Thomas Mills of Great St Helens

Slave-owner and planter on St Kitts, then a merchant in London. The Mills papers at the Museum of London in Docklands record his activities in St Kitts and London.

1. Thomas Mills' will was proved on 24 September 1768. The will, made in 1749 when he was in St Kitts about to journey to England, is relatively short, leaving an annuity of £30 p.a. to his widowed sister Mary Borolos [?] in Bridgewater, £500 and the use of his house in Basseterre to his wife for life but no longer, and then to his son John; all the rest of his property was to be divided equally between his wife Frances and his sons John, Thomas, William and Mathew. He instructed his executors to sell all the 'slaves, stock and other premises [?]' he had purchased and settled on a certain [unnamed] estate leased from Mrs Anne Gallwey on the expiration of the lease. He encouraged his wife to leave St Kitts and reside in England after his death. His executors were his cousins John and Mathew Mills in London, merchants, and Robert Colhoun and Stephen Payne of St Kitts.

http://www.museumoflondon.org.uk/files/7414/3022/7946/Mills-Archive.pdf [accessed 21/01/2016]

1. PROB 11/942/209, The National Archives. It is indexed as 'Thomas Mills, St Christopher'. In 1791 administration of the will was granted to William MacDowall Colhoun.