Unknown "ideote child" Eaton

Francis Eaton, father of:

1. Samuel, a child of Francis and 1st Sarah;
2. Rachel,
3. Benjamin,
4. a child (idiot) unm. who died after 1651 by 3rd wife Christian Penn.

With regards to this individual, from Caleb Johnson's Mayflower History:

http://www.mayflowerhistory.com/Passengers/FrancisEaton.php

Francis then married, about 1626, to Christiana Penn, and they had three children together:

1. Rachel,
2. Benjamin,
3. and a child that was called "an ideote" that was still living in 1651, but whose name has not survived.

Francis Eaton himself died in 1633, apparently suffering the same fate as his siblings in childhood, dying of a disease that spread through Plymouth that autumn.

(Note: Bradford, and Christopher are not listed as children of Francis Eaton. Samuel is, but not by his last wife,Christiana.)

Mayflower Family Member

Biography

Francis Eaton married, as his third wife, Christian Penn, and they had three children together: Rachel, Benjamin, and a child that was called "an ideote" who was still living in 1651, but whose name has not survived.<ref>Bradford, William. "Of Plymouth Plantation"

“Francis Eaton” at Mayflower.AmericanAncestors.org website. (NEHGS, accessed 6/14/2019, free). This is the text from Robert Charles Anderson. The Pilgrim Migration p. 189.

William Bradford's observation on this family in his later years: "his first wife dyed in the general sickness, and he maried againe, and his 2 wife dyed, and he maried the 3 and had by her 3 children. One of them is maried and hath a child; the other are living, but one of them is an ideote. He dyed about 16 years agoe. His son Samuell, who came over a sucking child, is also maried, and hath a child."

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References

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Eaton_(Mayflower_passenger)
• Anderson, Robert Charles. The Pilgrim Migration: Immigrants to Plymouth Colony 1620-1633. (Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2004). p. 189
• Caleb Johnson's Mayflower History - Francis Eaton : accessed 1 Mar 2018.