MILL, John (1608-1644), of Newton Bury, Hants.

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1604-1629, ed. Andrew Thrush and John P. Ferris, 2010
Available from Cambridge University Press

Constituency

Dates

Family and Education

b. c.1608, 1st s. of Sir John Mill* 1st bt. (d. 1648) of Newton Bury and Southampton, Hants, and 2nd w. Anne, da. of Sir Thomas Fleming I* of North Stoneham, Hants.1 educ. Magdalen, Oxf. 1623 aged 15, L. Inn, 1624.2 m. (1) 1627, Anne, da. of Thomas Milles of Darington, Kent, s.p.;3 (2) 1633, Philadelphia, da. of Sir Henry Knollys of Grove Place, Hants, clerk of the Greencloth, 1s.4 kntd. 5 Aug. 1628.5 d. by Sept. 1644.6

Offices Held

Commr. array, Hants 1642.7

Col. (roy.) of horse and ft. c.1642-d.8

Biography

Mill’s father had stood unsuccessfully for Lymington in 1621. At subsequent elections he found an opening for himself at Southampton, but he seems to have continued to try to establish a claim at Lymington through his eldest son, this Member, who stood in 1625 at the age of only 17, after completing his education at Oxford and the inns of court.9 Mill, however, was challenged for the place by five other candidates - the lord of the manor of Lymington, Henry Campion*; the former Member Nicholas Ferrar*; the salt patentee John More II*; the courtier Sir William Uvedale*; and Herbert Dodington*, the son and heir of the local magnate who had bested the elder Mill in 1621. The result was a tie for the junior seat between Mill and More, both of whom attracted ten votes. A second poll failed to produce a clear winner, as the mayor, who favoured Mill, declined to give a casting vote because Mill was under-age.10 The double return was referred to the Commons’ privileges committee, but it remained unresolved at the end of the brief session.11

Mill does not appear to have stood again. His first marriage brought him lands in Kent, including Faversham, which he later sold to his father.12 His wife, who was only 12 years old when they married, died before they had any children. Mill’s father entertained the king during the royal progress through Hampshire in the summer of 1627, and Mill himself received a knighthood in the following year.13 In 1639 father and son refused to contribute towards the cost of the First Bishops’ War, but both came out in full support of Charles when civil war broke out.14 Mill served as a royalist colonel until his regiment was captured by Sir William Waller† at Christchurch in April 1644. He died, intestate and presumably still in prison, in the months following this defeat.15 Although his second wife was a Catholic recusant, Mill asked his father to ensure that his son and heir, also John, was raised ‘in the Protestant religion’; the latter succeeded as 2nd baronet in 1648, inheriting the sequestered Newton Bury estate.16 Mill’s widow later married Christopher Roper, Lord Teynham.17

Ref Volumes: 1604-1629

Author: Rosemary Sgroi

Notes

  • 1. Vis. Hants (Harl. Soc. lxiv), 160; Berry, Hants Gen. 26.
  • 2. Al. Ox.; LI Admiss.
  • 3. Add. 5507, f. 246v.
  • 4. Vis Hants (Harl Soc. n.s. x), 43; PROB 11/206, f. 64.
  • 5. Shaw, Knights of Eng. ii. 194.
  • 6. P.R. Newman, Roy. Officers in Eng. and Wales, 256.
  • 7. Northants RO, FH133.
  • 8. Newman, 256; G.N. Godwin, Civil War in Hants, 42.
  • 9. Hants RO, 27M74A/DBC1, p. 123.
  • 10. Ibid. p. 137.
  • 11. C219/39/176; Procs. 1625, p. 598.
  • 12. PROB 11/206, f. 64.
  • 13. J.S. Davies, Hist. Southampton, 484.
  • 14. T. Nalson, Impartial Collection of Affairs of State, i. 205.
  • 15. CSP Dom. 1644, p. 102; Godwin, 194-5.
  • 16. G.E. Aylmer, King’s Servants, 82; VCH Hants, iv. 552-3; PROB 11/206, f. 64.
  • 17. Berry, Hants Gen. 26.