Millard Family Genealogy

Index to Millard Genealogy and Stories

12/31/2016

Click on the story you want to read below, it is a link that will take you there:

Origins and Distribution of the Millard name - Jan 14, 2015

The Millard Family and Kleinsteuber Connection - Updated Feb 24, 2015

Mapledurham Millards - Mapledurham Origins - Jan 14, 2015

Millard Family Photo Gallery - March 6, 2016

My Family’s ties to Woolworth Stores is Strong

Origins and Story of Sgt Maj James Millard (1806 - 1881) in India

My Family’s ties to Woolworth Stores is Strong

3/2/2016

The Author is Lynda Charlotte Reid Millard in collaboration with Keith Millard

Frank Winfield Woolworth was born in Rodman, New York on 13 April 1852. At the age of fifteen he gave up life on his father's farm to seek his fortune working in a shop in Watertown NY. Despite studying commerce and book-keeping at night school, his boss, William Moore, found him useless as a Shop Assistant. Instead the young man took charge of display and stock management. One of his jobs was to set up a table of fixed price five cent goods, which proved such a hit that in 1879, with Moore's support, he branched out on his own, setting up one of America's early fixed price stores.

He opened the first Woolworth store on February 22, 1878, as "Woolworth's Great Five Cent Store" in Utica, New York. Though it initially appeared to be successful, the store soon failed. When Woolworth searched for a new location, a friend suggested Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Using the sign from the Utica store, Woolworth opened his first successful "Woolworth's Great Five Cent Store" on July 18, 1879, in Lancaster. It was a great success and later the same year his younger brother, Charles Sumner Woolworth, joined as Manager of a second store in nearby Harrisburg. Ten cent lines were added in 1881, creating the first Five and Ten Cent store chain.

Over the next twenty years Frank invited relatives and co-workers from Moore's to join him, establishing a syndicate of five 'friendly rivals'. The chains operated independently, but carried his goods. The formula proved popular, allowing each pioneer to expand rapidly. The openings drew large crowds. As his buying power grew, Woolworth started to track products back to the source, offering cash payment to those vendors who were willing to drop their prices and sell direct. (Sounds somewhat like Costco today?) Many of the items came from Europe, where manufacturing was more advanced.

By 1905 other five-and-ten chains had opened in competition. Although these chains were much smaller and less successful, each of the syndicate members decided to incorporate his company, selling shares to friends and managers. This was done defensively as a safeguard against a hostile takeover, but also raised a lot of money, making the pioneers rich and allowing them to accelerate their opening programmes.
F.W. Woolworth was the retail phenomenon of the twentieth century. The mass-market shop sold factory-made goods at rock bottom prices. It was the first brand to go global, building to more than 3,000 near-identical stores across the world.

At its height it generated such riches that its Founder was able to put up the world's tallest building and pay for it in cash. Its shares were the gold standard of the New York and London markets, paying dividends that others could only dream of. To become a supplier was considered a licence to print money.
Part of its magic was an ability to adapt to fit into different local communities and to 'go native', without sacrificing its identity. Shoppers in the UK considered 'Woolies' as British as fish and chips, while Americans continued to call the chain 'the five-and-ten' more than sixty years after the limits were dropped.
But, having risen like a meteor, all the way to the top, it faded into a peaceful retirement in the USA and Canada in the 1990s.

My mother’s father, Angus Reid, was the youngest of the Picton, Ontario Reid family. Born 1887, his dad died when he was very young so his older brothers were like a father to him, particularly Walt. Angus only went to school to grade 8. When he was in his late teens his sisters encouraged him to go to business school. His teacher was skilled in penmanship and interested Dad in the new freehand style becoming popular at that time. He developed a skill which he was quite proud of all his life.

Angu was always the young kid to his brothers, due to the whole generation gap between them. Unlike his brothers he never learned the “cooper” trade (barrel making). He drove the family cow to pasture every day during summer. In his late teens he played hockey for the Picton OHA Juniors. There were the days of seven man hockey, no subs except for injury. The seventh man was called a rover and usually played between the defense and the centre. Angus played rover. The team was nick-named the "Little Men of Iron". For some league games they used to travel the 25 miles to Belleville by sleigh. They would travel along with their staunch fans all day, play hockey and come home the same night. Somewhere around 1907 they had advanced to the Ontario finals, played in Toronto against St. Mikes; they were trounced. It was the first time Dad had been past Belleville in his life.

When Angus was 20 sister Lottie, who was living in Livonia N.J. at the time, sent for him to visit her. It was his first time away other than his hockey travels. Lottie and her family encouraged him to apply for work with Woolworths. He presented himself, country hick et al, at the famous Woolworth Bldg, in New York City and asked for a job. They offered him work in Pittsburg, PA - report next week they said. He had never heard of Pittsburg, let alone knew where it was. With his sisters support he went off to Pittsburg to begin his career with Woolworths.

Woolworths moved into Canada two years later, in 1909 and Angus, being a Canadian, applied for transfer. He was sent to the main downtown Montreal store on St. Catherines St near McGill St. Shortly after he was sent to Glace Bay, N.S. as store manager. Glace Bay is near Sydney and was a coal mining town with a large Scots presence. It was also quite aloof to outsiders so he wasn't received too well. Out of boredom he went to a local dance. When one of his dancing partners asked his first name and he answered "Angus" he was immediately accepted and introduced all around. He was in Glace Bay for two years when he was sent to Saskatoon to open a new store. It was here he met my grandmother, Ellen Moxley. She was a Saturday girl who came in to the store to play the piano to sell sheet music. This was the era when "Fox Trot" music was the rage.

Cursor over for captions or click on photos to enlarge and to navigate:

1905 FW Woolworth store on Public Square Watertown NY

Lancaster PA store Taken from the other side of the store front

1940s Woolworth storefron

Typical small Woolworth Company storefront

F.W.Woolworth storefront photographed in October 1940

1968 Woolco in New Orleans

Angus enlisted in the Royal Flying Corps in 1917 and was sent East for training. He was billeted in Osgoode Hall, now part of the University of Toronto, and took his machine gun course at Long Branch where he was trained to use the Vickers G.O.- gas operated - the latest development in automatic fire power at the time. He was then transferred to Mohawk Field just outside Deseronto, Ontario near Napanee and not very far from Picton. He was just finishing his flying training when the war ended in 1918. He reported to Woolworths head office in January and was transferred to Edmonton, Alta. While still in Toronto he sent a telegram to Granny in Saskatoon asking her to come to Toronto to get married. They were married on January 11, which was also Dad's birthday.

Aunt Florence and Uncle Herb stood up with them and they honeymooned in Niagara Falls. Angus took his bride back to Edmonton where their daughter (my mother) Charlotte and her brother Robert were born. In 1923 they moved back to Toronto where their son William was born. They lived in a duplex at 47A Oakwood Ave. Aunt Florence and Uncle Herb lived in an identical duplex next door at 49B.

Woolworth’s was good for my grandfather and he worked his way up from stock boy to the Canadian head office in Toronto. As a result they were able to custom build a magnificent home on Russell Hill Rd. in 1927. The street wasn't even paved at the time. The whole area of Forest Hill was a new subdivision then. Their home was across the street from the girls private school, Bishop Strachan which my mother attended for several years.

Angus’ niece, my Aunt Blanche and her sister Bernice were school teachers. Blanche was going steady with Harold who was from Wellington, near Picton in Prince Edward County. He was overseas with the Canadian army 1917-18. Upon his return they were married and they had one son Walter Saunders who married Mary. Harold died suddenly in his 60's from a heart attack (as did his son Walter years later).
Walter married Mary in the late 40's and they had two boys and a girl. Eldest son John was Blanche's penpal. He was the one who moved to South America and lived in Peru for years. He and a partner(s) had a business taking back packers into the interior - Inca ruins, head waters of the Amazon etc. They were forced to come home due to local political unrest. He used to write terrific letters to Aunt Blanche describing some of his activities. Mary and family now own the cottage in Picton. As far as I know they vacation there every summer. Mary lives in London. John is in Toronto. (I ran into Mary quite by accident one day while flying home from Florida it turned out she was sitting next to me. She noticed me filling out my customs form and read my name and asked if I was Charlotte’s daughter.)
Blanche’s father (Uncle Walt – Angus’ brother) was married to Florence, nee Young. They had four children of which Aunt Blanche was the oldest. She has sisters Bernice, Mary and brother Robert. Robert worked for Woolworths as did his son Jim. Robert had a daughter Peggy who married Bryce Farrell and a son Robert who married Barbara. Robert also worked for Woolworths and Woolco.
Beckie (Rebecca) married a Joyce, they moved to the U.S. also. Those were the days when you didn't need a visa or a passport. They had three children, Robert, Walter and Helen. They moved around a bit but I remember them settling in Peekskill N.Y. about 45 miles north of New York City where we once visited them. Bob Joyce worked for Woolworths USA. He was a district supervisor when he married Dorothy who was head dietician, Woolworths H.O., NYC. They resigned together and went to Phoenix Arizona and opened a very successful restaurant.

Blanche’s mother Florence, married Herb Mastin. They had no children of their own. Uncle Herb was born and bred in Picton. He was a storekeeper and specialized in low priced goods. By local standards he was a young successful entrepreneur. Loved to dress up fancy, spats and all. He also had a speed boat, fastest on the bay, ripped along at 18mph.
As mentioned earlier, when Woolworths opened up in Canada, they did so by buying out existing businesses similar to their own. The most notable were stores known as S.H. Knox, B.D. Miller, E.P. Charlton. Uncle Herb's store was one of the small independents they bought and consequently closed. Because of his experience he advanced quickly in the new Canadian venture and ended up as candy buyer and lunch counter head for Canada. He ended up a lovable lush and I understand was asked to resign. He died of a skull fracture after falling down the back basement stairs carrying a basket of soiled laundry. We were never told if he was loaded at the time or not. It was a sad way to go but he sure had a full and exciting life.
My mother Charlotte Reid’s brother Bill Reid’s son Robbie spent many years working for Woolco, at one time in their Mississauga Store in Square One Shopping Center.

Cursor over for captions or click on photos to enlarge and to navigate:

Typical small town Woolworth's lunch counter circa 1966

Larger Woolworth's stores had a larger lunch counter

Woolworth's lunch counter even played a role in the Civil Rights Movement, as seen in this 1964 Sit In in Greensboro, NC

Some Woolworth's lunch counters were still around in the last part of the 1900s

As a child growing up in Toronto I would often go to the local Woolworth store in “Lawrence Place” at Bathurst and Lawrence Avenue. The manager admired my grandfather so much so always made a fuss over me when I shopped there. Every Christmas my father would take me there so that I could pick out a Christmas present for my mom and each year I bought here the same thing: teacup and saucer. Today I still have them all. My greatest treat was to have saved enough money so that I could go to Woolworth’s on a Saturday and sit at that famous “lunch counter” and order french fries and a coke. I felt so “grown up” doing that.

So Woolworth and Woolco stores were in the “Reid Family’s blood” so it seems!

The mtDNA of a Mystery Ancestor and the Beginning of a Family in India

10/12/2015

Authors: Deirdre Savage & Stefan Mroczek, New Zealand, February 2015

Editors Note: This story affects many descendants in different families, primarily the Millard, Bishop, and Savage families with ancestors/origins in India.

Sailing for India;

William Vaudrey Glascott set sail for India from England at about the age of 21 on the Indiaman sailing ship Sir Stephen Lushington in 1810. He had enlisted as a soldier with the East India Company and was a younger son of a Welsh Methodist clergyman Rev Craddock Glascott (link to Craddock Glascott) who at the time was making his living in Devon where he worked for 50 years. William did not choose to be a clergyman himself, like both his other brothers, but decided to seek his fortune by joining the army and heading for the exotic East.

It was here, stationed in the coastal regions of Bombay for four years, that he met a local woman and settled down to begin the family that has continued for 7 generations and spread throughout the world.

At this time there were vastly more British men in India than there were British women (the Suez Canal did not yet exist) and it was the East India Company’s policy to encourage its soldiers to marry local women to promote social stability and to facilitate the assimilation of the cultures it controlled. Forming relationships with Indian girls was therefore common practice and socially quite typical during this period at the beginning of the 19th century. It was also common that there was no written record of these liaisons and so there was possibly no formal “marriage” with the local girl William took as his partner.

However, the young couple appear to have set up home together and soon gave birth to their first child, a daughter, in the environs of Bombay in about 1815. This girl was named Mary Anne Glascott and her birth marks 200 years of family history and the beginning of the Indian/British chapter of the family from which so many of us have sprung.

Unfortunately this couple was not destined to live together for long as it seems the young wife was left widowed at probably a very young age when William died “after a short illness” on Qeshm (Kishme) Island in the Persian Gulf, where he was stationed for some months - possibly from the fever which was rampant in such a hot and desolate spot.

When he died, his daughter, Mary Anne Glascott, was around 4 years old and his wife was left with at least one other daughter, Eliza, and a son, William Frederick, to raise on her own. It would seem that their English relatives never had any idea of their existence and how they all survived and the lives they lived in India is a mystery to us today, but many of us are living proof that they did survive and spread across the globe!

An Orphaned Daughter;

Mary Anne Glascott grew up in these military cantonments in the Bombay region and married, in her turn, a soldier by the name of Thomas Edwards, to whom she had two daughters (one of whom was to become Anna Leonowens). However, it was not long before she too was left a widow while probably still in her teens. She married again very quickly in 1832 to an Irish solider, Patrick Donohoe, and they went on to have a large family together. They moved around a great deal with his work managing the building of roads with the Corps of Engineers, but by the time he died in 1864 they were well established in Poona (modern Pune, in-land from Mumbai) and relatively prosperous.

The children resulting from this marriage would have been classed as Anglo-Indian (or sometimes also called Eurasian) as their mother was a “half-caste” and “India-born” and so very clearly not English. Over time, the numerous off-spring of these wide-spread marriages went on to form a huge class of technical and middle management citizens who (though they could never become the CEOs of the nation) were the industrious founders and workers in the institutions of the railways, medicine and teaching throughout India. Anglo-Indians were fiercely proud of their “Englishness” and aspired to be more “English than the English” themselves – with their English language skills and education, Christian religion and English habits they served as the ideal instrument of the ruling class British and could, in many ways, be said to have built modern India.

However, by the time of the British Raj (the British government took over the administration of India in the 1850s) Victorian racism was on the rise and it was common for families to distance themselves from any predecessors who were anything other than “white”. Anna Leonowens (whose life and work inspired
the novel Anna and the King of Siam and the musical The King and I as well as more recent movies) strongly disassociated herself from any Indian legacy and went to great lengths to establish her utmost Englishness in her career and in her writing - although it seems she was born and raised in Pune along with the rest of the family and never set foot in England! She maintained this stance throughout her long life and is said to have attributed her darker complexion to her Welsh ancestry. Two recent biographies of Anna both develop extensive documentation of her birth and life in India and establish the probability that her grandmother, the unknown woman who set up home with William Vaudrey Glascott, was indeed most likely to have been an Indian or part Indian woman (see references).

So how is it that we can be sure, at this great distance of time and culture, that William really did marry a woman of Indian origin when no one in the family has ever gone on record as acknowledging this heritage? Would it be possible to use her numerous descendants to prove her existence? It was with this question in mind that we began a quest to see if it was possible to find some living relative who still carried her mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) down those two hundred years and 7 generations…..

Mitochondrial DNA;

Mitochondrial DNA is a particular from of DNA we each acquire from our mothers and can only be passed on by women, remaining very stable and unchanged over quite vast periods of time. With this knowledge it became apparent that if we could follow an unbroken female line of daughters from this unrecorded woman right down to the present day then we could examine that current mtDNA and it would be identical to hers.
And so the hunt began to try and expand the family tree to see if such a line did in fact exist. My own mtDNA, as well as that of all my known first cousins, was of no use as we are the descendants of x2 generations of men in this genetic line (Philip and Thomas Arthur Savage being the descendants of Mary Anne’s third daughter Ellen Jane). Mary Anne had a number of daughters but only the two from her first marriage to Thomas Edwards seemed to have had daughters themselves – Anna Harriet, who became Anna Leonowens, and Eliza Julia who married Sgt Major James Millard. We currently have no contact with the Leonowens line who are in North America and Germany and unfortunately the extensive and well-documented connections with the Millard line are all through a male ancestor also. In order to carry this mystery woman’s mtDNA, the person had to be a daughter’s daughter’s daughter in an unbroken line back to this non-European woman through Mary Anne. So, we were unaware of the existence of any such female descendant and were confronted only with dead-ends on the family tree as we knew it.
Footnote: The Pratt branch of the Millard descendants may well carry an uninterrupted daughter to daughter link but this line, which includes the famous actor Boris Karloff, is in America and we do not have contact with them either at this time

A New Cousin;

With much internet sleuthing and some very good luck it was near the end of 2014 that we finally managed to track down an unknown third cousin who appeared to carry this particular unbroken female line of DNA – and she turned out to have been living in NZ all along! And so we were introduced to Roslin, who lives in Dunedin (South Island of NZ), and discovered how our two different branches of the family had been living in the same country for 3 generations without any knowledge of each other.

Roslin and her sisters are the x6 granddaughters of the unidentified non-European woman whose daughter was Mary Anne Glascott. Mary Anne’s daughter was Ellen Jane Donohoe (from Mary Anne’s second marriage to Patrick Donohoe) and Ellen was, in turn, the mother of Thomas Arthur Savage (the Bombay headmaster from whom I and all my numerous NZ cousins are descended). Ellen Jane went on to have a number of other children from her second marriage to George Augustus Savage and one of them was Roslin’s great grandmother Ellen Sarah. Ellen Sarah’s daughter was Doris Ellen and her daughter was Jean who met a NZ airman in England and came to New Zealand with him after World War 2, where Roslin and her siblings were born.
A simple cheek swab of Roslin’s DNA was all that it finally took to put us in touch with this mystery ancestor whose identity and existence had for so long been forgotten within our family.

Asian Origins;

With this mitochondrial DNA, preserved through the female ancestral line, we have been able to prove that this unnamed grandmother of so many of us was most likely of Asian origin. The strongest possibility that these mtDNA results suggest is that this ancestor was from the region which is now Central India or the border area between India and Pakistan – all of this region, including the vast majority of modern Pakistan, was ruled over by the East India Company at this time and corresponds to the administrative area that later, in British Raj times, became known as the Bombay Presidency.

Below is a summary of the results from the DNA test. If you are interested in looking at the family tree and the profiles it contains you can search these names on www.Geni.com and if you would like to add yourself and your family to the tree or add details or edit what we already have there you can be joined up by email. The site uses a free, open, sharing model that relies on everyone contributing and helping each other.

This Female Relative has tested the HVR-1 and HVR-2 regions of her mtDNA and has not tested the Coding Region. Based on the sequencing results of the mtDNA HVR-1 and HVR2 regions, the top 4 predicted mtDNA haplogroups for Roslin are as follows:
Click on image to expand it:

From these results Genebase is able to predict which haplogroup you belong to. This haplogroup can tell you where your female ancestors originated, migrated and settled. Each modern population has a mixture of haplogroups in their population. The strongest prediction is R haplogroup.
Click on image to expand it:

Modern Populations;

Various studies on indigenous groups around the world allow you to compare your mtDNA to hundreds of others. The highest matches give the best prediction for what modern indigenous group you are most closely related to and could be the source of your mtDNA.

As you can see the RMI of Pakistani is much higher than Yemeni. This means the mtDNA is 8.5 times more likely to have originated from Pakistani population than Yemeni. And 10 times more likely than Rhone.
As you can also see from the summary of the mtDNA Haplogroup box, the connection to R haplogroup is classified as “weak” – however it remains the most likely of the 4 possible connections and H, U and P are all subgroups derived, historically, from R and scattered in genetic populations around Asia, the Middle East and Eastern Europe.

More to Learn;

It is our hope that in the further more tests may be done to reveal other ethnic or regional details and now that we have made contact with this direct line of daughters from our mystery ancestor we may be able to update this information and so add more details to the story of our family in India.

Post Script: We would like to thank our third cousin Roslin for making this research possible and for her generous support throughout this long process. It has been delightful to talk with her and learn about her branch of the family and we are very happy that this project has seen the re-connection of far-flung members of this lineage who were separated when the majority of the family left India.

We would also like to acknowledge the inspiration that all the amazing work Sally, Frances and John Buckler have done over the years has been to us. We would like to sincerely thank them for all their decades of tireless collating, researching and preserving our precious family history.

Thanks also for the cheerful assistance and guidance of our honorary family member and genealogy “guru” Keith Millard (in Canada).

References: Bombay Anna by Susan Morgan 2008, Masked by Alfred Habegger 2014

Mary Anne Glascott Descendants Fan Chart:
The following is a 7 generation descendants fan chart for Mary Anne Glascott, based on the information currently available in the family tree at Geni.com (as at October 2015). Each generation is shown in a different colour. Note that family members in Geni that are shown as Private do not have any information in the chart.
Click on image to enlarge:

Quick Link: mtDNA of a Mystery Ancestor

Origins and Story of Sgt Maj James Millard (1806 - 1881) in India

2/19/2015

Author: Keith Millard

Mapledurham & Richarde Millarde:

Richarde Millarde, DOB about 1625 in Mapledurham, Oxfordshire, England is the starting point in tracing the genealogy of several Millard and related family connections, and these touch on India, South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand!

There are a number of things that make Mapledurham unique in our genealogy research;
- This tiny isolated village likely never exceeded 100 to 150 inhabitants.
- It has existed for over 1,000 years.
- In medieval times, occupations often determined surnames; thus, the breadmaker became Baker, the blacksmith became Smith, and the man who owned or operated the mill became Millward or Miller.
- Mill owner or operator is the most common origin of the name Miller and Millard.
- Mapledurham was so small and isolated, it was a place to leave from, not to move to. When the oldest son inherited from his father, it was common for his siblings to seek their fortune and wives elsewhere. Basically, the majority of additions to the Mapledurham population would be the arrival of new brides and the arrival of children, most of whom left when they became adults.
- A law was passed requiring English church parishes to document and keep all records of christenings, marriages, and burials starting in 1600. Some larger parishes began doing this around 1550, smaller ones often didn't start until several decades into the 1600s. The parish records for Mapledurham begin in 1650.
- In the 1600s, many parish priests were barely literate and had only learned to read and write Latin. In addition, a different priest might write the entry for each of the three major events in life (christening, marriage, and burial). This, coupled with writing in script with flourishes, plus age and condition of 300 year old documents, presented many challenges to transcribers in the modern era. Thus, we see a wide disparity in recorded names within the same family.

The story (with photos) about the delightful village and mill of Mapledurham is located at Mapledurham, Oxfordshire.

Richarde Millarde has 291 descendants in our Geni Family Tree. For the purpose of this story we will only cover the birth of Richarde's son Thomas in 1662, his son James in 1698, his son James in 1726, and his son David Millard born in Bisham, Berkshire in 1769.

Click on photos to enlarge or cursor over for caption:

1630 - Richarde Millarde - 4 Generations of Descendants

Watermill at Mapledurham

Watermill wheel at Mapledurham

1662 Birth of Thomas Millar

1698 - Birth of James Millard, son of Thomas

1726 - James Millard, son of James Millard and Jane - Mapledurham, Oxford

1769 - David James Wineyford Millard son of James Millard

Map showing distance between Mapledurham, Oxfordshire to Bisham, Berkshire and to Great Marlow, Buckinghamshire.

All Saints Parish Church in Bisham, Berkshire, where David Millard was baptized

The Thames River:

We would be very remiss if we didn't cover the enormous commercial importance of the Thames River. Though ocean going ships could only come upriver as far as London, the Thames beyond London was the primary commercial artery until such time as railways and highways came into being.

You cannot take the Thames with you. It has always been the river of commerce. The watercress-growers of Gravesend, the biscuit-bakers and store-shippers of Tooley Street, the ship-chandlers of Wapping, the block-makers and rope-makers of Limehouse, all owe their trades to the Thames.

At 215 miles, from the Cotswold Hills to the North Sea, the Thames is England’s longest river, and mile for mile has witnessed more than its share of epochal events. Julius Caesar crossed the river he called the “Tamesis”—from a Celtic root word meaning “dark”—in 54 B.C. On June 15, 1215, twenty-five barons forced King John to sign the Magna Carta at Runnymede, beside the Thames. Oxford University came into being on the river’s north bank. Conspirators gathered at Henley-on-Thames (now the site of the famous regatta) to plot the Glorious Revolution of 1688 that overthrew Catholic King James II and brought Protestant William and Mary to the throne. Dozens of kings and queens were born, lived and died along the river, at the castles of Hampton Court, Placentia and Windsor.

In the 1700’s, London existed between two distinct separate geographical areas; the City of London in the east, (as seen in the picture gallery following), which was the centre of commerce, and the City of Westminster in the west, which was the centre of government. Large ships could only come upriver as far as London, and all their cargo destined for points west travelled by barge and riverboat west from London; and the same was true for all goods coming downriver to London. A bridge was badly needed at Westminster and the first one was finally built in 1750.

A vast range of vessels also plied their trades upon the water. Barges and barks sailed beside chalk-boats; they were joined by cocks, or small work boats, by pikers, rush-boats, oyster-boats and ferry-boats, by whelk-boats and tide-boats. Most Londoners earned their living directly off the river, or by means of the goods which were transported along it. Documents of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries reveal a host of Thames employees, from the 'conservators' who were in charge of river safety to the 'tide-men' whose work on embanking or building upon the river depended upon the state of the tide. There were boatmen and chalkmen, eelmen and baillies, gallymen or garthmen, ferriers and lightermen, hookers and mariners, petermen and palingmen, searchers and shipwrights, shoutmen and piledrivers, trinkers and water-bailiffs and watermen. There are recorded no fewer than forty-nine ways of trapping or catching fish, from nets and weirs to enclosures and wicker-baskets. But there were many other activities such as the erection of dams and barriers, the construction of landing-stages and jetties, the repairing of watergates and causeways, quays and stairs. We may call this the early stage of the Thames when it remained the living centre of the city's development and trade.

The Thames has also always been associated with song and music, beginning with the watermen's chant of 'Heare and how, rumblelow' or 'Row, the boat, Norman, row to thy lemen' dated respectively to the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.

Click on photos to enlarge or cursor over for caption:

It is surprising to note that for 600 years, until 1750, London only had one bridge: London Bridge. Mind you, it was a really good one, lined on both sides with buildings and shops and even a chapel.

Canaletto painting of new London Bridge, 1750 On the right we can see the pre-Victorian Palace of Westminster (Houses of Parliament) and Westminster Abbey. In the distance we can see Lambeth Palace and St Mary-at-Lambeth Church on the left bank of the Thames

Thames River at Reading (across from Mapledurham)

Thames River west of London today

The Regents Canal at Islington, London. The canal was built in the 1820's to connect the Grand Union Canal at Paddington to the River Thames at Limehouse, thus linking the Midlands with the London docks.

David & Sarah Millard family – Great Marlow, Buckinghamshire

These were the parents of (Sgt Maj) James Millard who as we now know served in the East India Company Bombay Army. David, born 1769, was the son of James and Winifred Millard of Bisham, Berkshire, also located on the river Thames 20 miles downstream from Mapledurham.

David married Sarah Gray in 1791 in the All Saints parish church at Great Marlow, Buckinghamshire, about 3 miles further downstream from Bisham, Berkshire. Sarah Gray was born in 1768 to Charles & Elizabeth Gray. Sarah had 4 siblings, 3 of whom died before the age of 1, and 1 brother who lived to the age of 8. No further record of Sarah can be found after the birth of son David in 1811. David died in Great Marlow in 1826, aged 56, which matches his Bisham birth date of 1769.

James was born to David & Sarah in 1806 in Great Marlow, Buckinghamshire, a town located on the river Thames about 50 miles upstream from London.

It is difficult for us to perceive what life was like around the start of the 19th century in England, obviously child mortality was extremely high. David and Sarah had 7 children, of whom 5 died at an early age. No post birth records can be found for Elizabeth, born 1802, or for David, born 1811. James was born to David & Sarah in 1806.

In summary, James Millard had one surviving brother 5 years his junior, a sister 3 years older, several sibling deaths, we don't know about his mother Sarah, and it is possible his father was ill for some time before his death in 1826 (James joined the EIC as a cadet in 1825).

Why did James decide to join the EIC, was it for adventure, or was it for a job away from the river? We don't know the reasons, but living by the river and watching all the commerce pass by destined for or coming from foreign ports must have just seemed full of possible adventures, and most of all, the Royal Military College was right there in town!

Click on photos to enlarge or cursor over for caption:

Map - Mapledurham to Bisham to Great Marlow

1791 Marriage record of David Millard and Sarah Gray, at All Saints Parish Church, Great Marlow, Buckinghamshire.

All Saints Church, Great Marlow, Buckinghamshire This is where David & Sarah Millard's children were baptized.

Buckinghamshire Family History Society: Children born to David Millard and Sarah Gray

Buckinghamshire Family History Society: Burials records for David Millard and Sarah Gray family

Royal Military College, Great Marlow, 1810

Sgt Maj James Millard (1806 - 1881)

This analysis of James Millard, ancestor and relative to so many interesting people, is based on research of available records (census, birth, East India Company records, etc.) and some details may never be verified to a degree of absolute certainty.

What we do know is that James Millard joined the 4th Troop Brigade Horse Artillery in Buckingham in 1825, was attested as a Corporal in December of that year, and arrived in Bombay, India on the Duchess Atholl in June, 1826. He was a Sergeant in 1834, re-enlisted in 1837, was a Bombardier in 1839, and retired as a Sergeant Major in 1850 and returned to England via P & O at that time. Neither arrival in England nor departure records from England can be found for the 1849 – 1852 period, and the records may simply indicate his mustering out of the military service in 1850. We believe most of James' career took place at Pune, the main Indian fortress in the Bombay Presidency, though he also served at the Deesa fortress and in Byculla, in the city of Bombay.

We note that James voyage to India was on one of the newest and largest merchant ships of her time, the Duchess Atholl, built in 1821 and displacing 1,330 tons, and easily four times the size of most other merchantmen. The journey from London to Bombay around the Cape of Good Hope took eight weeks.

We will return to James' life story after a brief diversion to learn about the city of Pune and the British fort.

Pune, India (aka Poona and Poonah):

Poona (formerly known as Pune) is a city about 100 km south-east of Bombay (now Mumbai), which was a popular social retreat for residents of Bombay as well as formerly the largest garrison town in the Deccan for the East India Company Bombay Army. Poona was the headquarters of the Poona District in the Central division of the Bombay Presidency during the British period.

Poona grew under the Moguls from 1636 as a trade route. Its importance escalated after 1750 when it became the capital of the Marathá Empire, where the Peshwas had their palace. A battle for Poona in October 1802 between the Peshwa Bajirao II and the Holkars led to the 2nd Anglo-Maratha War. The British involvement in Poona began after the 1802 Treaty of Bassein - when Peshwā Bjī Rao allowed the English to station a small military force in the town. After the Peshwas were defeated at the Battle of Poona in 1817 between the British and the Marathas near Poona in the 3rd Maratha War the city was seized. It was placed under the administration of the East India Company Bombay Presidency. The British built a large military cantonment to the east of the city (still used by the Indian Army).

It is highly likely that nothing could prepare these young EIC Bombay Army recruits for what they found when they arrived in India. Indescribable heat, a culturally diverse population that outnumbered the young soldiers 1,000 to 1, a pervasive and overwhelming cacophony of sounds and smells (spices, unwashed bodies, decomposing vegetable and animal remains), a large Army settlement surrounded by a slum encampment of "camp followers" providing every imaginable commodity and service (laundry, servants of both sexes, valets, different foods, and yes, those other services as well). Many enlisted men could live out of barracks with their girlfriends, concubines, or newfound wives, and the encampment contained hordes of dogs and chickens and half naked children, and it is difficult to even imagine the total chaos.

At this time there were vastly more British men in India than there were British women (the Suez Canal did not yet exist) and it was the East India Company’s policy to encourage its soldiers to marry local women to promote social stability and to facilitate the assimilation of the cultures it controlled.

Click on photos to enlarge or cursor over for caption:

1806 - 1881 - James Millard Timeline from his Geni Profile

1825 - 1850 - James Millard; East India Company Bombay Army service record

James Millard sailed from London to Bombay in 1825 on the (new, 1821) Duchess Atoll, one of the largest merchant ships of her time, displacing 1330 tons.

Likeliest marching route from Bombay to the British fort at Pune.

1809 Pune engraved plate - Poona Landscape

1870 Temples in Pune

1875 Prince of Wales visits Pune

1875 Prince of Wales visit to Pune

1876 - Poona Guards

1875 India Arch at Poona

1875 Pune - Landscape View

Weekly Garden Party at Government House, Poona, for colonial officials and notable locals.

James Millard EIC Service;

We believe much or most of James Millard's EIC service was in Pune, though we can't be sure. In 1834 (aged 28) he is promoted from Corporal to Sergeant, and in 1839 (aged 33) he is retitled Bombardier. This could be a transcription error, as the rank of Bombardier (or gunner) was below that of Corporal. In any event, he musters out and in 1850 is awarded the pension of Sergeant Major. He may have had to return to England to complete the pension assignment. If he did, he returned soon thereafter because his child that died in infancy was born in January of 1851.

Eliza Julia Edwards;

One of the most interesting genealogy events was James marriage in 1845 to Eliza Julia Edwards. Records indicate Eliza was born to Mary Anne Glascott and Thomas Edwards in April 1830 at the British Fort in Ahmednagar, India. Her sister, Anna Harriet Emma was born in November 1831, just a few months after their father had died in an accident, and we will learn a little more about her later. Mary Anne remarried in 1832 to Patrick Donohoe, and records show a number of children born between 1835 and 1858, all births occurring at the British Fort locations of Poona and Deesa. Of great genealogical interest is that at birth Mary Anne's mother was recorded as an unidentified Eurasian woman.
Note: There are some among the 235 descendants of Mary Anne in our Geni Family Tree who are appalled at the thought of having Anglo-Indian genes. One descendant (who is not appalled) is Deirdre Savage who has undertaken to have genetic DNA tests carried out on a direct female descendant of Mary Anne Glascott, and a link will be added here when that report is published.

Link - Click on The mtDNA of a Mystery Ancestor and the Beginning of a Family in India

The James Millard and Eliza Edwards Millard Family;

In April 1845 Eliza Julia Edwards, aged 14 years and 11 months, marries James Millard, aged 38, at the British Fort in Deesa, India. Although perhaps shocking by today's standards, it was not uncommon at that time, and in fact Eliza's mother, Mary Anne, was 15 years old when she married Thomas Edwards. Note that James was either a Sergeant or a Sergeant Major at this time, and Eliza's stepfather, Patrick Donohoe, was a Sergeant Overseer for Public Works, and this is very likely how they met.

Note: From 1829 to 1901, Deesa was a British military Cantonment with a resident Catholic chaplain and a chapel. The British cantonment named Deesa Field Brigade was built in the middle of Rajasthan and Palanpur to maintain and protect the regions. This area was very desert like with temperatures approaching 45 C daily in summer.

Their son, James Edward Millard was born in Deesa in 1846, but Eliza Sarah (born 1848), Unnamed son (born and died 1851), Mary Henrietta (born 1852), and Edwin Havelock (born 1858) were all born in Bombay.

Wealthy Jewish philanthropist, David Sassoon, built and opened an Industrial and Reformatory Institution in Bombay for homeless boys in 1857, and James Millard was the first Superintendent of the facility. When Eliza died in 1864 at the age of 34, James was still the Superintendent.

James Millard died in Bombay in 1881at the age of 74.

Click on photos to enlarge or cursor over for caption:

1806 -1881 - James Millard - Geni Timeline

James Millard - East India Company Bombay Army Service Record

Ahmednagar fort entrance; this fort and encampment was the location of Eliza Julia Edwards birth.

Ahmednagar fort bastions; this fort and encampment was the location of Eliza Julia Edwards birth.

1845 marriage of Eliza Julia Edwards and James Millard, at Deesa, India

1845 marriage of James Millard and Eliza Julia Edwards at Deesa, India

Deesa Field Brigade of the Bombay Army

7 slash2 RA Deesa Part of Deesa Brigade

1846 birth of Edward James Millard in Deesa, India

1848 birth of Eliza Sarah Millard in Bombay, India

1851 birth of son, name unknown, in Cavel (a southern suburb of Bombay), India

1852 birth of Mary Henrietta Millard in Bombay, India

1858 birth of Edwin Havelock Millard in Byculla (a neighbourhood in southern Bombay), Bombay, India

1864 Death of Eliza Julia Millard, in Bombay, India.

David Sassoon Industrial Reformatory and Home for homeless boys.

David Sassoon Library, formerly the David Sassoon Industrial Reformatory and Home for homeless boys.

Eliza Edwards Millard family connections;

William Vaudrey Glascott, the grandfather of Eliza Julia, has 263 descendants in our Geni Family Tree. These include her sister, Anna Harriett Emma (Anna Leonowens). Anna (26 November 1831–19 January 1915) claimed to have been an English travel writer, educator, and social activist. She claimed to have worked in Siam from 1862 to 1868, where she taught the wives and children of Mongkut, King of Siam. She also co-founded the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design. Leonowens's experiences in Siam were fictionalised in Margaret Landon's 1944 bestselling novel Anna and the King of Siam and in various films and television miniseries based on the book, most notably Rodgers and Hammerstein's 1951 hit musical The King and I.

A 7 generations descendant fan chart is included below, click on Download File to open it. Each generation is shown in a different colour. Pressing the Ctrl and + buttons will increase the size of the displayed file.

1789_-_7_generations_of_william_vaudrey_glascott_descendants.pdf
File Size:	88 kb
File Type:	pdf

Download File

James and Eliza Edwards Millard family descendants;

Among the descendants of James and Eliza is their grandson, William Henry Pratt, better known by his stage name of Boris Karloff. His wives included Montana Laurena Williams (1920), Helen Vivian Soule (1924), and Dorothy Kelly (1930).

The numerous entities shown as Private in the fan chart attached are descendants (or the manager of their Geni Profile) who feel their privacy would be compromised if their names were shown.

A 6 generations descendant fan chart is included below, click on Download File to open it. Each generation is shown in a different colour. Pressing the Ctrl and + buttons will increase the size of the displayed file.

1806_-_6_generations_of_james_millard_descendants.pdf
File Size:	60 kb
File Type:	pdf

Download File

Click on photos to enlarge or cursor over for caption:

William Henry Pratt, aka Boris Karloff Studio Shot

Sir Henry Havelock; we suspect James named his son Edwin Havelock out of respect and admiration for Major General Sir Henry Havelock.

Ann Bridget Millard nee Hannah, spouse of Edwin Havelock Millard and daughter in law of James and Eliza.

Ann Bridget Millard, Edyth Maud Millard, Matilda Millard with son Theo, Clive Millard & Havelock Millard

Edwin Havelock Millard & wife Ann Bridget Hannah

Edwin Havelock Millard and pet dog

Havelock Millard, Mabel Cleur, Matilda Millard, grandchildren of James and Eliza.

Havelock Millard, Boer War, grandson of James and Eliza.

Mabel Millard, granddaughter of James and Eliza.

Matilda Millard Bishop and sons; Matilda was the sister of Mabel and Havelock, and the granddaughter of James and Eliza. Note that the youngest boy is Keith Millard Bishop who lives on Norfolk Island, AU.

Keith, Arthur,Theo, Matilda, Edward 1932

Memories of James & Eliza Millard's Descendants:

This section of the family history will be for any descendants of friends to provide their own story, memories, and/or photos relating to the Millard family story. Each author will have their own Chapter and be shown as the author.

Keith Millard;
I had the distinct pleasure to be contacted in 2012 by Sara Ann Millard, the third great granddaughter of James Millard. Sara had seen a James Millard from Buckinghamshire in one of my family trees and wondered if it was the "same" James Millard as her ancestor. We have had a warm and collegial relationship ever since, more like siblings that "adopted" cousins, and together have found a myriad of historical information about her own ancestors and cousins, as well as for the related Bishop and Savage families.

And it was my very good fortune to be able to actually meet with Sara Ann Millard, her brother Jason, her father David, her uncle Adrian, and my own biological 7th cousin Ralph Millard in Sydney, AU in spring 2014. Just a week later I was privileged to meet with Keith Millard Bishop (1st cousin of Sara, David, & Jason Millard) and his nephew Lindsey Bishop, as well as with Deirdre Ann Savage (3rd cousin of Keith Millard Bishop, and 4th cousin of Sara, David, and Jason Millard) in Napier, New Zealand. I have also received several remarkable letters from Keith Millard Bishop, 95 years old and living by himself on Norfolk Island, he loves to tell stories, and thoroughly reminded me of my own grandfather. Two of these letters are attached as pics of each page.

Click on photos to enlarge or cursor over for caption:

L to R, Ralph Millard, Keith Millard, Sara Ann Millard

L to R, David Millard, Jason Millard, and Adrian Millard

L to R, friend of Sara's, David Millard, Jason Millard, Adrian Millard, Ralph Millard, Keith Millard, Sara Ann Millard.

L to R, Lindsey Bishop, his wife, a family friend, Keith Millard Bishop, Deirdre Ann Savage, and Keith Millard.

Keith Millard Bishop celebrating his 97th birthday on February 28, 2015, on Norfolk Island.

Edwin Lancelot Millard from KMB pg 1

Edwin Lancelot Millard from KMB pg 2

Edwin Lancelot Millard from KMB pg 3

Naomi Cooper letter from KMB pg 1

Naomi Cooper letter from KMB pg 2

Diane & Keith Millard and their family; It's A Millard THING, YOU wouldn't understand!

Keith Millard Bishop passed away on March 19, 2017, just a short time after celebrating his 99th birthday. His daughter-in-law Patricia Magri wrote "Keith Millard Bishop slipped peacefully from this life today, with dignity and at home. His heart was full with the sweet memories of a very happy 99th birthday celebrated on February 28 - made even more special because he shared it with his nephew, Chips, visiting from the UK for four days".

Hover over photos for caption, click to enlarge:

Nephew, Chips, from the UK and Keith Millard Bishop at his 99th Birthday Celebration

Memorial document - sheet 1

Story Link - Click on Origins and Story of Sgt Maj James Millard (1806 - 1881) in India

Mapledurham Millard family origins:

1/14/2015

Author: Keith Millard

Introduction:

This is a story about a truly remarkable place... and the birthplace of the Miller/Millar/Millurd/Millard/Millarde family that lived there, and were the ancestors of many Millards in many countries today. The family will be written about in a separate essay (or more than one). Suffice it to say, the owners and workers at the mill were likely given the surname of Myllward in the 1300s when a poll tax was introduced, requiring all Englishmen to be given a surname, and it is unlikely all these men were biologically related.

This essay is about the picturesque village of Mapledurham today, and its origins and history.

Mapledurham today is a small village, civil parish, and country estate beside the River Thames in southern Oxfordshire (formerly part of Berkshire). The village is on the north bank of the River Thames about 3.5 miles (5.6 km) northwest of the town of Reading. The only road access is by a narrow and steep lane from Trench Green on the road between Caversham and Goring-on-Thames. Despite the fact that Mapledurham village is closer, as the crow flies, to central Reading than some of that town's suburbs, it remains a remote and rural location.

The Church of St. Margaret is mainly 14th and 15th century, and was restored in 1863. The Mapledurham Watermill is 16th and 17th century and is the last operational watermill on the Thames. Mapledurham House, the country house that is the headquarters of the Mapledurham estate, is one of the largest Elizabethan houses in Oxfordshire.

Mapledurham Lock is on the opposite bank of the river, by the Berkshire village of Purley-on-Thames. Although the weir stretches across the river between the two villages, no access is possible across it and, in the absence of a boat, journeys between the two villages require a lengthy detour via Caversham or Whitchurch-on-Thames.

Because of its picturesque situation, and lack of through traffic, Mapledurham has been used as a set for several films, most notably the 1976 film The Eagle has Landed. The village, house and mill form something of a local tourist attraction, and on summer weekends the village can be reached by a boat service from Reading. The Mapledurham estate owns much of the village and parish. It also includes the Mapledurham Watermill, a historic and still operational watermill on the River Thames, and Mapledurham House an Elizabethan stately home.

Click on photos to enlarge, cursor over to see caption:

Mapledurham origins and history:

A mill was already present at Mapledurham at the time of the Domesday Book (a manuscript that records the great survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086). The survey was executed for William the Conqueror. The central section of the current mill building dates back to the 15th century. Originally the mill had a single water wheel, on the river side of the building. The mill was increased in size in the 1670s, and a leat was constructed to drive a second water wheel on the village side. It is this second wheel which is still in use today.

The property was first held by Sir Michael Blount (c. 1530–1610), he was a Tudor and Jacobean royal official and politician. He was born in Mapledurham House to Sir Richard Blount (1505–1564); he was High Sheriff of Buckinghamshire in 1576, then of Oxfordshire in 1586 and 1597. He was elected the Member of Parliament for Winchelsea in March 1553 and Marlborough in 1563. He became Lieutenant of the Tower of London in 1590 and held the post for five years until 1595, in December of which year he was briefly imprisoned in the Tower himself.

The property has remained with the family for 400 years. It was built at the time of the Spanish Armada in the classic Elizabethan E-shape. It includes a late 18th century chapel built in the Strawberry Hill Gothic style for the Catholic owners of the house at that time. The estate covers much of the village including Mapledurham Watermill and part of the St Margaret's Church.

The church continued being Catholic after Henry VIII banned the Catholic church in the 1500s, but escaped scrutiny due to its isolation, though it did have a priesthole in the event the King's Men showed up. Parish records were destroyed and the church damaged in the mid 1600s when attacked by Oliver Cromwell's Roundheads.

The first recorded Millard was Richard Millarde, born in Mapledurham circa 1630, and the oldest known ancestor of the Mapledurham Millards. He has 291 descendants and over 5,000 blood relatives in the Geni Family Tree.

Origins and woldwide population of the Millard name:

1/14/2015

Worldwide Distribution of the name Millard:

First of all, there are some people named Millard in most countries around the globe. World family names (which is shown on the banner) is based on the number of people with that surname per million names of population in that country.

Thus, while Australia has the highest percentage in the world with 196 people named Millard per million, the country only has a population of 23 millions, so a bit fewer than 5,000 people named Millard. The United Kingdom, with a population of 64 millions has about 10,000 people named Millard, about 17,000 Millards in the USA, and Canada has less than 1,500 Millards. Interestingly enough, there is a small but significant population of Millards in France, most notable in the Champagne-Ardenne Region, and about 2,000 Millards in all of Fance.

Last but not least, our cousin Andrew Millard is holding up the Millard name in South Africa, having grown up on the Eastern Cape and now living in Johannesburg.

Millard Name Origins:

There is more than one origin for the Millard name, but the most common is derived from the word Myll, Anglo-Saxon for a mill (to grind grain for flour, to pump water, and to power other pre-Industrial age equipment). In mediaeval times in England, most people, unless nobility, did not have or use a surname, this changed in the 1300s when John of Gaunt Duke of Lancaster, son of Edward III, uncle of Richard II, father of Henry IV, and the richest and most hated man in the kingdom, introduced a poll tax on every citizen, and a surname was required to identify each person. Thus, John the Baker became John Baker, and Robert who worked at or owned the Myll became Robert Myllward or Meleward. Almost everyone was still illiterate, and name spellings were totally at the whim of the clerk or parish priest, either of whom were often only semi-literate themselves!

This meant that hundreds of people, unconnected either genealogically or biologically, suddenly all had the same surname. The name was transmogrified during the 1600s when parish records were required to be maintained and saved, with Millard and then Miller becoming commonplace. Early examples of the surname recordings include Richard Meleward in the county of Sussex in 1296, Walter le Milneward in the letter books of the city of London in 1300, and Robert le Moleward in the Subsidy Tax rolls of Derbyshire in 1327, although these could also be descendants of French Normans from the conquering of Britain by William the Conqueror in 1088. The Millards living in France at the present time could also be decendants of the Normans.

Although mill operators were respected and valuable members of their community, they were considered as slightly above peasants, but none worthy of a coat of arms.

For a number of reasons, we believe the second origin of the name Millard could be from French Huguenot refugees escaping to England in the 1500s. Both the Maulden Millards and the Pennsylvania Millards share a common ancestry belief their families were Huguenots.

Index to Millard Genealogy and Stories

﻿My Family’s ties to Woolworth Stores is Strong

The mtDNA of a Mystery Ancestor and the Beginning of a Family in India

﻿Origins and Story of Sgt Maj James Millard (1806 - 1881) in India﻿

Mapledurham Millard family origins:

Origins and woldwide population of the Millard name:

My Family’s ties to Woolworth Stores is Strong

Origins and Story of Sgt Maj James Millard (1806 - 1881) in India