JOHN MILLS

ORIGIN: Unknown

MIGRATION: 1633

FIRST RESIDENCE: Richmond Island

REMOVES: Scarborough

EDUCATION: Witnessed deed by mark [YLR 2:153].

ESTATE: On 12 February 1693/4 "John Mills now resident at Boston" deeded to "my natural brother James Mills now resident in the town of Sandwich ... fourscore acres of my upland & forty acres of salt marsh ... at a place called Black Point alias Scarborough ... & is part of that land & meadow ground or marsh which formerly did belong unto my honored father John Mills late of Scarborough now deceased" [YLR 9:4-5].

BIRTH: By about 1610 (assuming he was a young servant when he made his early voyage to New England).

DEATH: By 8 March 1664 (when "widow Mills" was name as an abutter to a piece of land on Black Point River [YLR 2:23]). (If George Garland was consorting with the elder Sarah Mill [see COMMENTS below], then John Mills had died by 1662.)

MARRIAGE: By about 1642 Sarah _____.

CHILDREN:

i MARY, b. say 1642; m. Sandwich 16 July 1683 William Gifford of Sandwich [NEHGR 128:247-50].

ii JOHN, b. say 1644; m. by 1686 Joanna (Alger) Oakman, daughter of ANDREW ALGER and widow of Elias Oakman.

iii JAMES, b. say 1646; d. at Sandwich between 14 October 1720 (date of will) and 9 February 1720/1 (date of inventory), single man [NEHGR 128:249, citing BarnPR 3:607].

iv SARAH, b. say 1648; m. by about 1676 Joseph Winnock.

COMMENTS: On 8 September 1640 John Mills deposed that "he hath known the river which runs by Mr. Arthur Mackworthe's house called by the name of Casco River for some thirteen or fourteen years gone or thereabout" [Trelawny Papers 231]. On 25 June 1641 John Mills deposed that "he came out of England with Mr. Winter some 8 years since or thereabout as his servant, and that Mr. Cleeve was then paling the field at Spurwinke" [Trelawny Papers 266]. (We assume here Mills was present in New England in 1626-7 on a fishing or trading expedition, and that his residence did not begin until he came with JOHN WINTER in 1633.)

On 2 July 1662 George Garland was presented for "frequenting Sarah Mills her house after warning given," and Sarah Mills was presented for "entertaining George Garland after sufficient warning given" [MPCR 2:119]. On 7 November 1665 "George Garland & Sarah Mills" were indicted for "incontinency, living together without being lawfully married, and the said Garland being suspected of having a wife in England" [MPCR 1:238], and on 1 October 1667 they were ordered to be married within one month [MPCR 1:333-34]. These records are more likely for the widow of John Mills than for his daughter of the same name, as the unmarried daughter would be less likely to have a residence of her own.