Chris & Julie Petersen's Genealogy

Samuel Mills

Male Abt 1695 - Bef 1735  (~ 40 years)


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  • Name Samuel Mills 
    Born Abt 1695  Greenwich, Fairfield, Connecticut, United States Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Gender Male 
    Died Bef 30 Aug 1735 
    Person ID I2934  Petersen-de Lanskoy
    Last Modified 27 May 2021 

    Father Samuel Mills,   b. Abt 1660, Jamaica, Queens, New York, United States Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. Bef 12 Mar 1757, Greenwich, Fairfield, Connecticut, United States Find all individuals with events at this location  (Age ~ 97 years) 
    Mother Sarah Denton,   b. Abt 1677, Jamaica, Queens, New York, United States Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Married Abt 1693  Jamaica, Queens, New York, United States Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Family ID F355  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

    Family Lydia Reynolds,   b. Bef 1702, of, , Connecticut, United States Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. Aft 1732  (Age > 32 years) 
    Married Bef 1722  of Greenwich, Fairfield, Connecticut, United States Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Last Modified 28 May 2021 
    Family ID F1564  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  • Notes 
    • RESEARCH_NOTES:
      1. NEHGS Register, vol. 156, April 2002:
      "Samuel Mills3, Sadler, of Jamaica, New York, and Greenwich, Connecticut" Helen Schatvet Ullmann (Helen Schatvet Ullmann, CG, is Associate Editor of the Register. She may be reached at hsu@world.std.com or 713 Main Street, Acton, MA 01720-4802.)
      During the early eighteenth century there were two cousins named Samuel Mills, grandsons of George1 Mills of Jamaica, Long Island, New York (1). One was living in Greenwich, Connecticut, and the other in Elizabethtown, New Jersey. Some electronically-compiled genealogies have merged them into one individual (2). Therefore, to those of us who feel that paper is a more permanent medium, (3) it seems wise to state clearly in print that they were two different men. The following account, focusing principally on Samuel Mills of Greenwich, should eliminate any confusion.
      While there are some large collections of material on this family, (4) no serious work on the descendants of George1 Mills has existed in print until the publication of a small book by this author, A Mills and Kendall Family History: American Ancestry of Herbert Lee Mills and Bessie Delano Kendall, expected to be published by Newbury Street Press by the end of 2002. This includes a line from George1 through his son Jonathan and treats the Samuel of Elizabethtown in more detail than appears here.
      The earliest evidence of a Samuel Mills in Elizabethtown was in a quit-rent list compiled in 1696 (5). Then on 9 June 1702 Eliphalet "Frasey" of Elizabethtown and his wife Margaret sold to Samuel "Miles" of Elizabethtown four acres of meadow near the mouth of the Rahway river (6). On 1 August 1724 Samuel Mills of Elizabethtown bought 100 acres in Elizabethtown from Joseph Morse, and on 31 May 1728 Samuel Mills sold land of the same description "unto my...son," Joseph Mills (7). Finally, on 7 August 1744 Samuel Mills of Elizabethtown, "far advanced in years" signed his will, naming, among many Children, his sons Samuel and Joseph. The will was proved in Essex County, New Jersey, on 16 March 1744/45 (8).
      This was clearly not the Samuel Mills of Greenwich, Connecticut, during the same period of time, who was:
      Samuel3 MILLS, son of Samuel2 and Susannah (Palmer) Mills, and grandson of George1 Mills of Jamaica, Long Island, New York, was born by 1673 [based on his marriage about 1693] and probably earlier, possibly even as early as 1660 (9).
      Samuel3 Mills married about 1693 Sarah Denton, daughter of Samuel and Mary (___) Denton of Jamaica (10). On 13 March 1698 Samuel Denton of Jamaica, planter, aged about 43, named in his will his wife Mary and children including son Samuel Denton and daughter Sarah Mills (11). Dated 25 April 1718, her brother Samuel's will includes bequests to the children of "my sister Sarah Mills," Samuel, Clement and Sarah (12).
      In Palmer Families in America (13), Horace Wilbur Palmer makes the claim that Samuel3 Mills married his first cousin, Susannah Palmer, daughter of Ephraim Palmer. However, no evidence has been found for this claim, and a second marriage for Samuel3 Mills seems unlikely. Even if it did take place, there probably were no surviving children as the voluminous will of his daughter, Sarah (Mills) Mead, mentions only descendants of her brother Samuel and sister Clemence (14).
      Samuel3 Mills was living on 5 August 1751 when his grandson, referred to as Samuel Mills, Jr., along with Denton Mills and Ebenezer and Lydia Fitch quitclaimed on some land to their grandfather, Samuel Mills of Greenwich (15). On 12 July 1754 Samuel Mills, Jr. signed a petition in Greenwich (16), the "Jr." suggesting that his grandfather was still living. However, Samuel3 had died, probably by 12 March 1757, but surely by 19 April 1758 when Samuel5 was referred to without the appellation, "Jr." in deeds with his sister, Sarah Close (17).
      Samuel in Jamaica
      Samuel3 Mills lived at first in Jamaica. On 6 April 1697 Samuel2 and "Sewzannah Milles" made their marks on a deed to Samuel Mills, Jr. of Jamaica. It included four or five acres of land with house, gardens, orchards, fruit trees, fencing, privileges and appurtenances plus half of a ten-acre lot of meadow at the further East Neck, "south to ye bay" and ten more acres of upland in the middle division at Jamaica (18). Called "Jr." or "sadler" and sometimes both, Samuel bought and sold much land in Jamaica and some in neighboring Hempstead (19). On 1 April 1703, 6 April 1708, and 5 April 1709 Samuel Mills, Jr. was chosen constable of Jamaica (20).
      On 13 March 1711 Samuel Clowes of Jamaica quitclaimed to Samuel Mills of the same, sadler, "a certaine slipe of land... whereon halfe ye wall of ye west end of the house & lento of ye said Samuell Mills now stands... allso one certaine parcell of land" in Jamaica, part of which Samuel Mills had lately sold to Clowes (21). On 29 March 1711 Samuel Mills of Jamaica, sadler, and wife Sarah sold "certain tracts" to Samuel Clowes (22). These two deeds would seem to relate to Samuel's final sale of his property in Jamaica, but the year is uncertain. It might be regarded as 1711/12, but the next recorded transaction, dated four days after New Year's Day (25 March) also says 1711. Was the latter simply a case of forgetting to write the new year, or were the deeds both in 1711, not 1712? On 19 March 1711/12 Samuel Mills, Jr. of Jamaica, paid £33-15 "on account of a bond being given by the said Samuell Mills unto Daniell Deane of Maidenhead in west New Jersey which bond beare date ye first day of May 1710 and was given by ye said Samuell Mills unto the said Daniell Dean for money in pay for a little island being sold by the said Daniell Dean unto the said Samuell Mills (23)..." The location of the island is not given. Although this was in Jamaica records, it probably relates to the Philadelphia County deeds mentioned below.
      Samuel in Greenwich
      In the last-mentioned deed, dated in March 1712, Samuel Mills was still said to be of Jamaica. But on 27 February 1710[/11?] Samuel Mills was "chosen to keep a house of publick entertainment and retail strong drinks" in Greenwich (24). Thus Samuel may have moved to Greenwich by February 1710, but it was more likely by February 1711. That the date was actually 1711 is reinforced by deeds in the early "Common Place Book" of Greenwich records. In an indenture dated 10 November 1710, Caleb Peck of Newtown in Queens County sold land in Greenwich to Samuel Mills of Jamaica, sadler, and in another indenture Jonathan Renalls of Greenwich and his wife Rebecca sold land to Samuel Mills of the same place [Greenwich], sadler, on 29 October 1711. Samuel Mills was also called "sadeler" of Greenwich in a 28 December 1711 deed from Daniel Mead (25). Nevertheless, the deed from Samuel Clowes, above, shows that Samuel still had property in Jamaica in March 1711 and perhaps later.
      In another deed, dated 11 June 1712, Samuel Mills, sadler, was said to be "late of Jamaica," when he sold 300 acres in Pasayunk Township in Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania, to Thomas Thurston (26). Finally he was called "Samuel Mill of Greenwitch in the colony of Connecticut sadle maker" on 14 December 1713 when he bought two houses and land in Jamaica from Abraham Row for £200 (27). It seems likely this transaction was a mortgage.
      Thus by 1711 and possibly by 1710, Samuel was living at Greenwich- at least some of the time.
      While his father, Samuel2 Mills, appears to have stayed in Jamaica where he died on 10 March 1727 (28), it is unclear whether some of the early Greenwich deeds, in which land was laid out to Samuel Mills, refer to the son or the father. On 16 April 1712 Joseph Palmer of Greenwich deeded to Samuel Mills of the same, land "formerly the right of John Palmer." (29) In a Greenwich deed dated 19 March 1716, Samuel Mills, Senior, and his wife Susanna of Jamaica made their marks on a deed to their son Samuel MIls of Greenwich, "in consideration of a mare," conveying one sixth of the right granted by the town to "our brother John Palmer deceased of Greenwich." (30)
      Could Samuel2 have lived in Greenwich at least some of the time? Probably not. Samuel3 Mills is never called "Jr." in Greenwich records. The first time a Samuel Mills, Jr. appears in Greenwich deeds is on 10 August 1722, and this reference is almost certainly to Samuel4 Mills.
      Occasionally Samuel3 is referred to as "Sam Mills of Horseneck, Fairfield Co.," as for example when on 1 February 1716 he sold land to Isaac German of "Hamsted" [Hempstead] in Queens County (31). Horseneck is the area at the head of Greenwich Harbor and was the name used for the West or Second Society in Greenwich.
      At a town meeting on 31 December 171 the town granted "liberty to sett a saw mill on byrum river where they shall see convenient" to Samuel Mills, Gershom Lockwood, Caleb Knap and James Reynolds. However, on 4 February 1717/18 they relinquished the grant. Then on 1 February 1720/21 Justus Bush of the City of New York, merchant, Capt. Caleb Knapp, Left. James Reynalls and Ensign Samuel Mills, all of Greenwich, sold for £20 to Jonathan Jagger of Stamford, a sawmill and half of the millstream, iron work and wooden ... belonging to said mill (32). So apparently Samuel and others did build a sawmill in spite of having relinquished the earlier grant in 1718. However, it is not clear which Samuel this is. Since Samuel3 seems not to have had a military title, the ensign may have been his son.
      Samuel3 Mills bought land in Orange County, New York, from Richard Coomes of Jamaica on 13 April 1721. This purchase was for several parcels "in a Patin called Camat alias New Hemstid in Ainy [sic, Orng for Orange?] County" (33). More correctly spelled, the Kakiat Patent and New Hempstead are in what is now Rockland County, New York. On 7 September 1727 Samuel MIlls, Sr. of Greenwich sold a third of the 1000 acres in "caceat" patent that he had purchased from Richard Coomes of Jamaica to [his son-in-law] "Jabesh" Mead, as recorded in Greenwich records (34). Samuel Mills "Sener" gave another third of this land to his son, Samuel Jr. on 19 February 1729/30, calling it the "Caccoutt patent in Oring County" (35). On 30 October 1730 Samuel Mills of Greenwich sold another 200 acres of this "land at Cabeat" to Ebenezer Whiting of Greenwich, and then on the next day he sold a third of 400 acres to Ebenezer, the deed witnessed by Samuel Mills, Jr. (36) Samuel H Mills says that Samuel3 also gave a share of the Orange County land to his daughter Clements and her husband Caleb Knapp, and that Caleb, in his 1762 will, returned his interest in the land to the children of Samuel4 Mills (37). However, there is no mention of such land in Caleb's will dated 28 October 1762 (38). No reference to Caleb or to a younger Samuel Mills or Denton Mills appears in the index to Orange County deeds. Nor is such a deed found in Greenwich records.
      On 29 April 1724 we see the first deed using the term "Samuel Mills Sen." (39) On 17 March 1726/27 Samuel Mills witnessed the deed of Joshua Renalls and Nathan Smith to Joseph Renalls, Jr. and Samuel Mills, Jr. concerning a sawmill (40). During the 1720s almost all deeds refer to either Sr. or Jr. On 24 February 1731[/32] Samuel Mills, Senior of Greenwich, for £1400, deeded land to his loving and dutiful son Samuel Mills, Jr. (41)
      There are quite a few more deeds during the 1730s. By this time Samuel, Sr., was selling more than he was buying. He may have met financial troubles because on 19 April 1736 he sold all his lands in Greenwich, Bedford and Bedford New Purchase to [his son-in-law] Jabez Mead for £500 (42). By this time Samuel was at least sixty and perhaps even seventy.
      On 30 August 1735 Samuel3, as administrator of the estate of his deceased son, Samuel Mills, Jr., gave a power of attorney to Mr. John Lyon of Rye, New York, referring to "Lydea Mills Relique of my deceased son" (43). Then on 10 February 1742 Samuel Mills of Greenwich, administrator of the estate of Mr. Samuel Mills Junior of Greenwich, deceased, Left. David Reynalls, Mr. Thomas Johnson and Sargent David Reynols Junior, all of Greenwich, agreed concerning lands laid out on the right of Mr. John Reynals deceased (44). Clearly this deed relates to land inherited by Samuel, Jr.'s wife, Lydia Reynolds.
      Further evidence for the dead of Samuel's son Samuel appears in other land records. A series of deeds in 1751 and later show the children of Samuel4 Mills selling and exchanging land with each other, with Samuel5 Mills referred to as Samuel Mills, Jr. (45) The knowledge that Samuel4 Mills had died nearly twenty years earlier clarifies the transactions. Samuel H. Mills, in his monograph, clearly did not know of the early death of Samuel4 and was understandably confused.
      If all the preceding land transactions are not convincing evidence that Samuel3 Mills remained in Greenwich and did not also live in Elizabethtown, New Jersey, surely this last-mentioned series of deeds is determinative. Since Samuel of Elizabethtown had a son Samuel living in 1744, he cannot also be the Samuel of Greenwich whose son Samuel had died by 30 August 1735.
      Children of Samuel and Sarah (Denton) Mills: (46)
      i. Samuel4 MILLS, b. say 1695; d. before 30 Aug. 1735; m. Lydia Reynolds, daughter of John and Lydia (Ferris) Reynolds. (47)
      Children of Samuel and Lydia (Reynolds) Mills:
      1. Sarah5 Mills, b. probably 29 Jan. 1722; (48) d. by 28 June 1786; (49) m. (1) 21 June 1742 (50) Jonathan Close of Greenwich, son of Benjamin Close. (51) She possibly m. (2) after 3 Aug. 1762 Jacob Smith, probably of Ridgefield; (52) however, the 1786 will of her aunt, Sarah (Mills) Mead, names "sons of my deceased niece Sarah Close who was wife of Jonathan Close of Greenwich, deceased."
      2. Samuel Mills, b. Greenwich 23 Dec. 1724; (53) m. by 1747 Abigail Holmes, b. 6 March 1730, daughter of Isaac and Abigail (Mead) Holmes. (54)
      3. Susannah Mills, b. 1726; d. 27 July 1815; said to have m. (1) ca. 1751 Jonathan Knapp, son of Jonathan and Mary (Husted) Knapp; (55) m. (2) Benjamin Close, son of Benjamin Close, and brother of Jonathan Close who m. Sarah Mills (see above). (56) She was not mentioned as mother of any of the Knapp or Close kin in Sarah (Mills) Mead's will. Nelson Close speculates that Sarah (Mills) Mead may have left SUsannah out of her will because Benjamin Close was a Tory. (57)
      4. Denton Mills, bp. Second Congregational Church, Greenwich, 5 June 1729; (58) d. Ridgefield, Conn., 9 Nov. 1791; (59) m. Ridgefield 29 Feb. 1760 Sarah Cornwall. (60) On 7 July 1747 Denton Mills, son of Samuel Mills late of Greenwich, chose his brother Samuel Mills as guardian. (61)
      5. Lydia Mills, b. say 1731; d. by 28 June 1786; (62) m. Norwalk, Conn., 20 Dec. 1750 Ebenezer Fitch (63) of Norwalk, son of Gov. Thomas and Hannah (Hall) Fitch. (64)
      6. Clemence/Clements Mills, b. ca. 1733; d. Ridgefield, Conn., 13 March 1828 age 95; (65) m. Ridgefield 29 Oct. 1751 John Smith, (66) b. Ridgefield 14 June 1730, d. there 28 Feb. 1779 age 48, son of Ebenezer and Sarah (Collins) Smith. (67)
      ii. CLEMENT[S] MILLS, named for her mother's sister, Clement[s] (Denton) (Smith) Gregory, b. say 1698; d. by 28 June 1786; (68) m. by 1720 Caleb Knapp, (69) son of Caleb and Sarah (Rundle) Knapp (70). Sarah (Mills) Mead's will refers to many kinsmen and kinswomen who were almost certainly Clement's descendants, but sorting them out is beyond the scope of this article.
      iii. Sarah MILLS, b. ca. 1704; d. 4 April 1787 age 83, bur. Union Cemetery, Greenwich; (71) m. by 6 Feb. 1730 (72) JABEZ MEAD, b. Greenwich 10 June 1700 (73), son of Ebenezer Mead (74). Jabez Mead's will, dated 27 Feb. 1769 and proved 3 April 1769, named his wife Sarah, mentioned land which he had purchased of his father-in-law Samuel Mills, deceased, and gave bequests to numerous nephew (75). Sarah's own will, dated 28 June 1786 and proved 3 May 1787, names a long list of kinsmen, kinswomen, nieces and nephews which confirms that she was a daughter of Samuel3 Mills (76).
      Footnotes
      1. One of the few accounts of the first generations of this family in print is a short line through this Samuel3 Mills of Greenwich by Josephine C. Frost, "Ancestry of Evelyn Wood Keller, wife of Willard Underhill Taylor" (Brooklyn, N.Y.: n.p., 1939), 90-93.
      2. The current edition of the LDS Ancestral File is one example, at www.familysearch.org, but the error is also found on the Ancestry World Tree at www.ancestry.com.
      3. John Hughes, publisher and editor, writes, "What about the latest Ohio State University study that suggests writing is more believable when seen on paper rather than on a computer screen?" (Christian Science Monitor, 16 August 2000, 10).
      4. An extensive collection by James H. Mills, compiled mostly in the 1890s, is at the Buffalo and Erie County Historical Society in Buffalo, New York. Another collection is that of Dr. Edward C. Mills, compiled between about 1890 and 1905. It is at the Ohio Historical Society, call number FLM 28, accession no. M90-789, available on two microfilms. A third collection, by William Heidgerd, is at the Orange County Historical Society in Goshen, New York. Lewis D. Cook's typescript is discussed below [note 9].
      5. "New Jersey Quit Rent Book, 1683-1696," a document at the New Jersey Historical Society, Newark, N.J., 32, [FHL 0,946,001]. This first reference to a Samuel in Elizabethtown could possibly refer to Samuel2 Mills of Jamaica.
      6. East Jersey Deeds, C:218.
      7. East Jersey Deeds, G3:516, 518.
      8. Essex County, New Jersey, Probate, Document 1331 [FHL 0,545,457], recorded in Book D, p. 246; abstracted in "Calendar of New Jersey Wills, 13 vols., New Jersey Archives, First Series (1880-1930), vols. 23, 30, 32-42, at 30:340.
      9. Until this year, the best, indeed the only, documented treatment of this family was in Lewis D. Cook's excellent "Documentary History of the Family of Mills" (1939), a typescript at the New York Genealogical and Biographical Society [FHL 1,697,455]. However, Cook did not follow Samuel3 in Greenwich records. The only lengthy treatment of Samuel of Greenwich is in a typescript by Samuel H. Mills, "Samuel Mills Ancestry or George Mills and the Samuel Mills Line of Jamaica, Long Island, New York, and Greenwich, Connecticut," (1958-60), copies of which are at the Greenwich Public Library, the Historical Society of the Town of Greenwich, and the Connecticut State Library. While this is probably quite reliable for later generations in Greenwich, the earlier part evidently copies from various secondary materials, which contain errors. Samuel H. Mills clearly consulted Greenwich land records to some extent, but he must not have read all of the early deeds. Most importantly, he missed the daughter Sarah who married Jabez Mead.
      10. Walter C. Krumm, "Descendants of the Rev. Richard Denton," The New York Genealogical and Biographical Record, 120 (1989):10-17, 93-97, 159-64 at 161, 222-25; 121 (1990):22-24, 144-49, 221-25, et seq.
      11. Krumm, "Rev. Richard Denton" [note 10], 120:161, citing Record 65 (1934):248.
      12. New York County Wills, Liber 9, p. 42 [FHL 0,874,518]; Abstracts of Wills in the Surrogate's Office, City of New York 17 vols. Collections of The New-York Historical Society for 1892-1908, 2:187, erroneously calls the third child "Susannah." Krumm, "Rev. Richard Denton," [note 10], 120:161, cites the original will as well.
      13. Horace Wilbur Palmer, Palmer Families in America: Vol. 1, Lt. William Palmer of Yarmouth, Mass., and His Descendants in Greenwich, Conn. (Neshanic, N.J.: Neshanic Printing Co., 1966), 20, 24. Pages 9-14, 19-26, need to be read carefully by any researcher.
      14. Stamford District Probate, 7:8. The original will was missing from the file in the Connecticut State Library in January 2002, but a handwritten abstract supplied by Donald Lines Jacobus, dated 26 June 1941, is filmed with the Stamford District Probate packet [FHL 1,018,472]. An abstract appears in Nelson A. Close, "The Will of Sarah Mills Mead," Connecticut Ancestry 6 (Dec. 1963):32-38. Close's article reconstructs this family but without documentation and without recognizing the commonly-accepted errors discussed in the present article.
      15. Greenwich Deeds, 7:285.
      16. Spencer P. Mead, "Ye Historie of Ye Town of Greenwich" (New York: Knickerbocker Press, 1911), 61.
      17. Greenwich Deeds, 8:43, 142.
      18. Josephine C. Frost, ed., "Records of the Town of Jamaica, Long Island, New York, 1656-1751," 3 vols. (Brooklyn: Long Island Historical Society, 1914), 2:196-98.
      19. Frost, "Jamaica" [note 18], 2:16, 21, 85-87, 400; 3:49, 95, 98-99, 99-101, 101, 103-05, 106-08, 481, 483; Alexander Lobel, "Abstracts of Deeds in the Queens County, New York, Register's Office" [FHL 0,017,873], B2:8, from the original B2:17; B2:24, from the original B2:59-60; B2:27, from the original B2:69-71, B2:149, from the original B2:406-07.
      20. Frost, "Jamaica" [note 18], 2:36, 3:418, 430.
      21. Frost, "Jamaica" [note 18], 3:103-04.
      22. Lobel, "Abstracts of Deeds," [note 19], C:114, from C:332, recorded 15 February 1722.
      23. Frost, "Jamaica" [note 18], 3:136-7.
      24. Mead, "Historie of Greenwich" [note 16], 50.
      25. Greenwich land records, Common Place Book, 1:27, 28, 29 [FHL 0,185,372].
      26. Lobel, "Abstracts of Deeds," [note 19], B2:312, from the original B2:640-41. Three other deeds for Pennsylvania land appear in Philadelphia County Deeds (E7:233, F5:538, 540), showing that "Samuel Mills of Jamaica on Long Island, Sadler" bought there on 4 September 1705, probably mortgaged 500 acres of it on 4 December 1705 and, still called of Jamaica, sadler, sold it to Thomas Hanlocke on 10 May 1712.
      27. Frost, "Jamaica" [note 18], 3:134-6.
      28. Cook, "Mills" [note 9], 10, from "Boston News Letter," 1727, No. 14; reprinted in "Register" 14 (1860):106. Cook added by hand, "The original Gazette is dated 'from March 6 to Monday, Mar 13th 1726,' i.e., 1726/7- examined in N.Y.C. Public Library, 5th Ave & 42d St L.D.C." A similar obituary notice in the "New York Gazette" was reprinted in Benjamin F. Thompson, "History of Long Island." (New York: E. French, 1839), 164, and in subsequent editions.
      29. Greenwich Deeds, 2:66. Another deed from Joseph Palmer, this time with his wife Elizabeth, to Samuel Mills was for several pieces of land in Bedford, Westchester County, including a right in the West New Purchase, dated 23 March 1719/20 ("Town of Bedford, Westchester County, New York, Historical Records," vol. 3, Land Records, v. II, 1687-1741 [Bedford Hills, N.Y.: by the town, 1969], 182). There are three other deeds from Samuel Mills of Greenwich in this volume.
      30. Greenwich Deeds, 2:236, acknowledged at Queens County the same day, witnesses Jeremiah Smith and Samuel Denten, recorded 6 February 1717/18. Samuel's mark resembled a backwards S and Susannah's a little pie with a piece cut out.
      31. Greenwich Deeds, 2:231.
      32. Greenwich Deeds, 2:92, 3:60.
      33. Orange County Deeds, B:271-72.
      34. Greenwich Deeds, 3:347.
      35. Greenwich Deeds, 5:438; Samuel H. Mills, "Samuel Mills Ancestry" [note 9], 10.
      36. Orange County Deeds, B:346-49.
      37. Samuel H. Mills, "Samuel Mills Ancestry" [note 9], 10.
      38. Stamford District Probate, 3:92.
      39. Greenwich Deeds, 3:74, not, of course, counting the 1716 deed from his parents.
      40. Greenwich Deeds, 3:255.
      41. Greenwich Deeds, 3:360.
      42. Greenwich Deeds, 4:324.
      43. Greenwich Deeds, 4:200.
      44. Greenwich Deeds, 5:144.
      45. Greenwich Deeds, 7:285, 286, 316, 438.
      46. See Close's article in "Connecticut Ancestry" [note 14] for information on many grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
      47. Marion H. Reynolds, "The History and Descendants of John and Sarah Reynolds" [Brooklyn, N.Y.: Reynolds Family Association, 1924], 49; Captain James S. Ferris, "A Ferris Genealogy," 5 vols., typescript at NEHGS (1980), vol. 2 #12, #129. The will of John Reynolds, cooper, late of Greenwich, dated 11 November 1732 and proved 26 March 1732, mentions his daughters, including Lydia, and son-in-law Samuel Mills (Stamford District Probate, 1:30; annotations to gravestone records in Francis F. Spies, "Greenwich, Conn., Epitaphs, Part I," typescript [Mt. Vernon, N.Y., 1931], 95). The will does not make it clear which daughter married Samuel; the Reynolds genealogy says it was Judith. However, Samuel's father's power of attorney, detailed above, makes it clear that his son's wife's name was Lydia. Arthur K. Gibson also discusses this in his article, "7 Generations of Judiths," "Connecticut Ancestry" 29:1 (Sept. 1986):1-3.
      48. Samuel H. Mills, "Samuel Mills Ancestry" [note 9], 13.
      49. Will of Sarah (Mills) Mead [note 14].
      50. Josephine C. Frost, "Keeler" [note 1], 93, which does not give a source.
      51. Mead, "Historie of Greenwich" [note 16], 527.
      52. Samuel H. Mills, "Samuel Mills Ancestry" [note 9], 1, 13. Greenwich Deeds, 7:286, 8:142 and 9:130, confirm her first marriage, but not the second. This Jacob Smith was probably the Jacob Smith of Ridgefield who was a widower after 6 June 1759 ("Sergt. John Smith of MIlford," "The American Genealogist" 25 [1949]:102-16 at 112).
      53. Samuel H. Mills, "Samuel Mills Ancestry" [note 9], 13-14, says 28 December. The Greenwich "Book of Early Records, 1640-1754," 233, as extracted in the Barbour Collection of Connecticut Vital Records, says he was born 23 December, as does Spies, "Greenwich, Conn., Epitaphs," [note 47], 95.
      54. Samuel H. Mills, "Samuel Mills Ancestry" [note 9], 13-14, says she was born in 1730, Spies, "Greenwich, Conn., Epitaphs" [note 48], 95, says 1736, which is too late, considering the birth of the first child. The marriage date is based on the birth of their first child Abigail on 12 February 1747[/48?] (Barbour Collection, from "Book of Early Records" [note 53], 233). For the Holmes family, see Paul W. Prindle, "Ancestry of Elizabeth Barrett Gillespie" (New Orleans: Polyanthos, 1976), 283.
      55. Samuel H. Mills, "Samuel Mills Ancestry" [note 9], 1, 13, probably from Alfred Averill Knapp, "Nicholas Knapp Genealogy" (Winter Park, Fla.: by the author, 1953), 45-46.
      56. Knapp, "Knapp" [note 55], 46; Mead, "Historie of Greenwich: [note 16], 526.
      57. Close, "Will of Sarah Mills Mead" [note 14], 36.
      58. Spencer P. Mead, "Abstract of Church Records of the Town of Greenwich," manuscript at the Connecticut State Library (1913), 38.
      59. Barbour Collection, from Ridgefield Vital Records 1:206.
      60. Barbour Collection, from Ridgefield Land Records 1:252 and Vital Records 1:155; "Records of the Church of Christ in Salem, Westchester Co., N.Y.," "The New York Genealogical and Biographical Record," 31 (1900): 86.
      61. Stamford District Probate, 1:310.
      62. Sarah (Mills) Mead's will says her niece Lydia Fitch of Norwalk was to pay Sarah's nephew Denton Mills of Ridgefield a certain sum, but later in the will she names sons of "my deceased niece Lydia Fitch." There are many nieces named in the will, some of whom must be grandnieces. Thus the living niece Lydia Fitch must be a grandniece.
      63. Barbour Collection, from Norwalk Land Records 4:0 [sic}, which says she was the daughter of Samuel, Jr. of Greenwich, deceased.
      64. Samuel H. Mills, "Samuel Mills Ancestry" [note 9], 1, 13; Greenwich Deeds, 7:285-86, 309, confirm her marriage; Roscoe Conkling Fitch, "History of the Fitch Family," 2 vols. (Haverhill, Mass.: Record Publishing Co., 1930), 2:131-32.
      65. Barbour Collection, from Ridgefield Vital Records, 1:226.
      66. Samuel H. Mills, "Samuel Mills Ancestry" [note 9], 1, 13; Greenwich Deeds, 7:15 and 9:83, confirm her marriage which is found in the Barbour Collection, from Land Records 1:234; called "niece Clemence Smith, widow of John Smith, late of Ridgefield" in Sarah (Mills) Mead's will.
      67. "Sergt. John Smith" [note 52], 104-05, 113.
      68. Sarah (Mills) Mead's will named many children and grandchildren but not Clement herself.
      69. Samuel H. Mills, "Samuel Mills Ancestry" [note 9], 10-11; Knapp, "Knapp" [note 55], 12. Greenwich vital records, as in the Barbour Collection, contain the births of three children, Sarah, Clemens and Amy, to Caleb and Clemens Knapp in 1720, 1722 and 1726 ("Book of Early Records" [note 53], 144.
      70. Knapp, "Knapp" [note 55], 6, 12.
      71. Charles R. Hale, "Charles R. Hale Collection [of Cemetery Inscriptions and Newspaper Notices of Marriages and Deaths]," (1933-34), Greenwich, 199, at the Connecticut State Library.
      72. Mead, "Abstract of Church Records" [note 58], 9.
      73. Barbour Collection, from Greenwich Land Records 1:450 and "Book of Early Records" [note 53], 144.
      74. Ebenezer Mead's wife is shown as Sarah Knapp in several sources cited here, but she is not mentioned in Knapp, "Knapp" [note 55].
      75. Stamford District Probate, 3:354.
      76. Stamford District Probate, 7:8.

      2. Miscellaneous comments from Worldconnect accessed 14 Feb 2010, which describes the will of Samuel Denton, uncle to this individual: "Surrogate 9-42 Will of Samuel Denton of Jamaica, blacksmith, dated April 25, 1718, proved April 7, 1719. Mentions wife Martha, mother (not named), two brothers - Jacomiah and Hezekiah, also Samuel and Clement and Susannah, children of my sister Sarah Mills and Robert, John, Mary, Abraham and Ebenezer and Samuel, children of sister Clement Smith."