Mills, Thomas

Submitted by edpope on

see Poland Street number not known in London Addresses dataset

Sir Thomas Mills witness at the Old Bailey 28.6.1780 said he had a house in Poland St and implied he had lived there six or seven years / Dictionary of Canadian Biography Sir Thomas Mills d.1793 London insolvent / Sir Thomas Mills 1739-1793 = 1.11.1774 at Cranbrook House Essex, seat of Andrew Moffat, Esq  to Elizabeth Moffat 1756-1816, their dau Eliza Finch Mills 1776-1826 / Sir Thomas Mills of Adelphi voted 1780 Rodney & Lincoln / Morning Chronicle 29.3.1774 Sir Thomas Mills appointed governor of New Jersey in place of Doctor Franklin - in fact it was Benjamin Franklin's son William who was governor of New Jersey from 1773 to 1776, Dr Franklin himself was dismissed as Deputy Postmaster-General for North America on 31.3.1774 / Morning Chronicle 10.1.1785 Public Advertiser 31.5.1785, 14.7.1785, 19.9.1785 Sir Thomas Mills in India

Rosemary Bentley (not verified)

Sun, 14/12/2014 - 12:20

Sir Thomas Mills lived at Portland Street London not Poland Street in 1774 since this is his address on his marriage to Elizabeth Moffatt.  Both are ancestors of my husband.

Dear Rosemary - Like your husband, I am also a descendant of Sir Thomas Mills, through his son Andrew Moffatt Mills. Would you be interested in discussing this?  Thanks, Sarah Bellwood

i'm afraid my site isn't a very efficient way of getting in touch with people, there's no notification process, and I don't generally have the e-mail address of comment makers, so it all depends on someone happening to look, but if they do, i'll approve their comment

Poland St and Portland St were often confused and very near each other. What Sir Thomas Mills said, according to the Old Bailey transcript, speaking of the prisoner Henry Maskall, was "I know him by sight: I lived in his neighbourhood six or seven years; I have a house in Poland Street: he lives not a great distance from that; I used to pass his door five or six times in a week" so he wasn't giving Poland or Portland Street as his current address, but implied that he used to live round there and that he still owned, leased or rented a house there. l looked at the Portland St ratebooks and couldn't find him as a householder, which doesn't mean he didn't live there