A real life murder mystery centuries old.

John Billington 

Born 1580

Died Sept 30, 1630 by public execution. 

I like to think that every ancestor has made an impact on my life just by living, loving, and even dying. A little bit of their soul, spirit, and DNA moves along into each new generation born. When I read this story the first time I was like WOW! I wasn't sure whether to be ashamed having this as a past or proud of the adventurous feral spirited they passed down. I know one thing when I read about the Billington's I can totally picture my own family doing these things (Maybe that's where the ADHD comes from). They were regarded as the worst of the worst by the community. The more I read though they seemed to be very outspoken and maybe just a tad wild. I'll let you make your own decisions. Over the next few days I'm going to do a few posts on the Billington family. I'm going to start with John Billington the first of the family over and the first murder in the colonies. 

John Billington seemed to have a pretty big voice and wasn't afraid to use it. As I have read his story I can almost see him up on a soapbox (Yes I know they didn't have those then) preaching against what he saw as injustices. In all reality they were likely whispered words between men. He came over on the Mayflower with his family, but was not a puritan. In fact he seemed to dislike the rule of the religious group and probably wasn't happy about signing the mayflower compact*. This was all after he was involved in an attempted mutiny of the Mayflower. Not much is known about his life in England besides he was likely trying to escape creditors and was Catholic. The puritan's weren't very fond of Catholics. 

It was very clear that William Bradford and the puritans hated the Billington family. They thought them wild and untrustworthy. It would be impossible to know for sure how they were as we do not have any sources besides the puritans. There was a man, Thomas Morton who was once quoted in his book as saying that John Billington was beloved by many. After reading up on the man and the things he was involved in such as a conspiracy against the puritan leaders. I think maybe deep down Billington really felt like the Puritan's were wrong.Any way one looks at it Billington seemed to have some problems with authority and was vocal about it. In today's society we call it freedom of speech. Back then it was a crime. 

It was a decade later when John Billington ran into John Newcomin, he was a relatively newly arrive citizen in the area. Billington and Newcomin didn't think to much of each other. They in fact had a long standing quarrel. The two men met in the woods and by the end of their meeting Newcomin was shot in the shoulder and later died. Here is where we get into a tale of two killings:

Story one (William Bradford): That the two men met int he woods and got into an argument over deer hunting. That John Billington then hid out and waited to shoot John Newcomin. He argued that it was a plotted killing and that Billington needed hanged. Many did not want him executed (Another piece of evidence he may have been more liked than Bradford leads us to believe). In the end he was found guilty and hung despite only circumstantial evidence.

Story two (Thomas Morton in his book) John Billington and Newcomin did meet in the woods and there was an argument. The difference in this story is that Billington shot him in self defense. It was also said that Billington felt guilt having done it. This is also a plausible explanation. 

There are other accounts, but these two come from people that were in the area at the time. Whatever the truth is we will never know. The truth died on Sept 30, 1630 when John Billington was hanged. His legacy did live on through his son Frances who went on to have a pretty large family. Which is why we are hear discussing the fact that my great, great, great, great..... grandfather was the first European murder in the New World and also the first man executed in the New world as well.   

    

*The Mayflower compact was a set of rules for the good of the colonies. It basically put the puritans in charge.

Sources:

 https://drlindallabin.wordpress.com/2015/03/03/john-billington/

https://familysearch.org/photos/artifacts/8983962

http://history.howstuffworks.com/history-vs-myth/america-first-murderer2.htm

http://www.hhhistory.com/2015/04/john-billington-of-mayflower.html