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Samuel Eaton was the only child of Sarah and Francis
Eaton, a carpenter from Bristol. He
was an infant when he and his parents arrived in Plymouth in 1620 on the Mayflower.
Samuel's mother, Sarah, died the
first winter of 1621. Francis
remarried (his second wife's last name is unknown, her first name was
Dorothy; she is believed to be the unnamed Carver maidservant listed as a
Mayflower passenger by Bradford). Dorothy
also died. Francis' third wife was Christian
Penn who had arrived in Plymouth on the Anne in 1623.
Christian and Francis had 3 children - Samuel's stepbrothers and sisters.
Samuel's
father, Francis, died in 1633. Samuel
was then 13 years old.
After Francis Eaton died, Samuel's stepmother Christian Penn Eaton married
Mayflower passenger Francis Billington.
Samuel continued to live with his stepmother Christian and her new husband Francis Billington.
Christian and Francis had 9
children of their own including a daughter named Martha who was born
around 1638.
In
1636, at age 16, Samuel Eaton was apprenticed to John Cooke, another Mayflower
child grown to adulthood. At
about age 26, Samuel married a woman named Elizabeth (last name unknown)
and moved to Duxbury. They
had two children (their names are also unknown).
Elizabeth died; Samuel remarried on January 10, 1661.
His new wife was Martha Billington, daughter of his stepmother
Christian by her Mayflower husband Francis Billington. Samuel and Martha had four children: Sarah,
Samuel, Mercy and Bethiah.
At some point during the 1660s, Samuel moved from Duxbury to
Middleboro, where he died in 1684.
Samuel Eaton died without a will, but we do have the inventory of his estate at the time
of his death. An
inventory of his estate was given to the Court on October 29, 1684.
Click HERE for Samuel Eaton's
inventory. His burial site is unknown. |
