The Sea Captain Who Never Came Home: Tracing the Billings-Plummer Line

A note before I begin: a lot of what's here wouldn't have been possible without my cousin Brenda, who has been digging through old family photographs, documents, and records for years. She shared photos and data that helped us pin down dates, correct gravestone misreadings, and confirm what the stones actually say. Thank you, Brenda.

The Stone at Laurel Hill

Somewhere in Laurel Hill Cemetery in Saco, Maine, there's a gravestone shared by a husband and wife. He died in 1896. She died in 1889. Their names were William and Emily.

William Alfred Plummer Sr. was born in 1825. Emily Jane Billings was born in 1831. They married in November of 1848 in Saco — she was seventeen, he was twenty-three. Together they had at least four children: Charles, Frank, William Jr. (my direct ancestor), and Susan.

Their FindAGrave memorials sit quietly at memorial #116164132 and memorial #157337392. The coordinates of the cemetery: 43.4940°N, 70.4289°W. I've never been there. I want to go.

The Children They Left Behind

Charles L. Plummer — the eldest — was born in April 1854. He made his way to Kennebunkport, which older records call "Arundel" (the town kept that name until 1821). He's buried at Arundel Cemetery there. His memorial sits at 43.3637°N, 70.4781°W, about thirty miles down the coast from where he was born.

Frank E. Plummer was born in 1861. He married a woman named Abbie S. Kimball in 1884, and they had a daughter: Clara Anna Plummer, born 1899, who later became Clara Webber. Frank died in 1935. Abbie died in 1936.

And here's a small thing that matters in genealogy: Brenda looked at the gravestone and read the birth year as 1850. That's an easy mistake — old stones, weathered cuts, the serif on a "5" that looks like a "0" at the wrong angle. But FindAGrave has Abbie's birth date as October 10, 1858, and the stone itself actually reads "1859." Three different numbers for one woman's birth year. The death year — 1936 — matches everywhere, including Brenda's family record. That's the one we trust.

William Alfred Plummer Jr. — my direct ancestor — was born in 1864. He married Susie Isabelle Miller on November 24, 1886 in Kennebunkport. Susan I. Plummer, likely the youngest, was born in 1867 and died in 1936.

The Mystery: Jane Billings and the Sea Captain

Now here's where it gets interesting. And by interesting, I mean the kind of thing that keeps you up at night staring at census records.

There's a family story — the kind that gets passed down in whispers — about a woman named Jane Billings from the Kennebunk area. She had a child by a sea captain. He shipped out. He never came back. Whether he died at sea, found another port, or simply vanished into the coasting trade between Boston and Portland, nobody knows.

The question that matters for the family tree: is this Emily Jane Billings — who married William Plummer in 1848 — or is it Emily's mother? The timing points toward the mother. If a "Jane Billings" had Emily in 1831, and the captain left before or shortly after, then Emily grew up without a father, took her mother's surname, and carried that mystery forward into her own life.

Kennebunk in the late 1820s and early 1830s was a working port. Shipyards. Coasting schooners. Men who lived by the tide and sometimes didn't come home. The Kennebunk River had a Government Wharf at its mouth. Seth Bryant kept a handwritten "Record of Vessels, Kennebunk District" that's now held at the Kennebunkport Historical Society — a list of ship names, owners, and masters that could, in theory, narrow down who was in port during the right window.

The National Archives holds the customs house records for the Kennebunk district — entrances, clearances, cargo manifests — under Record Group 036. If the conception window was roughly March to December 1830, those records could tell us which captains were in port. Add DNA analysis against Emily's descendants, and you might be able to match a surname.

We're not there yet. But we're looking.

What We Know, What We Don't

Here's where the record stands:

• Confirmed: William Alfred Plummer Sr. (1825–1896) and Emily Jane Billings (1831–1889), married November 1848, buried together at Laurel Hill Cemetery, Saco, Maine
• Confirmed: Their children — Charles (b. 1854, Kennebunkport), Frank (b. 1861), William Jr. (b. 1864), Susan (b. 1867)
• Confirmed: Frank married Abbie S. Kimball in 1884; their daughter Clara Anna was born 1899
• Confirmed: Abbie's death year is 1936 per both FindAGrave and Brenda's family record
• Unresolved: Emily Jane Billings's parents — no confirmed record yet
• Unresolved: The identity of "Jane Billings" in the sea captain story and whether she is Emily's mother
• Unresolved: The captain's name and ship

Sources

• FindAGrave memorial #116164132 — William A. Plummer Sr., Laurel Hill Cemetery, Saco
• FindAGrave memorial #157337392 — Emily J. Billings Plummer, Laurel Hill Cemetery, Saco
• FindAGrave memorial #217729875 — Frank E. Plummer, Laurel Hill Cemetery, Saco
• FindAGrave memorial #217729952 — Abbie S. Kimball Plummer (10 Oct 1858–1936), Laurel Hill Cemetery, Saco
• FindAGrave memorial #163494142 — Charles L. Plummer, Arundel Cemetery, Kennebunkport
• FindAGrave memorial #138632312 — Clara Anna Plummer Webber
• Family photographs and documents provided by Brenda — including gravestone readings and death year confirmation for Abbie S. Kimball Plummer
• Seth Bryant, "Record of Vessels, Kennebunk District" — held at Kennebunkport Historical Society
• National Archives RG 036, U.S. Customs Service — vessel entrance/clearance records, Kennebunk district
• NEHGR Vol. 96, p. 177 — "The Saco, Maine, Descendants of Nathaniel Billings of Concord, Massachusetts"

If you're a Plummer, a Billings, a Kimball, or a Webber from the Saco/Kennebunkport area — or if you know anything about the Billings family of York County, Maine in the 1820s and 1830s — I'd love to hear from you.