Sharing with Mistress Susanna White Winslow the distinction of being mother of a child born on _The Mayflower_ was Mistress Elizabeth Hopkins, whose son, Oceanus, was named for his birthplace. She was the second wife of Stephen Hopkins, who was one of the leaders with Winslow and Standish on early expeditions. With her stepchildren, Constance and Giles, and her little daughter, Damaris, she bore the rigors of those first years, bore other children,—Caleb, Ruth, Deborah and Elizabeth,—and cared for a large estate, including servants and many cattle. The inventory of the Hopkins estate revealed an abundance of beds and bedding, yellow and green rugs, curtains and spinning-wheels, and much wearing apparel. The home-life surely had incidents of excitement, as is shown by the accusations and fines against Stephen Hopkins for “suffering excessive drinking at his house, 1637, when William Reynolds was drunk and lay under the table,” and again for “suffering men to drink in his house on the Lord’s Day, both before and after the meeting—and allowing his servant and others to drink more than for ordinary refreshing and to play shovell board and such like misdemeanors.”[61] Such lapses in conduct at the Hopkins house were atoned for by the services which Stephen Hopkins rendered to the colony as explorer, assistant to the governor and other offices which suited his reliable and fearless disposition. These occasional “misdemeanors” in the Hopkins household were slight compared with the records against “the black sheep” of the colony, the family of Billingtons from London. The mother, Helen or Ellen, did not seem to redeem the reputation of husband and sons; traditionally she was called “the scold.” After her husband had been executed in 1630, for the first murder in the colony, for he had waylaid and killed John Newcomen, she married Gregory Armstrong. She had various controversies in court with her son and others. In 1636, she was accused of slander by “Deacon” John Doane,—she had charged him with unfairness in mowing her pasture lot,—and she was sentenced to a fine of five pounds and “to sit in the stocks and be publickly whipt.”[62] Her second husband died in 1650 and she lived several years longer, occupying a “tenement” granted to her in her son’s house at North Plymouth. Apparently her son, John, after his fractious youth, died; Francis married Christian Penn, the widow of Francis Eaton. Their children seem to have “been bound out” for service while the parents were convicted of trying to entice the children away from their work and, consequently, they were punished by sitting in the stocks on “lecture days.”[63] In his later life, Francis Billington became more stable in character and served on committees. His last offense was the mild one “of drinking tobacco on the highway.” Apparently, Helen Billington had many troubles and little sympathy in the Plymouth colony.