MILL, Sir John, 1st Bt. (1587-1648), of Newton Bury and Southampton, Hants.

Mill’s great-grandfather bought Newton Bury, two miles from Southampton across the estuary of the Test, and other land in and around the town, which Mill inherited when he was only a few months old following the deaths of both his parents and his elder brother. VCH Hants, iv. 552-3. Mill’s guardian, John Goldwell†, son-in-law of Bishop Cooper of Winchester, educated him, as he later recalled, in ‘true Protestant religion according to the doctrine of the Church of England, which Protestant faith I have always lived and by God’s assistance will die therein’. HMC Hatfield, xiv. 278; PROB 11/206, f. 64. At the general election for the third Stuart Parliament Mill stood unsuccessfully for Lymington. Hants RO, 27M74A/DBC1, p. 123. In 1624 he was returned for Southampton, perhaps presenting himself in place of his brother-in-law, Sir Thomas Fleming II*, the borough’s representative in the three preceding parliaments, who was by this time on his deathbed. Mill soon afterwards became the guardian of Fleming’s son and heir, Thomas, although his management of the latter’s assets eventually resulted in a stream of litigation in Chancery. E44/382; C2/Chas.I/F6/48; 2/Chas.I/F23/5; 2/Chas.I/F24/31; 2/Chas.I/F45/26; 2/Chas.I/F52/90.

Southampton corporation declined to admit Mill to the freedom of the borough, but their resolution in 1624 to return only their own freemen to Parliament was immediately broken when Mill was re-elected at the next election, to the first Caroline Parliament. VCH Hants, iii. 517. He was returned again in 1626, but left no trace on the parliamentary records of any of the assemblies he attended. He paid £40 towards the Forced Loan, apparently without demur, and in June 1627 was honoured with a visit from the king. Add. 21922, f. 16; J.S. Davies, Hist. Southampton, 484. As sheriff of Hampshire in 1628 he was precluded from standing at the next election. Despite his baronetcy he found himself liable to compound for knighthood. He pleaded that he had not been summoned to the coronation, and that the expenses of billeting and the shrievalty had left him no ready money, but on 23 Mar. 1631 the Privy Council ordered him to pay £105, and removed him from the commission of the peace. Add. 21922, ff. 178v, 183; E401/2450. His eldest son’s marriage to the daughter of Sir Henry Knollys, clerk of the Greencloth, was probably responsible for his restoration to the county bench in 1633. Historical Collections ed. J. Rushworth, iii. 914; G.E. Aylmer, King’s Servants, 82. After sitting in the Short Parliament of 1640, Mill became an active royalist, as did his eldest son, John*, who died after being taken prisoner by the roundheads in 1644. Add. 26781, f. 115. Mill made his will on 10 Aug. 1646, avowing his loyalty to the Church of England and declaring that ‘I have always hated the Papists’ religion and I do hereby protest against it to my death’. He claimed to have lost £50,000 as a result of the war, and to owe a further £5,000 ‘on the king’s behalf’, as a result of which he could afford to leave only paltry annuities to his three surviving sons and nothing for his two unmarried daughters. PROB 11/206, f. 64. He was dead by Nov. 1648, when the will was proved, leaving his sequestered estate to his grandson, whose trustees later compounded at £1,350. CCC, 105, 1831-5. His descendant, Richard, 5th bt., sat for Midhurst in 1721.