Sherland Swanston

The partnership of John Mills senior, John Mills junior and John Warington gave way to Mills & Swanston c. 1769, on the death of John Mills of Great St Helens, according to a deed of 09/12/1794 recapitulating the history of the firm's involvement with the New River estate of the Maynard family on Nevis.

The partnership between John Mills, John Warington and Sherland Swanston trading as Mills, Warington and Swanston at Great St Helens was dissolved by mutual consent 30/05/1771.

The partnership of Mills's & Swanston was bankrupt in 1781. In his will proved in 1803 Sherland Swanston provided an elaborate account of his two partnerships, one of which - Mills's & Swanston - was (he alleged) brought to bankruptcy almost two years after its extinction by the actions of Matthew Towgood, an executor of John Mills of Great St Helens, although Towgood knew that it had £75,600 in capital; a second later partnership (with John Mills of Hitchin, LBS believes) of Mills & Swanston, he asserted, had assets ample to cover its liabilities but had been subject to harassment by Towgood and driven to bankruptcy in order to wrest the business from the hands of the partners and into Towgood's.

Common Records 1794-1797, British Library, EAP794/1/1/25, https://eap.bl.uk/archive-file/EAP794-1-1-25 pp. 255-287.

London Gazette 11149 1 June 1771 p. 2

London Gazette, 12160 6 February 1781 p. 4; ibid, 13853, 9 January 1796 p. 49