John Mills of Woodford Bridge

Uncle of Peter Matthew Mills and father-in-law of Sir John Pole 5th bart and grandfather of Sir John William de la Pole 6th bart., to whom he left a share of his estates and enslaved people on St Kitts. The family relationships have not yet been fully disentangled here: the will of John Mills of Woodford Bridge shows Ann Gallwey as his sister and Matthew Mills as his deceased brother, and does not further characterise Thomas Mills of Great St Helens, who was a trustee under the will, whereas the Museum of London in Docklands guide to the Mills papers suggests Matthew Mills was the uncle of Thomas Mills of Great St Helens (q.v.) but also shows Ann Gallwey as the sister of Thomas Mills. Vere Langford Oliver is also tentative in his family tree for the Mills family.

1. Will of John Mills or Miller [sic] of Woodford Bridge, Essex proved 08/11/1758. He left £100 each to his daughters Lucretia wife of Henry Compton and his youngest daughter Elizabeth wife of Sir John Pole, and £50 each to 'my good friends' John Woodley of London, John Mills and Thomas Mills of Great St Helens and Stephen Payne of the island of St Christopher for mourning. He confirmed the £300 p.a. annuity to his wife under their marriage settlement [to which he added a further £100 p.a. later in the will] and left the rest of his property including estates [and enslaved people] on St Kitts and Nevis in trust (the trustees were John Woodley and Thomas Mills, and then John Mills and Stephen Payne), divided (1) one-third for his [the testator's] eldest son and then successive sons, then one half of the one third to his grandson Henry Compton for life, with remainder to his heirs and then to his brothers and then elaborately entailed to other male family members, and the other half of this first third to his grandson John [William de la] Pole for life, then to his heirs with remainder to Henry Compton; (2) one-third to Henry Compton for life, then to his heirs with remainder for half to John Mills' own sons (if any) and half to John Pole; (3) one-third to John Pole and then to his heirs, with remainder to Henry Compton etc. The will identifies Peter Matthew Mills as the son of John Mills' late brother Matthew Mills. He left £1500 to Matthew Mills Gallaway (son of his sister Anne), and freed a 'mulatto' carpenter named James Seaton with an annuity of £15 p.a. when his apprenticeship expired and he had served two years on Mills' estates on St Kitts. In two codicils he added relatively small annuities and monetary legacies to two individuals in Britain and [without explanation] instructed £5000 to be raised from the one-third interest of John Pole for the children of Henry Compton, and recorded the death of his daughter Elizabeth.

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

1. PROB 11/841/298. The will is indexed under "John Mille' on the Ancestry.com website.