MILL, Thomas (by 1515-65/66), of Southampton.

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1509-1558, ed. S.T. Bindoff, 1982
Available from Boydell and Brewer

Constituency

Dates

Oct. 1553

Family and Education

b. by 1515, prob. 4th but 3rd surv. s. of John Mill I of Southampton by Alice. educ. L. Inn. m. by 1551, Alice, da. of Robert or Thomas Coker of Mappowder, Dorset, 1s. Richard 3da.2

Offices Held

Dep. recorder and town clerk, Southampton by Aug. 1548, recorder June 1551-4, town clerk June 1551-8 or later, ct. bailiff 1556-7, sheriff 1559-60, commr. goods of churches and fraternities 1553.3

Biography

It was presumably to his father that Mill owed his first known appointment, as an officer of Southwick priory before its dissolution in 1536. His brother Richard was joint receiver for the estates of Beaulieu abbey, and when the bulk of these passed to Sir Thomas Wriothesley he entered the service of Wriothesley, to whom his father had long been close. As governor of Southampton castle Wriothesley doubtless reinforced the elder Mill’s influence in favour of Mill’s election to the first Edwardian Parliament, which preceded by more than two years his admission to the freedom of the town and almost certainly by one his inauguration as his father’s deputy. By 1553 Mill had succeeded his father both as town clerk and recorder, and it was presumably in the second capacity that he served for the town in the second Parliament of that year, having already perhaps done so in its precursor of March 1553 for which the indenture is defaced. After his replacement as recorder by James Brande early in 1554 he was not to sit again. He is not mentioned in the Journal and appears not to have opposed the restoration of Catholicism in 1553.4

Mill exercised his clerkship through a deputy and is found exporting cloth and importing alum, sugar and wine. Between 1554 and 1561 he had an account with the corporation: although he owed for the rent of his house and for petty customs, the town was in his debt until 1563 when the balance was paid. It was as a sick man that on 31 May 1564 he made a will in favour of his wife. On 17 Jan. 1565 he added to the will an inventory of his goods, which he valued at £1,132: several townsmen are listed as owing him money, including Edward Wilmot whose debt was £140. Mill appointed as his executor his brother George, who proved the will before 31 Mar. 1566. On George Mill’s death without issue in 1568 Thomas Mill’s son Richard, then aged 11, succeeded to the family patrimony.5

Ref Volumes: 1509-1558

Author: Patricia Hyde

Notes

  • 1. Hatfield 207.
  • 2. Date of birth estimated from service to Southwick priory. Vis. Hants (Harl. Soc. lxiv), 159-60; Vis. Dorset, ed. Colby and Rylands, 17; VCH Hants, iii. 434; PCC 15 Bucke; E150/1006/2.
  • 3. Third Bk. of Remembrance, ii (Soton Rec. ser. iii), 10, 158; Black Bk. iii (Soton Rec. Soc. vii), 100.
  • 4. LP Hen. VIII, vi; C. Platt, Med. Southampton, 200, 215, 245; Third Bk. of Remembrance, ii. pp. xv, 92; SC6, Hen. VIII/3340, no. 23; C219/20/168.
  • 5. Black Bk. iii. 102; Soton RO, bk. of debts 1525-1602, ff. 48v, 49; Hants RO, B wills 1565; E150/1006/2; VCH Hants, iii. 434.