Chris & Julie Petersen's Genealogy

George Mills

Male Abt 1605 - 1694  (~ 89 years)


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  • Name George Mills 
    Born Abt 1605  , , England Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Gender Male 
    Died 17 Oct 1694  Jamaica, Queens, New York, United States Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Person ID I4763  Petersen-de Lanskoy
    Last Modified 27 May 2021 

    Family Rebecca,   b. Bef 1612, , , England Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. Aft 24/24 Mar 1681/2, of Jamaica, Queens, New York, United States Find all individuals with events at this location  (Age > 71 years) 
    Married Bef 1632  of, , , United States Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Children 
     1. Samuel Mills,   b. Abt 1632, , , , United States Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. 10/10 Mar 1726/7, Jamaica, Queens, New York, United States Find all individuals with events at this location  (Age ~ 95 years)
     2. Jonathan Mills,   b. Abt 1637, of Jamaica, Queens, New York, United States Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. Aft 21 Jan 1717, of Jamaica, Queens, New York, United States Find all individuals with events at this location  (Age ~ 80 years)
     3. Bethia Mills,   b. Abt 1640, of Jamaica, Queens, New York, United States Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. Aft 2 Sep 1658, of Jamaica, Queens, New York, United States Find all individuals with events at this location  (Age ~ 18 years)
     4. Zachariah Mills,   b. Bef 1644, of Jamaica, Queens, New York, United States Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. From 9 May 1696 to 17 Sep 1696, Jamaica, Queens, New York, United States Find all individuals with events at this location  (Age > 52 years)
     5. Isaac Mills,   b. Bef 1646, of Jamaica, Queens, New York, United States Find all individuals with events at this location
    Last Modified 28 May 2021 
    Family ID F460  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  • Notes 
    • RESEARCH_NOTES:
      1. FHL book 929.273 M625u "A Mills and Kendall Family History…," by Helen Schatvet Ullmann (Boston, 2002), pp. 3-9:
      "George1 MILLS was born, surely in England, perhaps about 1605.[3] He died at Jamaica, Long Island, New York,[4] probably on October 17, 1694 age 89.[5] His only known wife was Rebecca ___ who was living on March 24, 1681/2 when he signed a deed providing for her. But the wording of the deed, charging his son Samuel with her care, suggests that perhaps she was not Samuel's mother and that George may have had an earlier wife. Many have assumed that this was a daughter of Nicholas Tanner, but the documents relating to Nicholas Tanner's estate do not show this clearly at all. Tanner's will named only one relative, a son John living in "Tolspidle" in England. Then it listed a number of other people, particularly children of various families. These included Bethia Mills and her mother and Zacharias Mills. George Mills was to have most of his clothing.[6] George may have married a daughter of Tanner but more likely was associated with him in some other way. However, Nicholas Tanner's residence around 1631, when George would have married, becomes of great interest. Tanner's son John was at Tolspidle in Dorsetshire, England, in 1658.[7] Thus if George Mills married a daughter of Nicholas Tanner before coming to America, he was probably from the West Country of England.
      But there are other theories about George Mills' origins. The remarkable obituary of his son Samuel (see below) says that Samuel was born in America, implying that George was in this country by about 1632. It has been said that George came to Long island via Milford, Connecticut, and that his father was a John Mills of Boston.[8] But George was a contemporary of this John of Boston, not his descendant. In fact, no trace of a George Mills has been found in any New England record of this period. There was a Richard Mills who went from Stratford, Connecticut, just west of Milford, to Southampton which is on the eastern end of Long Island, and later to Newtown, just west of Jamaica, but he seems to have no connection to George.[9]
      Another theory of George's origins, that he came from Yorkshire, is probably based on the fact that in the 1650s he lived in Hempstead, Long Island, where the Rev. Richard Denton arrived in 1644. Denton was from Yorkshire and apparently did not arrive in America until sometime between 1635 and 1638.[10] But since his son Samuel's astonishing obituary states that Samuel was born "in America" and died at the age of ninety-five on March 10, 1727, George must have been on this side of the Atlantic by about 1632. If he was in New England for twenty-two years before the first record of him at Hempstead in 1654, it seems odd that he left no known record. So it may be that Samuel's obituary was wrong. Or perhaps George came from a colony to the south, even from the West Indies.
      Records at Hempstead and Jamaica:
      In 1644 fifty proprietors settled at Hempstead, many from the Stamford, Connecticut, area. Nicholas Tanner was among them. Between that time and about 1654 when a list of proprietors and their holdings was made, some fifty more families arrived, among them George Mills - unless perhaps he had been there all along but was not a landowner. On this list George Mills had six acres "in Mr. Ogden's necke propriety" and six more "In ye Mill River."[11]
      On March 10, 1656 fourteen Hempstead residents, saying they had purchased from the Indians the adjacent tract before February 18, of that year, for the third time petitioned Governor Pieter Stuyvesant at New Amsterdam for his confirmation of the purchase. They said the land, then called Conorasset (later Jamaica), between "Conarie See" and Hempstead, was capable of supporting about twenty families. This Stuyvesant accepted on March 21, 1656. George Mills was not one of the signers. Evidently there was a subsequent communication from Stuyvesant, dated July 4, 1656, demanding "the tenths" and the inhabitants of Hempstead replied, agreeing to pay, "iff there be any deputed to receave them according to Covenant." This was signed by many Hempstead citizens including George Mills who made his mark, "M."[12]
      By this time George had already received a grant of land in Jamaica. On February 18, 1656 the Town of Jamaica held their first town meeting. They elected Daniel Denton as clerk, decided that anyone who felled a tree in the highway should "take both top and body out of ye highway," and offered a bounty of fifteen shillings for every wolf killed. They granted to George Mills and five others house lots "lying upon the South Quarter off ye Town. The afforesay home lots are to bee six acres in a Lot 18 ffoot longe pole, 12 pole in breadth, 80 in length."[13]
      On "November ye 25th 1656 stylo Novo," George Mills and sixteen others including "Nic: Tanner." signed an agreement by which each settler would be allotted ten acres of planting land and twenty of meadow.[14]
      However, George still had some ties back in Hempstead. In 1657 a list of 23 owners and their "Number of Cattell" kept in the Neck included "George Miles fower…4."[15] In the same year there was recorded "The number of every mans gattes that they have at the necke," which included "George Miles hath six gattes...6,"[a6] that is, "gates," sections of fencing that he was responsible for.
      On "July ye 1st 1657 Stylo Novo," the town of Jamaica divided themselves into four squadrons and divided the mowing of the meadows accordingly. George Mills was in Nathaniel Denton's third squadron, "to lie eastward ffrom Massepe to ye Crick in ye Hassokie medowes;…"[17]
      On the "11th off Ffebruary 1661: Stylo novo," George Mills and several others agreed to give information about any Quakers meeting in Rustdorp (the Dutch name for Jamaica) to the Governor's authorities and would assist the town if necessary against them.[18] Actually, this was not so much their anti-Quaker feeling as a desire to avoid having Governor Stuyvesant's soldiers quartered in their homes. Governments at the time felt that Quaker preaching threatened the peace, and Stuyvesant had forbidden people to harbor Quakers in their homes and conduct "conventicles," in other words, preach. "In August 1657 Robert Hodgson, a traveling Quaker preacher, came to Jamaica, where he was received with gladness and made his home at Henry Townsend's, who invited his neighbors to come in and listen to a word of exhortation." Stuyvesant fined Townsend, but other incidents occurred and in January 1661 the governor ordered soldiers to Jamaica until the householders would sign a pledge "to aid the authorities in putting down Quaker meetings." Soon after, Townsend and others moved to Oyster Bay and the agitation seems to have ceased.[19]
      On April 11, 1662 a number of men agreed to bring a load of wood apiece to the minister, Mister Prudden, every year. Below the first list is another list, repeating many of the names and adding a few others, including George Mills. Marks next to the names suggest that a tally was kept for many years.[20]
      George appeared in town records many other times, mostly relating to lands and taxes.[21] On February 22, 1678/9 he sold to Zachariah Mills ten acres of meadow on Long Neck, half of George's twenty acres there, with the privilege of commonage. No consideration was mentioned, but that does not necessarily mean this was a gift. Nor does the deed call Zachariah his son.[22] But neatly twenty years later, on February 20, 1697 Samuel Ruscoe deposed, saying that he had witnessed the above, referring to "Zachariah & George Mills his father."[23]
      On March 24, 1682/1 [sic] "George Mils of Jemaicae in the North Rideing of Yorkshire upon Long Island," in a legal statement which some have called his will, said that his "…wife Rebeccae shall peaseably and quietly posses and injoye my now dwelling howse and home Lot and ortchard dureing her Life time if it please god that shee should live longer than I and allsoe I doe declare that to the best of my understanding that the oblegation given to mee from my sonn Samuel Mills for the Mowing of hay and cutting of wood or any thing els was to be done for my wife if she shall live longer than I and therefore though the writeing be somwhat short in that perticular I doe exspect that what my sonn Samuel Mills should doe for mee dureing my Life the same to be done to my wife if it please god that shee shall live longer than I..."
      This was witnessed by Nathaniell Denton, senior, Edward Higbee and John Everit and copied into the town records from the original.[24] The fact that George felt it necessary to direct Samuel to care for George's wife suggests that perhaps Rebecca was not Samuel's mother. On the other hand, there may have been some friction between Samuel and his mother which prompted George to close all possible loopholes. Or perhaps he just wanted it in writing.
      On August 13, 1683, the last dated record of George in the town records reads, "There being of fresh Medow a sertaine pese of fresh Medow Lyeing at the upper end of Andrew Mesengers Lot of Medow which was not Layde out as parte of his Lot it was left by the company that belonged to the Long Neck to George Mills and Edward Rowse now it was soe that afterwardes George Mills did bye Edward Rowses parte of that fresh Medowe and afterwardes George Mills did make an Exchange with Andrew Mesenger for some fresh Medowe that the sayde Messenger had upon the west side of his Medowe the truth of which George Mills did owne before mee the day and date above written… Nathaniell Denton, Clerck.[25]
      A "List of the Town of Jamaica Anno 1683" included:
      Jonathan Mills, 2 horses, 2 oxen, 6 cows, 3 swine, 16 acres, I head, £119
      Zachariah Mills, 1 horse, 2 oxen, 2 cows, 0 swine, 19 acres, 1 head, £83
      Samuell Mills, 1 horse, 2 oxen, 4 cows, 0 swine, 30 acres, I head, £105
      George Mills, 0 horses, 0 oxen, 2 cows, 0 swine, 4 acres, 1 head, £34[26]
      No probate records exist for George, probably because he transferred his land to his wife Rebecca on March 24, 1681/2, to his son Zachariah on February 22, 1678/9 and apparently to his son Samuel.
      Children of George and Rebecca (___) Mills:[27]
      i. Samuel Mills, supposedly born about 1632 but perhaps a few years later; died at Jamaica March 10, 1726[27] age 95 according to his obituary; married about 1659 Susannah Palmer, born probably at Yarmouth, Mass., about 1640-41, daughter of William and Judith (Feake) Palmer.[28] She was still living on May 8, 1718 when she and Samuel with their son Ephraim and his wife Susannah sold land in Jamaica,[29] and was living at the time of Samuel's obituary.
      The first record of Samuel in Jamaica town records was for a grant of a house lot on Nov. 18, 1660.[30] There were two marriages and two christenings in Samuel Mills family in the seven years preceding 1688.[31] Deeds document only three of his many Children.[32] The son Samuel3 Mills of Greenwich,[31] should not be confused with Samuel3 [Jonathan2, George1] Mills of Elizabethtown, N.J., discussed below.
      "Mills, Jamaica, on Long Island, March 10 (1727). This day died Samuel Mills of this Place, yeoman, who was born in America, aged ninety-five years. He was always a very laborious, honest man, of a very Temperate Life, and was able to do a good day work but a few days before he died. He lived Sixty-eight years with one Wife, who is still alive, by whom he had sixteen children. He has left behind him Nine Children, Eighty Grand Children, and Fifty-four Great Grand Children, and several of his Great Grand children are marriageable. His wife was delivered of a child when she was one and fifty Years of Age.[34]
      ii. Zachariah Mills, will made May 9, 1696 and proved Sept. 17, 1696;[35] married between Dec. 13, 1676 and June 10, 1680 Abigail (Messenger) Darling[36] who was living on the date of Zachariah's will. On Dec. 12, 1662 he was granted a home lot in Jamaica.[37] Zachariah was town clerk in Jamaica for many years. There were no marriages or christenings in his family 1681-87, but there was one burial.[38]
      iii. Isaac Mills?[39] On August 1, 1677 at a court in Hempstead, several men testified about a horse or horses belonging to Jonathan Mills (see him). One was said to be "Isack Millsis" and added that Isaac Mills gave John Jackson an order "to look after his Jeads (jades, i.e., mares?) that Runs about hempsted bounds."(40) However, from the context one suspects the deponents may have meant Jonathan or perhaps the writing was difficult. If there was such an Isaac in the Hempstead/Jamaica area, this man would have been too old to be a son of Jonathan2.
      iv. Jonathan MILLS, married Martha WOOD.
      v. Bethia Mills. Cook lists her, based on Nicholas Tanner's will dated Sept. 2, 1658. It seems reasonable to include her.
      ENDNOTES
      1. Daniel Denton, "A Brief Description of New York 1670," ed. Gabriel Furman (1845 reprinted in "Historical Chronicles of New Amsterdam, Colonial New York and Early Long Island," 2d series, compiled by Cornell Jarray [Port Washington: Ira J. Friedman, 1968], 3-7, 18-19, 20-21; reprinted in Natalie A. Naylor, "The Roots and Heritage of Hempstead Town" [Interlaken, N.Y.: Heart of the Lakes Publishing, 1994), Appendix (4). These excerpts are taken from the latter publication.
      2. During the early 1890s, Dr. Edward C. Mills, a young dentist living at the YMCA in Columbus, Ohio, spent a great deal of time corresponding with various Mills families all over the country, seeking his own Mills ancestry. One of his correspondents was James Harrison Mills whose own collection now resides at the Buffalo and Erie County Historical Society in New York. Dr. Mills discovered his own family was from Virginia, but, after a hiatus where he married and fathered two daughters, he returned to his voluminous Mills correspondence in 1903. By about 1905 he had compiled three 500-page, well-indexed, handwritten volumes. At some point thereafter these volumes arrived at the Ohio Historical Society in Columbus. They were incorrectly catalogued as the work of Edwin, not Edward, C. Mills, and were microfilmed. In the mid-1990s, after a considerable search, this author located the work, purchased the microfilm and persuaded the Ohio Historical Society to search for and recatalog the original books. These books contain a great deal of material on the descendants of George1 Mills of Jamaica, Long Island, New York. Much may have been derived from Dr. Mills correspondence with J.H. Mills of Buffalo. Unfortunately Dr. Mills transcribed the information into his well-indexed volumes, and the original letters are not with the collection (Mills, Edward C. "Mills Family Genealogy," three vol. on two microfilms, Ohio Historical Society, call no. FLM 28, accession no. M90-789).
      The James H. Mills Collection does contain many old letters, but not as much information on the recent generations as E.C. Mills. J.H. Mills worked over his material for at least 25 years, copying and rearranging but without indicating when he did which work. There is some earlier material collected about 1848 by Henry J. Mills of Morristown, New Jersey.
      Some years later Lewis D. Cook, relying to some extent on J.H. Mills' work but also doing a great deal of research himself compiled for Frances Paton Mills (Mrs. Robert B. Carnahan, Jr.,) a manuscript entitled "A Documentary History of the Family of Mills, Descended from George Mills of Hempstead and Jamaica, Long Island, 1656." This manuscript, dated 1939, and now at the New York Genealogical & Biographical Society, was microfilmed by the Genealogical Society of Utah and is on Family History Library microfilm #1,697,455. This documented monograph is the best source for many of George Mills' descendants.
      In preparing the present volume, I began with Dr. E.C. Mills' manuscript as a framework, then added Lewis D. Cook's detailed research. I also then checked the present-day database of Michael Mills of Hinesburg, Vermont, who has been collecting data on this family for many years and has published a newsletter which has gone by various names, "Mills Ancestry" being one of them. Parts are on the Internet at . The extensive James H. Mills Collection in Buffalo was searched after much research had been done, so not much new was gleaned except insight into some of the errors in accounts of this family.
      During the whole process I attempted to verify as much data as possible by reference to original or expertly transcribed copies of original sources. In the process, the original references to E.G. Mills and Cook have mostly been eliminated.
      I have tried to include every known fact about the direct ancestors of Herbert Lee Mills. As far as possible, siblings and their spouses are identified with their vital data. In a few places I have analyzed conflicting data.
      3. Some sources, in particular the manuscripts of William Applebee Daniel Eardeley (on FHL microfilm #416,893), have said he was born in 1595 and died in 1684. Charles J. Werner, in "Genealogies of Long Island Families," compiled "mainly from records left by Benjamin F. Thompson" (New York, 1919), 105, even says George was born in 1585 and died 17 October 1674 at age 89. But he appears on a tax list in 1683.
      4. Now in the Borough of Queens in New York City.
      5. Cook, 2-3. Cook's note on p. 3 reads, "Note on the Date of Death of George MILLS… In a letter dated Feb. 9th. 1895, Mr. J.H. Mills of Buffalo, N.Y., to Mr. M.P. Mills of New York, (bound herewith), it is stated that 'These old papers were found in the attic of the homestead [at Smithtown} and are now in custody of Mr. Huntington. Ethelbert jr., (sic, no surname given) of Brooklyn had access for a time to the old papers, about a barrel, among them he has found that George Mills of Jamaica died Oct. 17, 1694 aged 89.', also that 'B.F. Thompson compiled genealogical notes (mss.) but did not publish them relating to Mills. I have a copy of said Notes. Thompson undoubtedly obtained his information from the old papers that had accumulated for five generations in the homestead of my g. grandfather Wm. Mills at M(ills) P(ond).' This serves to correct the date as since published from Thompson's said notes in Genealogies of Long Island Families, 1919, and in a chart opp. p. 341 in "The Whitney Family.' LDC"
      6. Tanner's will reads:
      September 2, 1658. The last Will and testament of Nicholas TANNER, of Rustdorp (Jamaica), made the day and date above written. Imprimis, my will is yf it please God to take me away, yf I doe not otherwise alter in ye meantime, that my son, John Tanner, living in Tolspidle, within Dorsetshire, England, shall have ₤30 sterling out of my estate. And my will is that if my son cannot be procured to come over, or not heard of, the town where I live shall have the use of it for their general good. Provided they put in Securitie to send it to my sonn or as he shall come over to fetch it.
      2. My will is that Thomas Ireland shall have five pounds. And Richard Everard's children, and Roger Lynn his boy, and John Rodes his youngest boy shall have ten pounds amongst them.
      3. My will is that Bethia Mills shall have a cow and a calfe, and that she and her mother shall have ten pounds more betwixt them, to buy them clothes with.
      4. My will is that Henry Pearsall's children shall have 5 shillings a peice. My will is that John Eazor shall have my share of the tackling and cart that is betwixt us, and my share of the hollowes. Henry Pearsall shall have my cloak, and Daniel Denton my suit of cloathes. Zacharias Mills shall have a calf. My will is that a beast shall be sold to buy some linnen to bury me in, and also a sheete and other things that shall be needfull; And the white faced cow killed at my burial and given to the neighbours. My will is that yf God take me away, and that I doe not otherwise alter in the mean time, that Henry Pearsall, of Hempstead, and Daniel Denton, of Rustdorp, shall be my executors.
      George Mills is to have all my cloathing except as above given.
      Witnesses, George Mills, Timothy Halstead, Henry Pearsall, Daniel Denton. Quietus granted, June 23, 1666 ("Collections of the New York Historical Society: Abstracts of Wills on file in the Surrogate's Office, City of New York, vol. II (1893), Appendix, 415-16).
      On 2 July 1660 the following was entered on Jamaica town records:
      "Whereas there was a certaine parsell off mony Amounting to thirty pounds was left By Nicolas Tanner deceased for the use of his sonn and the Towne to have the use of it after Inquirie made for his sonn till he shall come and fetch it or send for it. These underwritten doe protest against having any thing to doe with the saide Mony either themselves or heirs or executors for beneffit or damage."
      John Townsend and George Mills made their marks on this (Josephine C. Frost, ed., "Records of the Town of Jamaica, 1656-1751" [Brooklyn: Long Island Historical Society, 1914], 1:8-9, from the original 1:10). A second copy, "taken out of the owld booke by mee Nath Denton Town Clerk," does not mention the marks. On 24 January 1664 the town, having spent the money, agreed that they would pay it if lawfiilly demanded. (Frost 1:170-711, from the original 2:3-4).
      Many have claimed, presumably based on this will, that George's wife Rebecca must have been surnamed Tanner. However, if so, it seems odd that Tanner referred to her, not by name, but as Bethia's mother. If one assumes his daughter was deceased the omission seems plausible; George might already have married again. On the other hand, the fact that the town, rather than heirs, was to have the ₤30 if John didn't claim it, suggests that Tanner left no heirs in America. On the other hand, George's disclaimer does suggest that at least some thought he and Townsend might claim a right to it. Cook lists Bethia and Zachariah as George's children, but does not suggest that Rebecca's maiden name was Tanner. Actually, Bethia could even be George's wife.
      There was another Nicholas Tanner at Swansea, Mass., in 1663 and Rehoboth in 1666 (James Savage, "A Genealogical Dictionary of the First Settlers of New England [Boston, 1860-62; reprint, Baltimore, 1965, 1981] 4:253), but no connection with Nicholas of Long Island has been found.
      7. Or at least Nicholas thought he was. "Tolspidle" must be the village called Tolpuddle, for which there are no extant church records until the 1730s. However, it is beyond the scope of this project to pursue this lead.
      8. Benjamin F. Thompson, History of Long Island (New York: B. French, 1839), 382-83, implies that most of the first settlers of Jamaica came from Milford. Besides George Mills, he names Henry Messenger, which is totally inaccurate. It was Andrew Messenger who was at Hempstead and Jamaica (Helen S. Ullmann, "The Three Messengers: Henry, Andrew and Edward: Clearing the Decks," New England Historical and Genealogical Register, 152 [1998]:353-372). However, no trace of George has been found in Milford deeds or other records. Charles Werner said George "was probably a descendant of John Mills who was made freeman of Boston in 1632" (Werner, Long Island Families, 105.) Since Werner also says the Timothy Mills, who actually was a son of Jonathan2, was a son of Jonathan's brother Samuel, we can see that Werner's (actually Thompson's) conclusions were based on insufficient evidence. A copy of B.F. Thompson's partially inaccurate work on the Mills family is in the James Harrison Mills Collection. John Mills and his wife Susan were admitted to the Boston church in the fall of 1630, and he was admitted freeman on 6 March 1631/2. His children were born in the 1620s and 1630s. In his will dated 12 January 1677 he appointed "my only son John Mills" his sole executor (Robert Charles Anderson, "The Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England 1620-1633," 3 vol. [Boston: NEHGS, 1995], 2:1259-62.).
      9. Richard also lived in Stamford, Conn., Newtown, which neighbors Jamaica on Long Island, and Westchester, New York, now part of the Bronx (Helen S. Ullmann, "Richard Mills, Seventeenth-Century Schoolmaster in Connecticut and New York," New England Historical and Genealogical Register, 154 [2000]:189-210) Herbert Furman Seversmith's manuscripts, Notebook #4, p. 1125f, on FHL #569823, treat Richard to some extent. A paper by John A. Drobnicki, "Richard Mills of Stratford, Connecticut or is it New Haven, Long Island, or Westchester?," (nd.), was published in Michael Mills' "Mills Ancestry" newsletter #34 (10 July 1994), but without its bibliography, and at www.york.cuny.edu-/~drobnik/mills.html. This erroneously suggests that there were two different Richard Mills in the area.
      10. Denton, a 1623 graduate of St. Katherine's College, Cambridge, had served at Coley Chapel in Halifax in Yorkshire and arrived in Watertown, Massachusetts, sometime between 1635 and 1638. From there he went to Wethersfield, Connecticut, by about 1638. In 1641 he led the majority of the Wethersfield church members to the new colony at Stamford, Connecticut, but remained there for only about three years and moved to Hempstead. About 1659 he retumed to England. "Coley Chapel… was the center of a small group of outlying communities near Halifax, and from several of these places came quite a few of the early settlers of Hempstead." The best treatment of this family is that by Walter C. Krumm, "Who was the Rev. Richard Denton," "New York Genealogical and Biographical Record," 117 [1986]:163-66, 211-27. See also George D.A. Combes, "Genealogy of the Descendants of Rev. Richard Denton of Hempstead, Long Island, for the First Fiat Generations," typescript, (1936), photocopy by University Microfilms at the Family History Library, "written up from mss. notes prepared over a period of several years by Wm. AD. Eardeley Esq., now deceased, a careful genealogist," 1, 3-4. Henry R. Stiles, "The History of Ancient Wethersfield," 2 v. (New York, 1904; reprint, Somersworth, N.H., 1987), 1:21, 142-45, provides additional detail. Unfortunately extant parish registers for Coley Chapel do not begin until 1734.
      On the other hand, Long Island was called "Yorkshire" for a some administrative purposes from 1664 to 1683 and was divided into three ridings. In one deed (detailed below) George is said to be of the North Riding of Yorkshire upon Long Island. Possibly this is where the rumor that he was from Yorkshire originated.
      11. The second piece identified as "for estate number last but 1 (51)" in George D.A. Combes, "The 1654 List," published in several places including "The Roots and Heritage of Hempstead Town," Natalie A. Naylor, ed. (Interlaken, N.Y.: Heart of the Lakes Publishing, 1994), 185-89. This is a carefully documented collection of scholarly essays on the early years of the town. Also, "Records of the Towns of North and South Hempstead, Long Island, N.Y.," 8 v. (Jamaica: Long Island Fanner Print., 1896), 1:114, from Liber A, 164.
      12. "Documents Relating to the Colonial History of the State of New York," v. 14, B. Femow, ed., (Albany: Weed, Parsons and company, 1883), 339-40, 362-63. A facsimile appears in Naylor, "Roots and Heritage," 36, saying that this document is in New York Colonial Manuscripts, v. 12, document 41, at the New York State Archives.
      13. Frost, Jamaica, 1:1-2, from the original 1:1-2.
      14. "wee whose names are underwritten being true owners by vertue of purchase from ye Indians & graunt from ye Governor & Council given & graunted ye 21st off March 1656… living at ye new plantation near unto ye bever pond, comonly called Jemaico: I say wee in Consideration off our charge & trouble in getting & setting off ye place have reserved ffor our selves ye ffull and just sum off ten acres off planting Land a man besides ye home lots, in ye nearest & most Convenientst place ye Can ffind & soe likewise 20 acres off medowing a man in ye Convenientst place ye Can ffind and this shall remain as theirs their heirs executors and assighnes ffor their proper right every man taking his Lott according to their ffirst right to ye Land…" ("Documents Relating to the Colonial History of the State of New York," 14:504-05; also transcribed with slight differences in Frost, Jamaica, 1:2 from the original 1:2, repeated in Frost, 1:170, from the original 2:3). "Stilo Novo," or New Style, refers to the difference between the Julian calendar (Old Style) used by the English and the Gregorian (New Style) used by the Dutch. England did not make the change until 1752.
      15. "North and South Hempstead," 1:19 from Liber A, p. 4.
      16. Ibid., 20, from Liber A, p. 7. Cow Neck (now Manhasset Neck) was a peninsula of several thousand acres of well-timbered, fertile land on the north side of the town. A fence across the head of the neck from Manhasset Bay to Hempstead Harbor had been built by some members of the town who were then entitled to pasture their cattle on the neck in proportion to the number of sections of fence or "gates" that each had built and maintained ("Roots and Heritage," pp. 59-60). At some point, perhaps in 1658, George was allotted twelve acres of meadow at Hempstead, and on 9 March 1659 New Style he was taxed "12," presumably meaning on the twelve acres. Finally on 13 December 1661 George Mills of Rusdorp (the Dutch called Jamaica "Rustdorp") sold to Robert Beddell "my house barne and whome Lott in hempsted Affores'd and alsoe Another home lot adjoyning to it, w'ch I purchassed of Daniell Whitehead." On the same day he sold to Thomas Ellison "all my acomodations in Hempsted... (excepting one house & barne with two house lots which formly I sold to Roberd beagle [sic])" ("North and South Hempstead," 1:31 from Liber A., p. 19; 1:68 from A:79; 1:247 from B:165; 2:372-73 from D:252, the deeds also abstracted in NYGBR 71[1940]:5).
      17. Frost, "Jamaica," 1:3-4, from the original 1:4-5. Evidently they rotated which squadron mowed where, because on 29 June 1658 Nathaniel Denton's squadron was to mow "at ye neck below y' old houses," and on 25 March 1659 the town concluded that Nathaniel Denton and his squadron should mow "at ye bawtrees [a river]." On 18 February 1660 the town again cast lots "ffor ye South medowes as ye have done fformerly for this ensuing year ye medowes being devided into 4 necks... so they shall continue ffor perpetuity…" Goodman Everet had taken over the third squadron which was thus to mow the long neck ("Documents Relating to the Colonial History of New York,' 14:505-06, "a true Coppy taken out of ye townbooke by Daniel Denton, clark, Rustdorp, ye 29th off August 1661").
      On 27 Februaiy 1658 the town agreed "according to a fformer order" that the first proprietors and their associates should have ten acres of planting land in a convenient place. George Mills was to have a lot on the east side (Frost, Jamaica, 1:4, from the original 1:5; the date is probably 1657/8 as it follows an item dated 13 Jan. 1657).
      18. Frost, "Jamaica," 1:105-06, from 1:120.
      19. "History of Queens County, New York" (New York: W.W. Munsell & Co., 1882), 235. Another account of the Quaker presence in Long Island appears in Peter Ross, "A History of Long Island" (New York & Chicago: Lewis Publ. Co., 1902), 1:166f the incident at Jamaica at 1:168.
      20. Frost, "Jamaica," 1:100, from the original 1:115. While the first names have multiple marks, George has only one.
      21. On 30 April 1661 the men belonging to Long Neck drew lots for their meadows, George Mills among them (Frost, "Jamaica," 1:11, from the original 1:12). An undated item, "A Rate made for ye Satisfiing off ye West Purchase," included George Mills and two of his sons on a list of 46 names. George had 20 acres of meadow, Samuel and Zachary 10 each (Frost, "Jamaica," 1:91-93, from 1:106-07. Cook says this was ordered on 5 February 1665 but the date does not appear at 1:91-93).
      acres Medows Ld b cg
      20 George Mills 1 02 2
      10 SamuelMi11s 0 13 8
      b d
      10 ZacharyMills 09 5f
      George Mills was among those voting to grant land to William Brinkly on 5 December 1670 (Frost, "Jamaica," 1:45, from 1:53). Two years later, George and Zachariah made their marks with those
      "whose names are underwritten being the true owners of the medowe Lying upon the Nek called the Longe Neke have unanimowsly agreede to fens (fence) the Neke to themselvs the which fens is to be done well and suffitiontly between this and the Last of Marche next. And after it is fensed the fens is to be mainetened and kept in repaire yearely by every man acordeing to theire share. And Likewise it is agreede upon that noe cattell shall be put in to the Neke in the spring of the yeare unles it be such horses as they keepe up for to Ryde or Worke. And a fortnit after Michalmas none to put in above a beaste for every twae akers of medow And Likewise it is agreede upon that when wee carte hay out of the medowse if any one have ocation he may leave his oxen there all nighte. November the 18 Anno 1672 (Frost, "Jamaica," 1:99-100, from 1:114).
      George and Zachariah Mills were on a list of 28 May 1674 of "those men that will give a dayse worke towardes the removeing of the fens at the owlde Towne Nek to the end that that (sic) medowe that was formerly apointed by the Towne to ly comman for the cattel to goe to at their pleasure may now be layde comman and soe Remaine for perpetuety" (Frost, "Jamaica," 1:94, from 1:108). Along with others, George and Zachariah signed on town records on 8 April 1676 saying,
      "This may sertefy any whome it may conserne that wee whose names are heare underwritten doe owne and acknowledge to have sould and reseived full satesfaction for all our rightes of comman medow at or upon the furder easte neck all medow not devided nor layde out wee have sould and made over unto Daniell Whitehead of Jemaica as his proper right..."
      A list dated 19 March 1684 shows the number of acres each man listed above had received. George Mills got 20 and Zachariah Mills 5 (Frost, "Jamaica," 1:253, from 2:82; the first document recorded in Queens Co. Deeds, A:30, on 23 Oct. 1688).
      22. On the same day George sold to William Creed of Jamaica the right to commonage and upland belonging to ten acres of meadow. Again on the same day, George and Zachariah, both of Jamaica, bound themselves to deliver to Will Creed of Jamaica ten acres of upland to be laid out "in some convenant place wher ye sayed Creed shall think fit" (Frost, "Jamaica," 1:149-50, from 1:171; 1:153-54, from 1:176; see also 2:233 from 2:430).
      23. Frost, "Jamaica," 2:233-34. This says 1696/5([sic), but it must be 1696/7. This 1697 deposition also says Zachariah was deceased but he was living when he made his will on 20 May 1696. Thus the clerk must have made an error in the date.
      An undated statement in Jamaica town records says, "The Litle playnes was measured and divided by John Oldfield and Samuell Smith the survayres chosen by the Towne into foure parts or squadrons to the men hearafter Mentioned viz…" In the list of ten for the southwest quarter is George Mills, and on the list of 16 for the southeast quarter are Samuel and Zachariah Mills (Frost, "Jamaica," 1:183, from 2:11, said to be copied from the "owlde booke" where the list, without an introductory explanation, appears in Frost, 1:45-46, from 1:53, still undated, between an entry in 1670 and one in 1695. It is interesting that, while they are in exactly the same order, some of the names are rendered quite differently in the two versions, e.g. Fult Clauis on the old list is Fulk Davis on the copy and Rd Linas on the first is Roger Lynas on the second, etc.).
      On 12 May 1679 the town decided that some of the meadow on the East Neck should be divided. On the list of existing meadow shares were George Mills with 20 acres and Zachariah and Samuel with 15, the two latter each dividing a 20-acre right with another man. George drew lot 15, Samuel lot 18 with John Ludly, and Zachariah must have gotten lot 36 along with Wait Smith (Frost, "Jamaica," 1:208-10, from 2:39).
      One wonders why Jonathan Mills was not included in these divisions.
      24. Frost, "Jamaica," 1:212, from 2:41.
      25. Frost, "Jamaica," 1:230, from 2:59.
      26. The Documentary History of the State of New York, E.B. O'Callaghan, ed., 4 v., (1849), 2:519-21. Cook refers to this as 1:509. These volumes were printed in both a large and a small format. It may be that it appears at 1:509 [or perhaps 2:509] in the large format set.
      27. Some, in particular B.F. Thompson and in some places the James H. Mills Collection, have included sons named George and Nathaniel, saying the latter died at Jamaica on 4 November 1728 age 91 (James H. Mills, in several places, e.g. Box 1, Chart 1; Edward C. Mills, 1:3, probably had it from J.H. Mills who in turn had it from B.F. Thompson, published in 1919 in Werner, "Genealogies of Long Island Families," 105. The source of the death record has not been found. No trace of a younger George has been found. Nathaniel was not listed by Cook who discusses the erroneous transcription of a 1678 document by Benj. F. Thompson in his "History of Long Island." Cook said that Thompson dated it 1660 and changed the name of Zachariah to Nathaniel (Cook, 17).
      28. Horace Wilbur Palmer, "Palmer Families in America" (Neshanic, N.J.: Neshanic Punting Co., 1966), 14, 19.
      29. Frost, "Jamaica," 3:220-22, from 3:246-47; Ephraim signed and the others made their marks.
      30. Frost, "Jamaica," 1:9, from 1:10.
      31. "Return of Marriages Christenins (sic) & Burials in the Town of Jamaica F 7 Years Preceding
      1688" in O'Callaghan, "Documentary History," 3:197.
      32. On 22 Jan. 1682/3 Samuel, "sonn of George Mills Inhabitant of Jemaicae," sold 2½ acres of salt meadow to his son-in-law John Smith of Jamaica (Frost, "Jamaica," 1:226, from 2:55; also 3:11-12, from 3:70). On 25 Feb. 1685/6 Samuel and "Susana" made their marks on a deed to their son-in-law John Smith and Elizabeth his wife (Frost, Jamaica, 3:12-13, from 3:71. Samuel acknowledged this at Queens Co. on 19 Dec. 1709). On 6 April 1697 Samuel and "Sewzanah Miles" made their marks on a deed to Samuel Mills Jr. of Jamaica. It included three pieces of land with house, gardens, orchards, etc. (Frost, "Jamaica,' 2:196-98 from 2:401-02). On 6 July 1698 Samuel, Sr., and "Seuzanah" of Jamaica deeded several pieces to "our sone John Miles" (Frost, Jamaica, 2:294-95, from 2:477). In a Greenwich, Conn., deed dated 19 March 1716, Samuel Mills, Senr, and his wife Susanna of Jamaica made their marks on a deed to their son Samuel Mills of Greenwich, "in consideration of a mare," conveying one sixth of the land granted to "our brother John Palmer deceased of Greenwich." Samuel's mark resembled a backwards S and Susannah's a little pie with a piece cut out (Greenwich Deeds, 2:236, acknowledged at Queens County the same day, witnesses Jeremiah Smith and Samuel Denten, recorded 6 Feb. 1717/8).
      33. Helen Schatvet Ullmann, "Samuel Mills of Jamaica, New York, and Greenwich, Connecticut," scheduled for the NEHG Register in April, 2002.
      34. Cook, p. 10, from "Boston News Letter," 1727. No. 14; reprinted in "New England Historical and Genealogical 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" as reprinted in Benjamin F. Thompson, "History of Long Island," 1st ed. (1839), 164; 2d. ed. (New York: Gould, Banks & Co., 1843), 1:272; 3rd ed. (1918), 2:48, reports, under date of March 15th, 1727 [i.e. 1726/7], "On Friday last, died at Jamaica, Queen's County, Samuel Mills, yeoman, (who was born in America,)" etc. as above.
      35. Abstract in NYGBR, 65:246; also abstracted by William Applebee Eardeley, in "Records in the Office of the County Clerk at Jamaica, Long, Island, New York, 1680-1781, Abstracts of Wills and Administrations, Guardians and Inventories," typescript (Brooklyn, 1918), 32 from Queens Co. Deeds, A:114, which is on FHL #0,017,715.
      36. Cook, 16, cites a deed of 1 Sept. 1674 when Abigail Darling of Jamaica sold her house and land (from Frost, "Jamaica," 1:127-28) and a petition of Abigail Mills quondam Darling, dated 10 June 1680, "praying for a remission of a fine for cohabiting with her present husband before marriage" ("Calendar of Historical Manuscripts in the office of the Secretary of State, Albany, N.Y.," Part II, E.B. O'Callaghan, ed. [Albany: Weed, Parsons & Co., 1865-66], 89). A recent transcription of the Andros Papers gives further detail: on 13 December 1676 Abigail Darling and Zachariah Mills had been bound over by the last Court for having a bastard. Abigail claimed that "your Peticioners remisness in that kind was chiefly occasioned by her former Husbands unkindness, hee going away from her, and her three children, and Leaving them in a desolate and deplorable condlicion." Even though their neighbors recommended leniency, on 13 Aug. 1680 the Governor denied their petition for relief from the fine of ₤5 each. ("The Andros Papers, 1674-76," Peter R. and Florence A. Christoph, eds. (Syracuse University Press, 1989), 487, 1679-80 (1991), 312). For evidence that Abigail's maiden name was Messenger see Ullmann, "The Three Messengers," Register 152[1998]:362.
      37. Cook, 16, from Frost, "Jamaica," 1:18, from the original 1:19.
      38. O'Callaghan, "Documentary History," 3:197.
      39. An Isaac Mills on 9 April 1671 purchased a house and four acres of land at Southampton from John Beswick (Southampton Records, 2:59, from the original Book A, No. 2:92). This was almost certainly the son of Richard Mills of Southampton (Ullmann, "Richard Mills," Register, 154:204-05). Cook did not list an Isaac in this family, and no Isaac Mills appears in Jamaica records.
      40. "Town Records of North and South Hempstead," 1:358-59, from Liber B, pp. 310-312."

      SOURCES_MISC:
      1. FHL book 929.273-K727kf: "Knapp's N' Kin, The Ancestral Lines of Frederick H Knapp and Others," compiled by: Frederick H Knapp, Rt. #2, Box 438C, AB Hwy, Richland, Missouri, 65556; 1987; Revised/Updated 1991. It notes the following sources, none of which I have yet reviewed:
      -Hist. of Greenwich, by S.P. Mead (1911).
      -7 Gen. of Judith's, by A. Gibson
      -NEGHR, v. 14, p. 106.
      -CT Ancestry (Dec 1963 and 1986).
      -Samuel Mills and Descendants, by Samuel Mills IX.
      -Rundle Fam. of Amer. (1992).