Mills Pond NY and Mills Genealogy

THE MILLS GENEALOGY

COMPILED BY THE REV. S. W. MILLS OF PORT JERVIS.

An Important Genealogical Document Embodying Much New and Valuable Information—History of the Mills Family in America.

We publish herewith a portion of the genealogy of the Mills’ family, which was compiled by Rev. Dr. S. W. Mills, of this village and read at the meeting of the M. V. H. S., at Glenette, Saturday, June 21. It embodies much information in regard to that family not hitherto made public. The remainder of the article will appear in tomorrow’s UNION.

The name of Mills, which is found in so many parts of our country, appears to be chiefly of English origin. There are those who bear the name who are of Holland extraction. In the early settlement of New England there was one Peter Water Van der Mulin, who emigrated from Holland and settled at Windsor, Conn., and took the English name of Mills. (The English of Van der Mulin is from the Mills). This same name is found among the earlier settlers of Hartford, Conn. Of his descendants we know nothing, but it is quite probable there are those living who can trace their ancestry back to him.

Of those of English extraction we know more. The name of Milnes or Mills, otherwise De Molis, was found in Devon, England, in 1083 6. It was derived from Meulles, Normandy. It is supposed to have been brought there in the time of William the Conquerer, who introduced the Norman language into England about 1066. Lord Haughton (Milne) has been a member of Gladstone’s Cabinet in this year, 1894. Under the various forms of Mill, Mills, Milne, Milles and Mylles, the naine is found in Yorkshire in 1530, 1560, 1584, 1612, 1627 and 1665. In Sussex county. England, it appears as follows: Geffry ‘Atte Milne 1307-27; Agnes ‘Atte Milne’, John ’Atte Mull’ alias Mill, Lord of Gretham 1366 ; Robert ‘Atte Mulle’ alias Mills of Gilford, Surry county, 1377-1399 ; John ’Atte Mille’ of Pullborough, 1366 ; Robert Mill of Sussex 1422-1461; John Mylle 1578 ; Sir Richard Mill (b) 1690.

The first emigrant by the name of Mills from England of whom we have knowledge was John Mills, who came over in the fleet with Gov. Winthrop in 1629 or 1630. His name stood No. 33 on the roll of the first church in Boston, where two of his daughters (Joy and Remembrance) were baptised in October, 1630. He was made freeman in Boston, March 6, 1632. He resided there ten years and then removed to Braintree, Mass., where in 1653 he was clerk of Braintree. In his will made June 1670, he expresses the wish that his son John, to whom he gave his estate, “would bring up one of his sons to the ministry, as this had been the calling of his predecessors to the third if not the fourth generation.”

There was one Richard Mills who was called the “Pioneer Schoolmaster” of New York, who lived on Long Island and in Connecticut ; Samuel Mills, who lived at Dedham, Mass., and Samuel Mills, who lived at Windsor, Conn., all of whom came from England at a very early date, but the precise year not known. How they were related and who were their descendants we have not learned.

George Mills was probably the ancestor of the Long Island Mills. He came from Yorkshire, England, and was born about 1605, and died at Jamaica, L. I., Oct. 17, 1694, aged 89 years, His name is found on the town records of Hempstead and Jamaica in Feb. 16, 1656, and Nov. 25, 1656, when he was granted a home lot in each town. Some have supposed that this George was a brother of John, who came over with Gov. Winthrop, but no proof of the fact has yet been found.

Samuel, a son of George, was born in this country in 1631, and died at Jamaica in March, 1726, aged 95. A notice of his death appeared in the N. Y. Gazette of March 12, 1726, in which it was stated that he was able to do a good day’s work but a few days before he died. He had 16 children, nine of whom were living at the time of his death, 80 grandchildren and 54 great grandchildren.

Jonathan Mills, who lived at Jamaica, and whose wife was Martha, was probably the son of George. The date of his birth and death are not known. On March 30. 1677, he bought of Jonas Halstead and his son Joseph, a piece of land owned by them jointly. His wife, Martha, was living in 1710, as well as himself. They had four children, Timothy, Samuel, Isaac and Jonathan, jr. Of these, Timothy was born in 1667, and moved from Jamaica to Mills’ Pond, four mils from Smithtown, in 1693, the first of the name to locate there, and where he died March 30, 1751. By his first wife, Elizabeth, he had two children, and by his second, Sarah, eleven. Of these eleven the sixth was Jonathon, who was born Oct. 23, 1710, who was the father of Jacob Mills, Windsor, born Dec 22, 1746, and who subsequently settled in the town of New Windsor, Orange county, N. Y.

Jonathan Mills married April 3, 1737, Ruth. Rudyard, daughter of John Rudyard of Perth Amboy, N. J., by whom he had six children. On January 25, 1756, he married Dorothy Miller, by whom he had three children. He lived at Mills Pond, where he died Oct, 23, 1798, Of the six children by his first wife, Jacob and Timothy were twins.

The first person by the name of Mills (of the Long Island Mills) who settled in Orange county of whom we have any account, was Timothy, son of Timothy the first settler at Mills Pond, by his second wife, Sarah. He married Margaret Rudyard, daughter of John Rudyard of Perth Amboy, N. J. About 1752 a division of his father’s land on Long Island was made, and he appears to have left Mills Pond and to have settled at New Windsor, which was then in Ulster county. His deed, recorded in Ulster county Deeds (F. F. 465), dated May 20, 1754, states that he is of the precinct of Wallkill, in the county of Ulster. He bought for £370 a tract of 571 acres of land from the Garret Schuyler and Hans Ulrick Bindor heirs, who lived in New York. His will was recorded in New York in 1780, in which he mentions his sons, John, Jonathan and Daniel, and his daughters, Joannah and Anah, and also his wife, Margaret. No trace hag been found of the descendants of this Timothy Mills.

THE MILLS GENEALOGY

COMPILED BY THE REV. S. W. MILLS OF PORT JERVIS.

An Important Genealogical Document Embodying Much New and Valuable Information—History of the Mills Family in America.

Concluded from yesterday.

Jacob Mills, who subsequently settled in New Windsor, was a nephew of the Timothy just mentioned. His father was Jonathan Mills of Mills’s Pond by Ruth Rudyard, his first wife. Jacob and his twin brother were born Dec. 22nd, 1746. Timothy married a Miss Miller and settled in Saratoga county, N. Y. His grandson, Thomas H., lived at Ballston, N. Y., in 1880.

The Mills on Long Island were of English descent and it would seem quite clear that they came from Yorkshire, England, to this country about 1630, locating at first in New England and some of them soon after on Long Island. The Hempstead settlement on Long Island, which began about 1644 and where the name of George Mills was found on the town records, was called a Yorkshire settlement. When Long Island was captured by the English from the Dutch they found on the west end a Yorkshire settlement called Long Island Yorkshire.

When Jacob Mills grew up to manhood, the British law was in force here and the custom of primogeniture in full operation. In accordance with this custom his older brother fell heir to the landed estate while he was taught the trades of tanning and currying and of shoemaking, which in those days were combined together, especially on Long Island. When he was about nineteen years of age he entered upon a series of whaling voyages, going for this purpose in the spring with other young men to Nantucket and from there embarking for Greenland, as it was called, the only whaling fishery then known. These voyages lasted usually six or seven months, when he would return home and work at his trade in the winter, whipping the cat, as it was called, going from house to house. There were no wages on the vessel, but a certain portion of the cash was allotted to each one according to his position. In this way he accumulated quite a little sum during the three voyages made by him, the last one especially being quite successful.

At just what time he came to Orange county, is not known, but it was probably between 1768 and 1770, or when from twenty-two to twenty-four years of age. He bought a tract of land four miles back of New Windsor, built himself a house and started a small tannery, conducting at the same time farming, tanning, currying and shoe-making. He lived here as a bachelor for two or three years until his marriage to Catharine Denton, of Goshen, Dec. 27th, 1773. He was not in the army during the Revolution as his trade was required to furnish shoes for the soldiers. He belonged to a militia company and when the British were coming up the Hudson river to attack Fort Montgomery, his company was suddenly ordered out to march the next morning to the defence of the Fort. He marched with the company after having worked all night to make a pair of shoes for one of the men, who was barefoot. The Fort, however, had been taken by the British before his company reached it.

He furnished, he said, a large number of shoes for the army, but at the close of the war his money was worthless and he had to begin life anew. His place, however, was paid for and he had this advantage.

A few years after the war, the year is not known, he sold his place in New Windsor and bought 2,250 acres in the town of Wallkill, about five miles north of Middletown and moved his family there, the place having been known for many years of late as Millsburgh. The price paid by him for his large tract of land he has been heard to say was thirteen shillings and six-pence happeny per acre in Continental money. Here he started again a tannery consisting at first of but four vats on which he could tan about two-hundred hides, but which was subsequently greatly enlarged. He at first lived on what was known as the Smith place, half a mile or more south-east of the tannery and east of the direct road leading to Scotchtown. In 1791 he built the stone house near the tannery, employing for this purpose a mason from Little Brittian, all the mortar for which building, was carried by his son Samuel, then but fifteen years of age. This house he then occupied until 1807, when he built the large frame dwelling a little north of it in which he lived with his son Charles and where he died in 1841, in the 95th year of his age.

The stone house, tannery and farm connected therewith formerly occupied by him, he gave to his sun, Samuel. He was one of the leading persons in the erection of the Presbyteriam church at Scotchtown. Besides contributing liberally in money for this purpose he kept his team there constantly during the time of its erection.

He had twelve children, six sons and six daughters. Seven of these were probably born in New Windsor. Jacob, jr., was born in Wallkill in 1791, the year in which the stone house was erected. All of these but one, Catharine, were married and had families of their own, All but one, Wm. Wickham, lived and died in Orange county. This one married at Mills Pond, L. I., where he subsequently lived and died.

The grandchildren of Jacob Mills numbered 97, being evenly divided as to sex, 48 males and 49 females. The males have nearly all been farmers and the females have uniformly married farmers. Of these 97, one has been a physician, one a lawyer and one a clergyman. They have had but little aspiration for office or political distinction. Except a town office like that of roadmaster, but one among them all has held anything higher, he having served one term as Sheriff of the county of Orange.

In addition to the Mills who settled in New England and on Long Island, referred to in this sketch, there were emigrants by this name (three, it has been said) who, in the early history of the country, settled in Virginia, and their descendants are to be found in the other southern states. Roger Q. Mills, the present U. S. Senator from Texas, (1894) says that his great grandfather, Charles Mills, lived in Hanover Co., Va. He says that he has met a number of persons by this name from the north, but has been unable to trace any relationship to them, but yet is satisfied that several generations back they all came from the same stock.

SAMUEL WICKHAM MILLS, D. D.