Francis Burdett Mills bc1878 Pancras, London

[rihuggett]

Hello,
Seeking help in finding Francis Burdett Mills (sometime milk carrier), his wife Ellen Louisa, nee Lewis and their family.  I have them from the 1901 census but baptisms of their children are hard to pinpoint as they keep moving around within North London, Hornsey, West Hampstead, Islington - a nightmare trying to go through all those parishes at the LMA. 

Also looking for Francis' brother William James Mills a postman married to Charlotte Elizabeth, nee Goodere.  William was a postman but the Mount Pleasant post archives had nothing on him when I looked 3 years ago. 

Both brothers had sons called Francis Burdett Mills and it maybe that this middle name evolved into a compound surname.  They were brothers of my great grandmother Clara Mills, Mrs Hassell (married 1868 William Richard Hassell).  I think someone is looking on curiousfox for a message I put up there when I was a member last year - let's hope they see this and reply to me.

Thanks, Richard

[coombs]

Hi Rihugget

Is this his birth?

Francis Burdett Mills 1874  Oct-Nov-Dec Pancras  London ref number is 1b 51.

I found a Francis Mills aged 17 living in Kensington with a brother William aged 15. Francis was a clerk and William a Grocers Assistant. Their mum Elizabeth was a Laundress born in Norfolk aged 44.

Ben

[rihuggett]

Hi Ben,

Thanks for the reply.  Yes that's FB's birth reg, sorry I didn't have access to my data in my post so gave FB's date of birth from memory - it was late 1874. 
No not them in the 1891 census - I have them living with their mother and father then at 6 Little Drummond St, St Pancras.  Francis' baptism was 13/Jan/1875 and William's was 19/July/1882 by the way, St John the Evangelist and St Mary's, Somers Town respectively.

I can't find William in 1901.  Francis in 1901 was married (to Ellen Louisa Lewis, 10/03/1895 St Mary's) with 5 children: Francis Burdett J; Ellen Louisa; William Robert; Herbert Charles and Henry Arthur - ages 5 years down to 4 months living at 65 Broomsleigh St, West Hampstead.

As for William, born 1882 the postman.  He married late (9/4/1911 All Saints', Caledonian Rd) his sister's husband's sister, Charlotte Eliz Goodere and I have found 2 sons for them: William James and Francis Burdett, born 1912 and 1913 respectively.  Again they go off the radar after that.
Part of the problem is that Mills is such a common name, that it is like looking for a needle in a haystack.  My only advantage is that the Christian names Francis and Burdett are uncommon enough that someone din a sweep search of this database will find this post!!

Thanks again, rihuggett

[coombs]

Hi

Have you sent off for FBs 1874 birth cert? This will give his mothers maiden name.

Ben

[rihuggett]

Hi Ben,
No, but the mother's maiden name will be Barry I am fairly sure of that.  It's the later years I am in interested in, because until I get going with 1911 census I just have upto 1901 and the parish registers for baptisms that I uncover or wills that the family have written and indexed at First Avenue House. 
If there is a descendant out there, as an enquiry  to CuriousFox appears to show, they may have uncovered the descent of Francis Mills (1843-1908) - I can just but wait and see ... until a moderator classifies it. - RH

[dawnsh]

Hi Richard

Just updating an old topic.

Have found some baptisms for you (which you might already have?)

1896, 1 March St Paul Canonbury
Francis Burdett John (parents) Francis Burdett & Ellen Louisa Mills (of) 392 Essex Rd (Quality, Trade or Profession) Milkman, born 2nd Feb 1896

1898, 9th Jan St Mathias, Stoke Newington
William Robert parents) Francis Burdett & Ellen Louisa Mills (of) 34 Shakespeare Rd (QTP) Milkman

Then a batch on the same day

1904, 29th April St Mary Hornsey

Ellen Louise born 6th Dec 1896
Herbert Charles born 7th August 1899
Henry Arthur born 1st Dec 1900
(Parents) Frank & Ellen Mills (of) 65 Myddleton Rd, (QTP) Milkman

Dawn

[Cater]

Hi Richard

I think I am the person who saw your message on Curious Fox. FBM was my wife's great-grandfather. Hope the following helps:-

Francis B Mills married Ellen Louisa Lewisat St Marys Somertown 1895. A driver(57287) in RE in latter part of WW1 stationed in Greece. Family folklore says he owned a dairy. Lived in a 3 storey house on Balham High Road. Also acted as a bookie illegally. Sold Dairy in mid 1940's for £20,000. Drank. Ended up being sectioned by sons William & Herbert. Died of liver failure in early 1950's. Buried in Wandsworth.
Children:-
Francis BJ Mills  1896-known as Frank . Died 23.3.1918 Arras. WD372/14
Royal Garrison Artillery Regiment No 189141 Royal Field Artillery70th Battery 34th Bde.
Ellen L Mills        1897-known as Nellie. Married Harry Jones, a chef at National Liberal Club. My father in law says he was a conchologist and had largest colln of sea shells in England at one time.
William R Mills     1898- worked for father from age 10 on milkround.  joined Colchester Borough Police after WW1. Joined London Regiment in 1914. Son Robert William and two daughters,Ena (second marriage to Leslie Pink) and Betty who died in childhood. RW married Rosa Clara Lilian Bridges. RW had 4 children.
Herbert C            1900- known as Bert. Joined Met Police.Son Frank.
Henry A             1901-known as Harry. Youngest. Looked after his mother. Thought not to have married.
Ernest                       -known as Ernie. Served in WW1
Rosa-married
Leonard- went to Australia

Altogether I understand that there was 13 children of whom 4 were girls. I will try to fill more gaps when I next see my father-in-law.

You may be interested, one of Ellen Louisa Lewis's relations,Derek Lewis, is reputed to have been a professional footballer with Gillingham and Preston North End.

Do you know the origin of Burdett. Again family gossip suggests that an ancestor was the illegitimate son of Sir FB but this doesn't seem to tie in with anything I have tracked down. How far back have you been able to trace the Mills's please?

Regards

James

[dawnsh]

Hi James

Welcome to Rootschat 

Thank you for contributing to this topic.

Richard hasn't been online here for a couple of weeks but should have received notification that we have replied to his topic.

Hopefully, he'll be back soon.

Dawn

[rihuggett]

Hi James / Cater, and thanks Dawnsh also for your contributions. 

It's great to have contact with you after so many near misses!  Thanks for the biographies of FB and Ellen Louisa's children - all I have are BMD and parish register entries and a photo of Maria Barry with my g.g.mother Clara.  Francis Burdett's (husband of Ellen Louisa) eldest surviving sister Clara was my great grandmother, as I may have explained.  Clara married William Richard Hassell, their eldest child Florence Clara married Walter James Huggett, their son Donald was my father, so that's me!

I have a scratch tree which I have been making, written in Word.  I would like to send it to you James.  It has John Mills, his wife Mary Powell, their son Francis Mills and Francis' marriage to Maria Barry, with all their offspring.  It is difficult to get back further on the Mills line because the name John Mills is so common.  However one pointer is that my great aunt Gladys (daughter of Clara Mills, Mrs Hassell) said that her mother Clara told her that her father Francis's family originated in Wales.  I cannot enlighten you about the name Burdett.  Francis, husband of Maria Barry did not have the name on his birth certificate but he did have it later on.
I have another tree with the Barry ancestry.  The Barry ancestry is very interesting for their musical talents and even more so for their intermarriage with the Buckingers.  Joseph Buckinger played the viola under the conductorship of GF Handel and his grandfather Matthew Buckinger (or Matthias Buchinger - he was a German before he came over to England) was even more of a prodigy.
I am happy to send an email attachment with all this over to you, but it will have to be by email as the Rootschat messaging service will not support attachments.  My email is (*) so please send me an email and then I will have yours to reply to with all this info on.

Dawnsh - just discovered that ancestry.co.uk has the baptisms of the eldest children of FBJ Mills and Ellen Louisa, I guess their limit of early 1900s stops the entries of the younger ones, but St Mary's, Hornsey is a good pointer for me to investigate at the LMA in person - thanks for that.   I have found however that the church specification at ancestry.co.uk is unreliable.  I think they put down the parish church (ie the main church) when baptisms took place in a 'daughter' church - whatever the right word is - but a small quibble.

All for now - Richard

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