Christiana Penn

My 9th Great-Grandmother was Christiana Penn. She was the daughter of George Penn, and sister to Admiral William Penn, who was the father of William Penn, the founder of Pennsylvania. That information alone makes her very interesting. We find that her brother the Admiral was so appreciated by king Charles II of England, that he gave the land of Pennsylvania to his son William after the death of the Admiral. Unfortunately, it appears that Christiana and William were not close for most of their lives because as will be shown below, Christiana fell onto many hard times in her life.

Christiana was born 2 Sep 1613 in Minety, Wiltshire, England .  Below is her story in her own words.

My birth name is Christiana Penn. I am twenty-seven years old and have been married to Francis Eaton for nine years. Francis and I were married in 1624 here in Plymouth Colony. We have three children and Francis has one older son. Rachel is seven years old, Benjamin is five, and our poor little Christopher, who is not right in his head, is three years old. Francis’ son Samuel is twelve years old. Francis and I are both originally from St. Thomas Parish in Bristol, Gloucester County, England.

My husband Francis Eaton was born in Bristol, on September 11, 1596. He is thirty-seven years old. Francis’ parents are John and Dorothy Eaton. Francis was twenty-four when he, his wife, Sarah, and their baby Samuel arrived in Plymouth Colony on the Mayflower in 1620. Francis had three brothers, John, Samuel and Welthian and a sister, Jane, who all died from a sickness when they were very young. The only brother who Francis remembers is Samuel. I think that is why he named his first son, Samuel.

I, Christiana Penn, was born in 1606 in Bristol. My parents are George and Elizabeth Penn. Some people spell my name Christian. I arrived here in June 1623 when I was seventeen years old on the Anne. My father George Penn was born in 1571 in Birdham, Sussex County England and died last year, 1632, here in Plymouth Colony. Father’s parents are William and Margaret Penn. My mother, Elizabeth, is also from Birdham. I have one brother, William, who was born April 23, 1621 in Bristol, England. I am eleven years older than he is. In fact my step-son Samuel is older than my brother. William Penn is a good old family name. My great-grandfather William Penn was born in 1525 in Gloucester-shire, England. He must have been an important person because he is buried in the front of St. Leonard’s Church in Minety, his home town. There is even a plaque at the church commemorating his life.

By the time I arrived in Plymouth, in June 1623, Francis had his own land and had built his own house. Francis is a carpenter and skilled with the knife and hammer. He can make fine clapboard. Our tiny one room home is built with logs from the forest. Francis made wattle by weaving sticks together to make the inside walls. He mixed clay, water, and straw together to make daub plaster to cover the wattle and to keep the cold winds from coming through the cracks. He gathered reeds and wild grasses to thatch the roof to keep the snow and rain out. The floor is hard packed dirt. The chimney is made out of daub and wattle. Francis has made all of our furniture except for the old chest of drawers which I brought from home and a few other items which Sarah and Dorothy brought with them.

We use the open hearth for heating the house and for cooking. Most of our life takes place in our home around the hearth because the fire provides us with heat and light. We work, play, teach the children to read, teach the children a trade and worship in our home. My main job is to care for our children. I grow the food and cook it for my family and I preserve a lot of food for winter. I make all of our clothes and carry the water to keep them clean. Sometimes I make more candles than I need and my friend makes more soap than she needs so we trade but most of the time I make all of our own candles, soaps, and other basic household items. Once a week I go outdoors to the community ovens to bake our bread.

We spend a daily time in prayer. Francis is the head of our house. He makes all of the decisions and earns a living to provide for us. Francis is a fine carpenter so his skills are always needed by someone here in Plymouth.

A wooden fence around the house outlines our property. We carefully divided the yard into small raised rectangular beds with a dirt path between the beds. The garden beds are just wide enough so that I can weed them easily from either side. We gathered rocks and planks from the shore to raise the garden beds. Before I left England Mother helped me gather seeds and a few live plants to bring to my garden. Most of the live plants didn’t survive, but the seeds did. Every fall I collect more seeds. Dorothy had planted a garden before she died so there are some of her plants here too. I have several different kinds of plants in the garden which I can use for food, for flavor and some for medicines. I save all the vegetable scraps, and human and animal waste from our home. I work the waste carefully into the soil so my garden grows very well. It has taken long hard work over these years for my garden to finally flourish, but it has been worth it. This garden feeds our family until the main field crops are harvested. When I first came to Plymouth I didn’t know how to grow food. The weather is so much colder here than back home.

The Indians around here are very friendly. Years ago they taught us how to plant their corn and how to organize the garden so we use as little space as possible and grow the most food as possible. First I dig a lot of holes about six inches deep and throw a dead fish into each hole and cover the fish with dirt. Then I plant a few corn seeds in each mound. When the corn sprouts are about hand-high I plant climbing beans around the corn. When the beans grow they climb up the cornstalk. Then I plant squash and pumpkin seeds around the outside of the mounds. The squash grows around the beans and corn and I don’t have many weeds growing under those plants. By fall I have a beautiful patch of corn, beans and squash growing in the same space. My garden also has things like cabbage, parsley, carrots, radishes, spinach, and lettuce as well as parsnip, thyme, sage and other seasoning. I use the leaves of the house leek, which looks like an old hen and her little chickens, to smooth the cracked skin on my rough dry hands. Francis uses the house leek sometimes to patch holes in the thatched roof. I also grow elecampane to treat the phlegm of the deep cough and blessed thistle to help settle upset stomachs.

All of our farm animals like the hogs, chickens, goats, cattle and sheep have to be brought from England, too. We are always grateful to get more animals. We are even more excited when the animals have new babies because it means fresh milk and butter and later meat. We shear the sheep, spin the yarn then weave or knit warm clothing. We always need more farm animals.

When people get sick there is so little we can do for them and we don’t really know how to care for them except try to make them comfortable. I do have my herb garden but it is not much help when someone is really sick. Most of us women have a baby every couple of years. We loose so many babies and mothers in childbirth. The children who live often get sick and die before they can grow up. You have to be very strong to survive in this world. It was the same way in England. Francis was only seven years old when his four brothers and sisters died of a sickness. Actually there is some terrible sickness going around Plymouth Colony now and our friend Peter Browne, who came on the Mayflower with Francis, has recently died. Francis has the disease and has been ill for several months.

Francis acquired several acres of land during the past twelve year but we had to sell some of our land in order to pay people to work for us. Francis has been so sick and now we are far behind in paying the men to work in the field for us. Right now, Francis is unable to do any of the farming and can’t work at his carpenter trade either. Several men have helped us such as Mr. Fuller, Web, Rich Sparrow, Mr. Billington, and Thomas Prence. We do not have the money to pay them now. Last year Francis sold four acres of our land to Edward Winslow and thirty-two acres to William Brewster.

I keep telling Francis he should write down what is to be done with his property and belongings if he dies, but he won’t think of it. He has one cow and a calf, two hogs, fifty bushels of corn, a white hat and a black hat, boots, saws, hammers, and adze, square, augers, a chisel, boards, fishing lead, and some kitchen items. Francis owns our house but I am afraid we may have to sell the house soon. If Francis doesn’t get well I don’t know what will happen to me and our children. Samuel is twelve, Rachel is seven and Benjamin is five years old. Mr. Bradford says that our baby Christopher is an “ideote” but I love him even though he will never be able to take care of himself. I know we will survive, but it is hard to think about the future without Francis to care for all of us.

[End of Christiana Penn's Story.]


When CHRISTIAN married FRANCIS BILLINGSLY she was already a widow. Her new husband was likely not well received in the community, being the son of JOHN the murderer, which makes one wonder why she would chose to marry him. Perhaps it was love? or perhaps a necessity to not be a widow supporting four children without support?

It has been suggested that CHRISTIAN'S cousin was Admiral William Penn, whose son, William Penn, founded Pennsylvania. We’ll never know. Here’s what we do know about her:
1.) She arrived in Plymouth aboard the ship "Anne" in 1623
2.) In the 1623 Plymouth land division Christian Penn received one acre as a passenger on the Anne in 1623
3.) She was first married to Francis Eaton in 1624/25
4.) Her second marriage was to FRANCIS BILLINGTON in 1634
5.) Into her new marriage she brought 3 of her own children and one step-child from her deceased husbands first marriage.
6.) She had nine children with FRANCIS BILLINGTON. Seven survived into adulthood.
7.) On December 4th, 1638 her husband FRANCIS was fined for "drinking tobaccoe in the heighway".
8.) In 1642, according to the records of the town of Plymouth, several (at least 5) of her children were "bound out" to other families. This included Mary at age five, and Joseph, who apparently ran away from his foster parents to return to his birth parents, FRANCIS and CHRISTIAN. It is written that they turned him away quite sternly, because according to court documents of the time, FRANCIS and CHRISTIAN and step-son Benjamin were to be put into the stocks if they received run-away Joseph into their home.
9.) Between the years 1644-1650 death took two of her young children in a row (one is un-named, the other was Rebecca).
10.) In February 1665 her house burned down. Necessities were "collected for the Releife of FRANCIS BILLINGTON, hee haveing lately suffered great lose by the burning of his house". Records of the Town of Plymouth, Vol. 1, page 83.
11.) On June 7th, 1672 CHRISTIAN'S daughter, Dorcas, was whipped for committing fornication (probably for being pregnant and unmarried). She had an illegitimate son that same year.
12.) In 1676 CHRISTIAN'S son-in-law, Robert Beere, was killed by Indians. (Her daughter Elizabeth’s next husband, Thomas Patey, drowned in the Seekonk River in 1695).
13.) In 1680 CHRISTIAN'S daughter-in-law, Grace (wife to Joseph), was brought to stand before the courts, a second time, for theft. Joseph was ordered numerous times to find a job and support his family. He had the reputation of being a "lay-about". Perhaps this was fueled by his anger at being "bound out" to another family.
14.) The final thing we know about CHRISTIAN PENN BILLINGTON was that she died in July 1684 at Middleboro, Massachusetts.

I can’t help but think that CHRISTIAN'S story is a sad one. It started out with such grand adventure - leaving England for worlds unknown. I doubt she could’ve imagined how her life would end up. I hope there was some happiness in it. But happiness probably didn’t come easy when you married into, what Govenor Bradford called, "one of the profanest families among them".

I can't put any blame on Christiana, because in those days you did what you had to in order to survive. Once she was widowed, and Francis Eaton's property was probated, she had nothing left to take care of her children with. Perhaps in a different time her life would have been much easier, but it would be very difficult to put oneself in her shoes during the 17th Century. I can't help but be proud of her and what she was able to accomplish with what was available to her. Her minor scrapes with the law, and those of other family members can probably be overlooked when we realize how difficult life would have been for her.

I only wish I could have met her because I'm sure she would have been a very intersting person.