter of the
“general sickness.” Francis’ second wife is generally believed to have
been the maidservant of fellow Mayflower passenger, John Carver.
Her first name was likely Dorothy. She died a year or two after the
marriage.They had no children. He married (3) Christian Penn, who
arrived in Plymouth in the summer of 1623, aboard either the Anne or
Little James. They had three children. Christian Eaton married
(2) Francis Billington, had nine children by him, and died in Middleboro
around 1684.
Son of Francis and Sarah Eaton:
- Samuel
grew up in Plymouth, later moving to Duxbury and then Middleboro, where
he died in 1684. He married (1) Elizabeth _____ before March 10, 1646
and had two children. He married (2) his step-sister, Martha Billington,
on January 10, 1660/1 and had four children.
Children of
Francis and Christian Eaton:
- Rachel was born around 1625–6.
She married Joseph Ramsdell (or Ramsden) in 1645 and had at least one
son. She died in Plymouth between June 1656 and October 1661. Benjamin
was 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.
- Of the third child, Governor Bradford in his list of Mayflower
passengers said merely that the child was “an idiot” and was still
alive in 1651.