David Mill of Tobago

Early purchaser of land in Tobago, and almost certainly the David Mill of Montrose whose will is detailed in the entries for James Mill of Camberwell (q.v.) and Baron George Gavin Browne Mill (also whom q.v.). By 1773 (when he was a member of the island's Council) David Mill appeared as the owner in Tobago of: (1) Barbados Bay division St George) Lots no. 35-36 and 40, which together became Mount Rose estate [or more likely in light of the below, Montrose], which has not yet been traced; and (2) Northeast division (St John parish) Lot no. 42. He was among the inhabitants of Tobago who were signatories of the petition to Robert Melvill in 1767 and the address to Lt Governor Ferguson in 1781.

1. December 28 [1804] At Bath, [death of] David Mill Esq late of Tobago.

2. In 1777 David Mills [sic] contracted to supply 60,000 pounds of cotton to Thomas Cotton of Tobago and two groups of metropolitan merchants, one in Manchester and one in London.

3. David Mill, a native of Montrose, Scotland, having ‘acquired a considerable fortune in the West Indies’ left a will and several codicils, making George Gavin Browne one of the executors, and on 06/04/1803 George Gavin Browne took the additional name and arms of Mill ‘out of grateful respect to and in compliance with the desire of his friend, David Mill, of the said City of Bath’. The third codicil left a plantation in Cariacou to John Mill and George Gavin Browne. As a result of this will, which raised an annuity of £300 p.a. for the amelioration of the enslaved people and provided for two-thirds of the residual income to flow to destitute daughters of gentlemen residing in the neighbourhood of Montrose, there was a court case, Attorney-General v Mill, followed by an appeal in 1831. The account of the court case gives David Mill's date of death as 29/12/1804: this must therefore be the same man as the David Mill 'late of Tobago', even though his the dispute over his will focused on the property on Cariacou in Grenada.

1. Scots Magazine Vol. 67 (1805) p. 77.

2. Derbyshire Record Office Catalogue, D157M/T1851 Articles of contract for cotton by David Mills [sic] of the island of Tobago in West Indies, esq, to Thomas Cotton of the island of Tabago [sic], esq, Roger Sedgwick of Manchester, esq, William Bullock and Michael Cotton of Manchester, merchants, and William Tod, Thomas Cheap, William Collow and John Henderson of London, merchants and partners for the delivery of 60,000 pounds weight of cotton from the islands of Tobago and Carionacon [=Cariacou]. 31 Jan 1777.

3. The Nobilities of Europe by Melville H. Ruvigny, Melville Henry Massue, Marquis de Ruvigny; James Russell and John Scott Eldon, Reports of cases argued and determined in the High Court of Chancery, Volume 1 ; Richard Bligh, New reports of cases heard in the House of Lords: on appeals and writs of error Vol. 5 (1834) pp. 593-619, http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=R2NUAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA604&lpg=PA604&dq=%22george+gavin+browne%22+%22david+mill%22&source=bl&ots=gY-yZKAzYX&sig=F3uSc4O8Wex0pUUbxUu9KXRrIzg&hl=en&sa=X&ei=5FmTUpKBPK2r0AXgg4CICw&ved=0CDkQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q=%22george%20gavin%20browne%22%20%22david%20mill%22&f=false accessed 25/11/2013; https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=nG4DAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA617&lpg=PA617&dq=%22attorney-general+v+mill%22&source=bl&ots=fERPRKYtHE&sig=ZUQhneYvAaYLeRXwYC-SQJsImyk&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiM2fropJ_UAhUEDcAKHYRLBgkQ6AEIJDAB#v=onepage&q=%22attorney-general%20v%20mill%22&f=false [accessed 02/06/2017].