QMy earliest memories of family history include being told that my great-great-grandfather, Francis Mills (1843-1908) was the illegitimate son of Sir Francis Burdett. The story was often repeated at family events that he did little work and collected an allowance from the cashiers of Coutts & Co at 440 Strand, London. This meant that his son, Francis Burdett Mills (1875-1951) had enough money to start and run his own dairy in Wandsworth, which he eventually sold to United Dairies in 1924. This story is commonplace in the families of the offspring of Francis Burdett Mills.
I took little real interest in genealogy until my father died in 2010, when I was handed a box of old photographs by my mother when clearing out his things. Starting in earnest in 2013 and when work allowed, I have managed to trace back to all my 3x greatgrandparents, with the exception of the parents of Francis Mills, with a high degree of certainty.
WHAT I DO KNOW ABOUT FRANCIS?
Of Francis, the earliest confirmed record I have of him is in the 1871 census. He was 28 years old and living at 11 Tottenham Street, St Pancras (Somers Town) – hardly the address of someone with any money – with his wife Maria (née Barry), daughters Clara and Emily and three lodgers. He was said to have been born in Marylebone and his occupation was given as Brass Worker.
The closest that I and my distant cousins, who in many cases have been attempting to trace the Mills family line for longer than I, have in ascertaining records before 1871 is a birth of a Francis Mills in Marylebone on 4 April 1843 to a John and Mary Ann Mills (née Powell).
The 1851 census has a probable entry for Francis, living at 1A Cleveland Street, Marylebone, with his mother, Mary Ann (originally from Montgomeryshire), a widow and older sisters Emily and Jane. 1A Cleveland Street was a multiple families’ dwelling. I have been unable to identify anything of substance for Mary Ann, Emily or Jane after this date or of what happened to John.