Richard (Billings) Billing (abt. 1600 - 1640)

Born about 1600 in England

Husband of Elizabeth (Unknown) Billings — married about 1619 in Prescot, Lancashire, England [uncertain]

Descendants

Died Dec 1640 at about age 40 in Prescot, Lancashire, England

Problems/Questions Profile managers: David Edis-Bates [send private message], Carol Curtis [send private message], Patricia Kazan [send private message],

Note

This genealogy corrects an older (mistaken) reference to the Richard Billings of Taunton; this version is in fact supported by parish records from Rainforth, Prescot, Lancashire, England. See the excellent work of Rachelle Child and Helen Ullmann in the New England Historical and Genealogical Register #171, Spring 2017^[1].

Note (3 April 2023): the free PDF of the Child & Ullman article, originally linked here, is no longer accessible at the cited URL [1]. Alternative free access is however available: pdf download (free) - (archived link)

Biography

Richard Billings of Prescot, Lancashire, England was father to Roger (1620), Anne (1622), John (1627), and William Billings (1631) all of whom were baptised in Rainforth Parish. These children migrated to Dorchester, Massachusetts Bay, in the mid-17th century. Most branches remained in Massachusetts Bay, though William Billings founded the Stonington, Connecticut branch.

Research Notes

The Somerby Fraud Many genealogies, citing Horatio Gates Somerby, have erroneously tried to connect the Billings family who immigrated to Dorchester, Massachusetts to a Richard Billings of Taunton, Somerset, England. Somerby's research was shown to be baseless in 1999 by professional genealogist Paul C. Reed^[2]; the specific Richard of Taunton, Somerset, claimed by Somerby may never have existed, but instead be a fiction he created^[3].

Among the genealogies affected – or rather, infected – by the Somerby fraud is 1927's "The Billings of Connecticut", complied by Creighton Spencer-Mounsey^[4]:

"The line... runs as follows: (1) John Billing of Rowell and Rushden, Northants, patron of St. Andrew's Church, Collyweston, Northants in Nov. 1430; (2) Sir Thomas Billing, Knight; (3) Nicholas Billing of Middleton Malzor, Northants; (4) John Billing of Middleton Malzor; (5) William Billing of Middleton Malzor; (6) Roger Billing of Baltonsborough, Somersetshire; (7) Richard Billing the Elder of Deanes, Taunton, Somersetshire; (8) William Billing of Deanes; (9) William Billing of Deanes, of Dorchester, Mass., and of Stonington, Conn., the settler of New England."

Nearly a century later, with the Internet having made it possible for fraudulent and erroneous information to spread not only globally, but instantaneously, we find "The Billings Family", published online in 2011... laboring under the identical set of Somerby-induced delusions. Among a host of other errors and distortions, it posits a Roger Billing of Somerset who had two sons named Richard, both of whom lived to adulthood: Richard Billing the Elder, Roger's son by his first wife Katherine, and Richard Billing the Younger, Roger's son by his second wife, Edith. The first of these is said to have removed from Baltonsborough near Glastonbury, to Taunton and there married an Elizabeth Strong; their son William is supposed to have had a son, also William, who emigrated to America... selling to his brother Ebenezer, in the process, a property that Ebenezer bequeathed to a nephew, also named Ebenezer^[5]. All of this, and more – notwithstanding that there were, in fact, Billingses in Somerset, some of whose good names Somerby "borrowed" – is manufactured fiction, which Paul C. Reed calmly exploded in his TAG article of 1999.

Disputed Parentage The now-merged Billings-2757 showed spurious parentage: Roger Billings as father, and Katherine Wilcox as mother. This parentage was a product of the Somerby fraud, and those profiles have been detached from the post-merge Billings-571.

Disputed Offspring The now-merged Billings-2757 showed spurious offspring Roger, Richard, Ebenezer, and William – all associated with the Somerby fraud. They have therefore been detached from the post-merge Billings-571.

Sources

1. ↑ Parish records at Prescot, Lancashire, as cited in "English Origin of Roger, Ann, and William Billings of Dorchester, Massachusetts", by Child, Rachelle & Ullmann, Helen Schatvet, NEHGR, Vol. 171, p. 129; New England Historical and Genealogical Register, Boston, MA: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1847-. (Online database: AmericanAncestors.org, NEHGS, 2001-2018.); https://www.americanancestors.org/DB202/i/53669/129/1423836376 (by subscription)
2. ↑ "The Fraudulent Ancestry of Roger1 Billings and William1 Billings...", by Paul C. Reed, TAG Vol. 74 (1999), p. 28; New Haven, CT: D. L. Jacobus, 1937-. (Online database. AmericanAncestors.org. NEHGS, 2009 - .); https://www.americanancestors.org/DB283/i/13222/28/0 (by subscription)
3. ↑ TAG, Vol. 74, as above, p. 30; https://www.americanancestors.org/DB283/i/13222/30/0 (by subscription)
4. ↑ Spencer-Mounsey, Creighton. "The Billings Family of Connecticut". The New England Historical and Genealogical Register. Boston, MA: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1847-. (Online database: AmericanAncestors.org, New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2001-2013.) Volume 81. April 1927. Pages 156-157.
5. ↑ Carol Eddleman. "The Billings Family". Online Database. www.pa-roots.org. Accessed 26 Jul 2016