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Return to Woodward Home Page Return to Thomas and Mary Underwood Cook Page Return to William and Sarah Mills Hunt Page Return to John Mills III Page Return to John and Sarah Bowater Beals Page John and Rebecca/Rebeckah Mills Families
John Mills came as a young man to America from England. He was married twice, once to Rebecca and second to Rebeckah. The surnames of the two Rebecca's are not known. An excellent and well researched Quaker Mills Family Web Site previously told of the early life of John Mills and included a link to John Mills' will but the site is no longer available. We did locate archived information used in this site and have included it in a paragraph at the bottom of this page.
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John Mills born about 1688 England died 11/24/1760 Rowan Co, NC |
Rebecca Unknown born Unknown died After 1730 |
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Married: Probably about 1708 in Pennsylvania
Children: Thomas Mills born about 1709 Pennyslvania; married Elizabeth Harrold. John Mills, Jr. born 10/27/1712 Pennsylvania; married Sarah Beals (more below) Hur Mills born about 1716 Pennsylvania; married Rachel Harrold Henry Mills born 9/23/1720 Pennsylvania; married Hannah Thornbrough (more below) Mary Mills born 1/17/1724 Pennsylvania; married William Beeson |
John Mills married second Rebeckah Unknown, probably about 1740 at Hopewell, Frederick County, Virginia Children: William Mills born 8/27/1742, Hopewell, Frederick Co, Va Rebeckah Mills born 12/15/1744, Hopewell, Frederick Co, Va; married Henry Humphries George Mills (twin) born 10/8/1747 Hopewell, Frederick Co, Va; married Anny Benjamin Mills (twin) born 10/8/1747 Hopewell, Frederick Co, Va Alice Mills born 6/22/1750 Hopewell, Frederick Co, Va Tabitha Mills born 4/8/1753 Rowan County, North Carolina Jonathan Mills born 5/14/1757 Rowan County, North Carolina |
The Move to North CarolinaJohn Mills was received at Cane Creek Monthly Meeting in North Carolina on 8/1/1752 on a certificate from Hopewell Monthly Meeting, Opeckan, Virginia dated 6/1/1752. Cane Creek Meeting at that time embraced a large area but John probably settled in Rowan County as he was a charter member of New Garden Monthly Meeting, Rowan County, when it was established in 1754. Sons Thomas, John, Hur & Henry followed on 9/1/1753 by certificate from Hopewell dated 5/7/1753.John Mills and son John, Jr., are called "Fathers of the Colony" by Hinshaw in writing of Hopewell Monthly Meeting in Virginia. Unfortunately the early Hopewell records have been lost and we only know of the Mills family move to North Carolina from the minutes of the receiving meeting. Fortunately, as was often the case, children were recorded at New Garden Monthly Meeting even though born in Virginia and it is here that we learn that Rebeckah was second wife of John and find birth dates for the second set of children. It is also born out by John's will, abstracted below. Abstract of John Mills Sr�s WillRowan County (A:122) John (X) Mills. Sept. 28, 1759. prb. July 1761. Wife Rebecah. 4 sons are each to have 1 shilling and what they have already received. Sons of a former wife, they are: Thomas, John, Hur, Henry. Dau., Mary Beeson, by former wife. Exr: wife, Rebeckah. Wit: William Buis, William Baldwin, John Baker.More on the Children of John Mills SrJohn and Sarah Beals Mills, JrSon John Mills, Jr married Sarah Bowater Beals, daughter of John and Sarah Bowater Beals, about 1733. John was reported 7/14/1734 at Providence Monthly Meeting as married out of unity by a priest.John Mills, Jr. died 4/18/1794 and Sarah died 9/9/1800 in Guilford Co, NC, and both are buried at Deep River Monthly Meeting. John had apparently made his peace with the Quakers as he was received on certificate at Cane Creek Monthly Meeting in NC along with his brothers on 5/7/1753. John Mills, Jr. and his Beals in-laws signed a petition in 1788 as residents of the County of Guilford, petitioning the General Assembly of the State of North Carolina that their part of Guilford County be added to Randolph County, so they apparently lived very near the County line. Abraham Woodward also signed this petition so they were no doubt neighbors. John and Sarah Beals Mills had children: Sarah Mills (b abt 1734 Va m William Hunt); John Mills III (b abt 1740 Va m. Sarah Millikan); Phebe Mills (b Va m. Abraham Cook); Ann Elizabeth Mills (b abt 1745 Va m Edward Bond); Hannah Mills (m Elijah Stanley); Mary Mills (b. Va m Thomas Cook br of Abraham); Joseph Mills (b 1/1/1753 Va; m Hannah Maris); Keziah Mills (m. Joseph Hiatt); Rachel Mills (m John Wheeler, Jr.). Henry and Hannah Thornbrough MillsSon Henry Mills married Hannah Thornbrough, daughter of Thomas and Sarah Thornbrough about 1742 at Hopewell Monthly Meeting in Frederick County, Virginia.Henry and Hannah had children: Moses Mills (b 11/4/1743 Va, d 8/1759 NC) Sarah Mills (b 8/17/1745 Va, m Tarleton Johnson 3/7/1765 at Deep River MM) Margaret Mills (b 10/17/1747 Va, d 10/1759 NC) Aaron Mills (b 12/22/1749, Va, m Charity Mendenhall) Hannah Mills (b 8/25/1752 Va, m Manlove Wheeler Hur Mills (b 2/24/1755 Rowan Co NC) Charity Mills (b 4/25/1758 m Samuel Hoggatt Joshua Mills (b 2/14/1761, d 8/1762 NC) Ruth Mills (b 9/8/1763 NC, m James Johnson) Rebecka Mills (b 9/1/1765 NC) Additional information and sources for John Mills and the two Rebecca/RebeccahsIn 2011 we learned that the Quaker Mills site online on geocities was no longer available but a source online of archives in Ancestry.com found the following pertinent information. It had been posted in 2001 by Cheska Wheatley who has since passed away. We will post a limited amount of this information here.Cheska Wheatley mentions that the Quaker John Mills family is not her line but she helped a friend with research who was descended from this line so had quite a bit of information on them. She gives information from son Thomas Mills' marriage certificate recorded at New Garden Monthly Meeting, Pa. In the right hand column customarily reserved for parents and close family members is a signature of John Mills followed by that of Rebecca Mills who is held to be his first wife. John Mills is described in 1730 as living on "Manoquisy near ye River Potomack." The New Garden Monthly Meeting records, Guilford Co., NC contain the birth records of John's children by a woman named Rebecca who is clearly identified as his second wife. Their first child was born in 1742 some twelve years after John's eldest son by his first wife was married. In 1742 and 1743 John Mills of Prince George, Md made several deeds of land to his sons Thomas, Henry, Hur and John J. who were then residents of Opeckan, Frederick Co, Va and no doubt members of Hopewell MM, Va. The records no doubt contain information on the death of the first wife and marriage to the second wife but the records are unavailable due to destruction in a fire. Between 1752 and 1753 John Sr. and his four sons transferred their memberships from Hopewell Monthly Meeting, Va to Cane Creek Monthly Meeting, NC according to the men's minutes of that meeting. In 1754 New Garden MM, NC was set off from Cane Creek MM and the four Mills brothers are recorded as original members of that meeting. In 1759, John made his will which made bequests of 1 shilling each to his children Thomas, Henry, Hur, John and Mary "by my former wife." The rest of his estate was left to his wife Rebeckah and her whildren who were unnamed in the will. John died in 1760 and this will was probated 1761 in Rowan Co.l, NC that year. Nothing is known about the widow Rebeccah other than one written account in 1840 which states she went to Montgomery Co, NC. Her oldest son William was disowned by New Garden MM, NC in 1763 for attending his sister Rebecca's marriage to a non-Quaker. There is no mention of the remaining children in the Quaker records. Updates:3/2011 Disconnected from the Quaker Mills site on Geocities which is no longer available and added source material from Ancestry.com archives in its place at the bottom of the page. |