Besides the family of Rafe Mills alias Kendall, there were others in Newport Pagnell and the local area using the alias surname from the 1560s through the 1750s. The alias surname is unique, so these others MUST have been related to Rafe, whether by marriage, adoption or blood. But it’s tough to establish exactly HOW they all relate. This post sets out what we know and what we theorise about them.
The earliest Kendalls, Millses and aliases
Newport Pagnell PRs start in 1550 and provide our earliest evidence of Kendalls and Mylls there in the records for just two families.[1]
1. Hewgh Kendall with a wife probably named Margery was having children in Newport from 1560 to 1570, all recorded or known solely as Kendall. Hewgh was possibly born c1535 and buried on 4 January 1595/6, giving a rough age at death of 60ish. He did not leave a Will. The family group:
Hewgh Kendall Family [wife possibly Margery buried 27 Oct 1604]
Hewgh born c1535, buried 27 Oct 1604
1560, 8 Dec – Joan dau of Hewgh Kendall bap [buried 11 Dec 1560]
1561/2, 15 Jan – Andrew son of Hewgh Kendall buried
1561/2, 15 Jan – Ann dau of Hewgh Kendall buried
c1563 – Anthony Kendall [no baptism found, known as Kendall in adult records]
c1564-5 – Elizabeth Kendall [no baptism found, married John Kyght in Newport 5 Dec 1586]
1566, 2 May – John Kendall (no father named – as a Kendall more likely to be Hewgh, but could be Thomas – fate unknown unless he was the eldest son John named in Thomas’ 1605 Will, see below)
1570 – Agnes dau of Hewgh Kendall bap [possibly buried 7 May 1594]
Possibly a dau Isabell buried as an older child or adult on 29 September 1584.
Of Hewgh’s sons, only Anthony is known for sure to have survived and had descendants in Newport, all named Kendall, none using the alias surname.
2. Thomas Mylls, born c1540 who apparently married three times in Newport using the Mylls surname at first and baptising his children as Mylls until 1573, when he switched to Kendall. He married twice more as Kendall and baptised all his children after 1573 as Kendall. However, he was named as Mills alias Kendall in his Will of 1605 and at his burial on 25 July 1605 (aged c65), by the minister of Newport Pagnell, Thomas Yarrowe, the writer of both records.
From the evidence gathered, it certainly appears that Thomas was the first bearer of the alias surname. The complicated family group:
Thomes Mylls-Kendall Family
Thomas was born c1540, buried as Thomas Mylls alias Kendall 25 Jul 1605.
Presumed 1st mge as Thomas Mylls to Alyce Pratt on 8 Aug 1562.
She was buried as Ales Mylls on 15 Jan 1571/2.
1563 – Andrew Mylls bap (no father named) [buried 30 May 1563]
1564, 8 Sep – John Mylls bap (no father named) [likely buried 17 Jun 1568]
c1566 – possible son Rychard Mylls buried 20 Jan 1566/7
1567/8, 20 Jan – Robert Mylls bap (no father named) apparently died before 1586/7
A son John [no baptism found, named in his father’s Will], probably born in the 1560s
1570, 11 Dec – Elizabeth Mylls dau of Thomas bap, likely died young, not named in father’s Will.
Possibly another son Rychard Mylls buried as an adult 23 Aug 1598.
Possibly a daughter Joan Mylls who married John Collys 19 Jan 1603/4
[from here, something led to Thomas using the surname Kendall]
Presumed 2nd mge as Thomas Kendall to Elizabeth Davy on 24 May 1573.
She was probably buried 29 Sep 1584.
1574, 3 Oct – Nycholas Kendall son of Thomas bap [married Mary Gardyner 1597/8]
1578, 28 Dec – Henry Kendall son of Thomas bap [‘of London’ in 1605]
c1580 – Joan Mabley named in father Thomas’ 1605 Will with husband Luke Mabley & their two children John & Thomas
c1582-4 – Agnes Kendall named in father Thomas’ 1605 Will (unmarried), presumed married after father’s death to Samuel Baker on 6 Oct 1606
Presumed 3rd mge as Thomas Kendall to Joan Cluley on 31 Jul 1585
Joan named as his wife in Thomas’ 1605 Will. Probable burial as Joane Kendale on 26 Nov 1623
1586/7, 22 Jan – Robert Kendall bap (no father stated, but named in Thomas’ Will)
Abstract of the Will of Thomas Mylls alias Kendall
Written 11 July 1605; proved 3 September 1605. Bucks RO ref: D/A wf 1 6
All children except married daughter Joan have surname Kendall.
Beneficiaries: Daughter Agnes, wife Joan, sons John, Nicholas, Robert and Henry (in that order); daughter Joan Mabley, her husband Luke & their sons John & Thomas.
Executors: Luke Mabley & daughter Agnes Kendall. Overseers: James Annesley gent & Thomas Yarrowe minister of Newport (will writer). Witnesses: Thomas Yarrowe, John Scarlett & Robert Mabley.
Debts were due to Thomas from Nicholas (his son), Luke Mabley, Thomas Adams, John Homes & Anthony Kendall, and he owed one debt to Walter Hall.
Of Thomas’ sons, none with the surname Mylls at birth appear to have survived and produced descendants, but sons Nicholas and Robert (and, we theorise, eldest son John too) had numbers of children named Mills alias Kendall. They seem mainly to have been butchers.
Link between Hewgh and Thomas?
The deduced birth dates for Hewgh and Thomas suggest they could have been brothers, though the difference in their surname stories weighs against that. They could have been half-brothers, or first cousins but perhaps more likely brothers-in-law.
At his second marriage, Thomas Mylls could have married a widowed Elizabeth Davy (nee Kendall) sister of Hewgh and thereby inherited from her and Hewgh’s father.[2] Since Hewgh’s was the only known Kendall family in Newport or nearby at the time, it seems very unlikely that the two men weren’t linked by blood or marriage.
Link between Thomas and Rafe?
Thomas’s son John, named first in his 1605 Will before his other sons, must therefore have been born in the 1560s during Thomas’ first marriage to Alice Pratt. We can therefore suggest a theoretical link from Thomas to Rafe – as grandfather and grandson:
|Because there are so few extant records for Sherington before 1600, but Rafe and a John, both using the alias surname, are in Sherington’s BTs between 1616 and 1631, it’s very likely their parents were in Sherington too. Even if we cannot prove this theory with documentary evidence, there clearly had to be a relationship between Thomas and Rafe and so far, this is the only one that fits.
The persistent alias
Up to the 1750s we have evidence of these descendants of Anthony Kendall (son of Hewgh) and Nicholas and Robert Mills alias Kendall (sons of Thomas) variably using the alias surname or Mills or Kendall alone:
- Two Williams who both married in October 1635, one to Mary Newman, the other to Margaret Lamb. They baptized children during the same period, all recorded solely as son or daughter of William, so indistinguishable.
- A third William married Olive Hall and had a daughter Martha.
- A butcher named Thomas Mills alias Kendall (son of Nicholas) married Elizabeth Oliver, had butcher sons Thomas, John, Nicholas and Richard.
- A John Mills alias Kendall, butcher in Newport Pagnell, later a gentleman in next-door Lathbury (parentage not established). He married Elizabeth Cunningham (note that a David Cunningham was a witness to the 1666 Will of Rafe’s son John Mills alias Kendall).
- One of the three possible Williams in Newport was named (with the alias) in a 1658/9 conveyance. George and Edward, both Mills alias Kendall, were witnesses in the conveyance (their parentage unknown)
- A Matthew Mills alias Kendall (parents unknown) had a wife Mary and children born in the 1690s, whose fates are unknown.
Details of all the Mills, Kendalls and Mills alias Kendalls found in Newport Pagnell & elsewhere are available on request.
The last recorded instance of the alias surname that we have found was on 1 October 1759 when the Will of Thomas Kendall alias Mills, yeoman of Newport Pagnell, was proved (his ancestry not established). Administration was granted to his wife, Susanna (nee Kirtland), and his sister, Mary Smith in Lathbury (only heir of her brother the testator, so he had no male children to continue the name).
Celia Renshaw of Stirling, Scotland
Morganhold family history blog: www.morgansite.wordpress.com
© February 2024
[1] Buckinghamshire Record Office ref. PR 153/1/1 (1538-1664) Newport Pagnell Parish Register I – but many years of the register are in a horrendous, barely legible state (and Bishop’s Transcripts, many of which are also damaged, only survive from 1600) so it’s definite that some members of these families are lost for good, or can only be deduced with uncertainty from other records.
[2] We have no clues to Hewgh and Thomas’s origins but with names like Hewgh, Andrew, Robert, Nicholas and Agnes in their families (though also known in southern England), origins in north-east England (probable source of the Kendall name), Scotland, Wales or even Ireland are certainly possible. Mylls, Mills, Miles and Myles on the other hand were numerous everywhere.
