Thomas Millett
Came on the Elizabeth in 1635 with his wife Mary and son Thomas, and joined the Dorchester church. In 1655 he bought William Perkins's property at Gloucester and succeeded him in a lay religious office; by 1675 he was at Brookfield, where he probably died. Father of Mary Millett, who married Thomas Riggs.
Life
- c. 1605Bornc. 1605
Aged 30 in April 1635.
documentedprobable - 1675/76Diedbetween 3 June 1675 and June 1676, Brookfield, Massachusetts
Babson has him at Brookfield on 3 June 1675; he "died within a year from that time." The West Brookfield website says before 26 Sept 1675. Mollie Pfeiffer has 1676.
Family
- Parents
- Spouse
- Mary Greenaway
Online trees give the marriage at St. Saviour's, Southwark, as 1 May 1629 or 7 Feb 1632; both are unsourced.
Pedigree
Notes
Came on the Elizabeth in 1635: “THO: MILLET 30,” wife Marie 29, son Tho. 2. The passengers “brought Certi. from the Minister of St Saviors Southwark”; Mollie Pfeiffer misread this as making Millett “a certified minister of St. Saviour’s.” The Foster and Bate families came on the same ship. Dorchester church member 1636; freeman May 17, 1637 (NEHGR 32:56 note). In 1655 he bought William Perkins’s property at Gloucester (not Dorchester, as Mollie has it) and succeeded him in a lay religious office. Babson: he “came here with the rare title of ‘Mr.’” as successor to William Perkins, teaching elder. “Its pecuniary rewards were not always voluntarily bestowed, as the Court Records testify; and, indeed, these alone furnish information that he was engaged here in the work of the ministry at all” (p. 116). “His name does not appear among the ministers of his time; but it is certain that he labored here in spiritual things.” A 1913 newspaper account of his son-in-law Thomas Riggs’s notebook says of Riggs: “After his marriage he had a curious arrangement with his father-in-law [Thomas Millett], who paid Mr. Riggs for his board at the rate of two days’ labor a week” (Boston Sunday Globe, 16 Mar 1913, quoted in TAG 82:122 n. 14).
At Brookfield by 1675, and died soon after. The West Brookfield historical site (no sources cited) says the Milletts came to Brookfield after 31 Mar 1674, with a 20-acre home lot and 10 acres of meadow; that they left “before August 1675, and so were not present at the siege”; that he died before 26 Sept 1675, when his will was presented; and that the inventory came to £128 and included books (record).
Children: Thomas (c. 1633, in England); and at Dorchester John, 8 (5th mo.) 1635; Jonathan, 27 (5) 1638, died 15 (6) 1638; Mary, 26 Aug 1639; Mehetabel, 14 (1) 1641; and Nathaniel (1647). Mehetabel married Isaac Elwell, a shoemaker of Gloucester (Babson pp. 89, 116).
His English origin is unproven. Henry Myllet of Chertsey and Joice Chapman as his parents appear only in unsourced online trees; another tree has him baptized 24 Oct 1604 at Newbury, Berkshire. Mollie’s Millett of Marazion and a Staples Inn attorney have no evidence, and her two pages contradict each other on who the attorney was.
Open questions
- His English origin (Chertsey or Newbury), the marriage date, and his will and probate: check the Great Migration sketches.
- Where he died. The West Brookfield site has the family leaving Brookfield “before August 1675”, and him dead by 26 Sept 1675; the page keeps Brookfield, after Babson. The presentation of his will (26 Sept 1675, per the site) would settle the date and perhaps the place.
Mollie's typescript
Mollie says he sailed in the Elizabeth in 1635 with his wife Mary, his son Thomas and his sister-in-law Ursula Greenaway, and calls him a certified minister of St. Saviour's, Southwark (the passengers brought certificates from that minister; he was not one).
Thomas Millett, a certified minister of St. Saviour's, Southwark, County Surrey, sailed in the Elizabeth from London in 1635, with his wife Mary , his son Thomas and his sister-in-law, Ursula Greenaway.
p. 171 →Mollie says his house at Dorchester burned in 1657 with some of the town records, that he succeeded William Perkins in a religious office (at Gloucester, the records show), and that he moved to Brookfield in 1675 and died there in 1676, a quiet, spiritual, high-minded man with the title "Mr."
Thomas Millett had the distinctive title of Mr,, which really was a title in thse times. From the several accounts of him, he was a quiet, gentleman, spiritual and high-minded.
p. 172 →
Checked against the records
- PossibleThomas Millett's parents were Henry Myllet of Chertsey and Joice Chapman
Unproven. These parents appear only in unsourced online trees, and another tree has Thomas baptized at Newbury, Berkshire, on 24 Oct 1604. Mollie's two pages disagree on whether the Staples Inn attorney was Joice's father or Thomas's.
Read it in the book, p. 171 → - DisprovenThomas Millett was a certified minister of St. Saviour's, Southwark
A misreading. The Elizabeth list of April 1635 has "THO: MILLET 30", wife Marie 29, son Tho. 2 and Ursula Greenaway 32, who "brought Certi. from the Minister of St Saviors Southwark" of their conformity (Hotten). The minister issued the certificate; Millett was a passenger. Later, at Gloucester, he did serve in a lay religious office.
Read it in the book, p. 171 → - DisprovenMost of the passengers on the Elizabeth were ministers and justices
A misreading of the list. The Fosters and Bates brought certificates "from the Ministers & Justices of the Peace of their Conformitie to the Church of England" (Hotten). The ministers and justices stayed in England and vouched for the passengers.
Read it in the book, p. 171 → - UnlikelyThe Milletts were a respected family of Marazion, Cornwall
No evidence connects Thomas Millett to the Milletts of Marazion. Mollie herself makes him a native of Chertsey, Surrey, and his English origin is unproven.
Read it in the book, p. 171 →
Connections
- Small world