{Garnsey Ancestors}
https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Millard-52
Origins
John Millard's origins and relationship to Thomas Millard were found and published in 2015.[1] in the NEHG Register Vol 169 pp 197 - 201. The English Origins of Thomas Millard of Boston and His Cousin, John Millard of Rehoboth. by Trudy Millard Krause. [They identify Thomas Millard as the son of Thomas Millard of Somburne in the Parish of Coughton, Warwick, England, and John Millard as his cousin, the son of Thomas' Uncle John Millard and his wife, Alice. Thomas says he was raised in his uncle’s house. Both John Sr. and Thomas Sr. were the sons of Robert Myllard, a close relative (prob. brother) of Thomas and Joan Millward, of the Manor of Coughton in Somburne, Warwick, England.]
The following is extracted from a well researched article found in The Detroit Society for Genealogical Research Magazine Fall
1959 - Volume XXIII - Number 1 Pages 5 – 10. Sharon Wick transcribed it to a website at
http://www.angelfire.com/oh5/earpconnections/millerdsparti.htm
THE MILLARDS OF REHOBOTH, MASSACHUSETTS
By Frances Davis McTeer of Detroit, Mich. and
Frederick C. Warner of North Amherst, Mass.
Part 1
All pre-Revolutionary inhabitants listed in the published vital records of Rehoboth, Massachusetts under the names Millard, Millerd and Miller, which were often used interchangeably, are found to have been descendants of the John Millard Sr. who was a proprietor of Rehoboth in 1643. …
JOHN (1) MILLARD, b. in England, d. in Rehoboth, Plymouth Colony, between 30 June 1684 and 7 February 1689; m. (1) in England........ ............; m. (2) in New England, ELIZABETH ............., who was buried in Rehoboth, 18 April 1680. [He was a tanner.]
Evidence regarding the two marriages of John Millard Sr. is inextricably entangled with the data regarding his children. No records have been found of the identity of either wife, or the date and place of the marriages. But in a deed of 4 March 1679/0. John Miller, Sr. of Rehoboth, tanner, conveyed to his son Samuel Miller his house and home lot … the son Samuel to fully possess all "except if my beloved wife Elizabeth doeth outlive me". … From this evidence John Sr. did certainly have in 1680 a wife Elizabeth.
According to the town records of Rehoboth, John Millard Sr. had five children born there between 1653 and 1662, presumably by his wife Elizabeth. In addition there were two older Millard boys living in the town: Robert who was born about 1632, according to his gravestone which says he died in 1699, "age 67 years"; and John Jr. who was entered on the Rehoboth tax roll of 1657, indicating that he was born at least by 1636. It seems very unlikely that the wife Elizabeth, whose son Benjamin was born in 1662. was also the mother of Robert born thirty years earlier. Therefore, the following hypothesis is formulated: John Millard, with a wife and family including two small sons, probably came to New England about 1637 at the same time as his kinsman who settled in Boston. By 1643 John was established in Rehoboth, but he was then probably a widower since he had no children recorded during his early years in the town. About 1652 he married Elizabeth who died in 1680. It is true no direct evidence has been found to support this theory; but there is considerable logic to support, the contention that John Sr. must have had two wives.
During more than four decades John Millard Sr. was a taxpayer and landowner, identified with the community of Rehoboth. As early as 1643 he was referred to as a proprietor and named seventeenth in the list of estates. Thereafter his name appears in succeeding years in connection with land allotments in "the woodland between plain and town" (1644), "the great plain beginning on the westside" (1645), the new meadow (1646), and the meadows on the northside of the town(1658). In 1648 he was "Servayer for the Hyewayes for Rehoboth" and constable in 1672. The town assessments of 22 December 1657 list John Miller Sr., together with his two sons, John Jr. and Robert, and the following year both Johns took the Oath of Fidelitie there. Ten years later the same three Millers were among those who drew lots for the "meadow lands in the North Purchase" (now Attleboro, Mass.) (Bliss, pp. 27, 31, 34, 41, 49, 67; Bowen, Vol. I, pp. 16. 39, 41; Plymouth Colony Records, Vol. 5, pp. 91, 115; Vol. 8, p. 178)
At a hearing in Suffolk County Probate Court, on 4 February 1669/0, several friends and neighbors of the deceased Thomas Millard of Boston testified as to his wishes regarding his estate: "He would give... his land at Centry Hill ... to his kinsman at Seaconk who hath many children"; "he would give his estate to his cousin Millard because he was brought up at his father's house"; "he intended cousin Miller should have good part of his estate ... because 'I have no other kindred in the country nor certainly do know that any other is alive'". (Suffolk Co., Mass. Probates, Vol. 7, p. 18; New Series, Vol. 3, pp. 279 - 281; abstracted in NEHG Register, Vol. 48, 1894, p. 326).
The estate referred to in this testimony consisted principally of two lots in Boston. One of these, described in the inventory as "a small parcel of land lying on the side of Century Hill and fronting the Common", was in fact almost the whole of the lot upon which the Massachusetts State House now stands, a half acre of which was Millard's by allotment and an additional acre brought of Zaccheus Bosworth in 1651. (Report of the Boston Record Commissioners, Vol. V. pp. 116-117) Thomas also owned a half-acre lot near the South Meeting House. (Supreme Judicial Court of Suffolk County, Mass., Case #1092).
On the same date as the probate hearing, "John Miller of Rehoboth in ye Colony of Plymouth and John Lake and Thomas Bligh of Boston" were appointed administrators of the estate of "ye late Thomas Miller of Boston"; these three immediately, that day, gave a bond "unto Edward Ting Esqr Treasurer of ye County of Suffolk in the Sm of Foure hundred and twenty pounds".
This appointment of John Millard of Rehoboth as one of the administrators of the estate of Thomas Millard of Boston seems to imply his acceptance as next of kin and legal heir. However, on 18 October 1672, John Lake and Thomas Bligh, "Administrators of the estate of Thomas Millard late of Boston", deeded the two lots in Boston to Col. Samuel Shrimpton, "Attorney for Alice Swift, Sister and Executrix unto the last Will and Testament of said Thomas Millard deceased". The "Will" mentioned to bolster Shrimpton's authority and Alice's kinship must have been written before Thomas left England in 1637.
The following spring, when travelling was less hazardous, John Millard made another trip to Boston. On 23 June 1673, John Millard of Rehoboth, Tanner, one of the Administrators of the estate of Thomas Millard late of Boston, "in consideration of all the household goods and movables and money that Thomas died possessed of and twenty pounds in money additional" quitclaimed the Boston real estate to Samuel Shrimpton, merchant, "Attorney for Alice Swift".
The two and one half years which elapsed between Thomas's death and the deed to Alice Swift’s attorney strongly suggest that during that interval she was notified in England, probably by "Cousin" John who would know where to look for her even though neither he nor her brother were sure she was still alive after more than thirty years. It is possible that John also made arrangements with Col. Shrimpton, a Boston merchant, to act as agent to sell the lots and transfer the proceeds overseas
John's conduct in the affair seems very generous. By the testimony at the original court hearing John was designated his cousin's principal heir, yet in return for the "movables" and the small sum of twenty pounds he relinquished to Alice Swift all his claim to two valuable city lots.
The last appearance of John Millard Sr. in the Plymouth Colony records is his acknowledgement on 30 June 1684 of the deed to his son Robert. (Plymouth Colony Deeds, Vol. 5,, p. 278). On 7 February 1689 in a list of Inhabitants and Proprietors of the Towne of Rehoboth the name of John Millard is conspicuously absent, though his family is represented by Sam'l Millerd Senr, Sam'l Millerd Junr, Robert Millerd Senr, Joseph Millerd and Benjamin Millerd. (Bowen, Vol. I, p. 56). It is there fore presumed that John Sr. had died sometime between these two listing dates.
John Millard Sr. had two sons who were presumably children of his first wife, probably born in England:
Robert [our ancestor] – b. ca. 1632
John – b. at least by 1636
John Sr. and Elizabeth, who was probably his second wife, had five children, born at Rehoboth:
Hannah – b. 23 December 1653; m. (1) at Rehoboth, 16 December 1681, as his second wife, Daniel Thurston
Sarah – b. 15 October 1655, d. at Rehoboth, 10 March 1731/2; m. there 3 July 1678, as his second wife, John Titus.
Samuel – b. 5 October 1658
Joseph – b. middle of August 1660.
Benjamin b. Sept 1662.