Francis Eaton (Mayflower passenger)

Francis Eaton was born ca. 1596 in Bristol, England, and died in the autumn of 1633 in Plymouth, Massachusetts Bay Colony. He, with his wife and son, were passengers on the historic 1620 voyage of the Mayflower. His signature appears on the Mayflower Compact.

Francis Eaton was baptised on 11 September 1596 at St. Thomas' Church in Bristol, England.

Francis was a son of John Eaton and his wife Dorothy (Smith). He had younger siblings who were born after him – including Jane in 1598/99, Samuel in 1600 and Welthian in 1602, but all siblings died of a possible devastating illness in March 1603 which may have spread through the whole family. He was the only child of this family known to survive until adulthood.

Eaton had become a house carpenter in Bristol by about age nineteen (c.1615) and was living in a tenement in the parish of St. Phillips, Bristol. Bristol records subsequent to 1615 do not list Francis Eaton, who may have left England for Holland, as Bradford lists him on the Mayflower passenger list section for Leiden congregation members.

Probably about 1618 or 1619 in England, Francis Eaton married a woman named Sarah (surname unknown). There is no record in Bristol of his first marriage or of the birth of his son Samuel there, indicating the family may have lived elsewhere in England prior to boarding the Mayflower.

Francis Eaton, his wife Sarah, with newborn son Samuel came on the Mayflower with William Bradford writing that Samuel “came over a sucking child.”

Bradford noted this family at that time: “Francis Eaton, and Sarah, his wife, and Samuell, their sone, a yong child.”

Francis Eaton was a carpenter by trade and Banks believes that he was the Mayflower ship’s carpenter, being in the employ of the Merchant Adventurers, financial supporters of the Mayflower venture.

The Mayflower departed Plymouth, England on 6/16 September 1620. The small, 100-foot ship had 102 passengers and a crew of about 30-40 in extremely cramped conditions. By the second month out, the ship was being buffeted by strong westerly gales, causing the ship‘s timbers to be badly shaken with caulking failing to keep out sea water, and with passengers, even in their berths, lying wet and ill. This, combined with a lack of proper rations and unsanitary conditions for several months, attributed to what would be fatal for many, especially the majority of women and children. On the way there were two deaths, a crew member and a passenger, but the worst was yet to come after arriving at their destination when, in the space of several months, almost half the passengers perished in cold, harsh, unfamiliar New England winter.

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