The family of Millard came originally from the county of Southampton, England, where they possessed considerable estates now in the occupation of John Millard, of that county. The name first appears in American colonial records in 1654 when lands in Massachusetts, and afterwards in New Hampshire, were granted to Luke Millard. In 1670 John Millard had a grant of land from William Penn in Pennsylvania, and another brother had lands in Virginia. John Millard, of Southampton, England, was admitted a freeman of Newport, Rhode Island. He married Elizabeth ————. He later was of Rehoboth, Massachusetts, and had issue. Through intermarriages, the Millards are connected with the oldest English, Scotch and Dutch families of the United States, notably the Coffins, Folgers and Starbucks of Nantucket, and Massachusetts; the Greenes and Brownes of Rhode Island, the Akins of Dutchess county, New York, the Ten Eyckes of Albany, the Bellows and Goulds of New Haven, and many others.
(II) Robert, son of John Millard, was born in 1632, died in Rehoboth, Massachusetts, March 16, 1699. He married, November 24, 1663, Elizabeth, second child of William Sabin, the progenitor of the Sabins of America. William Sabin first appears in 1643, at the organization of the county of Rehoboth, Massachusetts. It is not known when or how he came to America. He was a Huguenot, and it is believed that after his flight from France he found refuge in Wales or the South of England. He was a man of wealth and culture, and of an exceedingly kind, generous nature if one can judge from his gifts to relieve the wants of those who suffered from Indian raids. He was a leader in Plymouth public affairs and in the church and schools of Rehoboth. His first wife died in 1660. Her name is not known. He married (second) Martha, born December 11, 1641, (twin of Mary) daughter of James and Anna Allen, of Medfield. William Sabin died about 1687. His will was probated in Boston, July 17, 1687. In it he names sixteen of his twenty children. His eldest daughter and second child died February 7, 1717; married (first) Robert Millard.
(III) Nehemiah, son of Robert and Elizabeth (Sabin) Millard, was born in Rehoboth, Massachusetts, June 8, 1668, died July 23, 1751. He married (first) Judith Mason; (second) Phoebe Shore, who died March 11, 1717. She bore him three sons, and two daughters.
(IV) Rev. Robert (2) Millard, fourth child of Nehemiah and Phoebe (Shore) Millard, was born in Rehoboth, April 2, 1700, at Nine Partners, New York, died March 7, 1780. He was a minister of the Baptist church, his last charge being Pawling, Dutchess county, New York, where he continued until a short time before his death at the age of eighty years.
He married, March 7, 1726, Hannah, born in Bristol, Rhode Island, daughter of Eleazer and Elizabeth (Cobb) Eddy, granddaughter of John and Deliverance (Owen) Eddy, great-granddaughter of the American ancestor, Samuel Eddy, and his wife, Elizabeth. Samuel Eddy was the son of Rev. William Eddye, vicar of St. Dunstans, Cranbrook, England.
(V) Jonathan, son of Rev. Robert (2) and Hannah (Eddy) Millard, was born at Pawling, Dutchess county, New York, May 27, 1748, died 1785. He was of good education and in his younger days taught school in Connecticut. He returned to Dutchess county, where he established and operated a tannery until his death at Nine Partners. He married Mary Akin, born September 24, 1747, died July 25, 1795, at Pawling, New York. She was of the family of John Akin, born in Scotland, 1663, founder of the Akin family in America. He was a Quaker and fled from Scotland in 1680 to escape the persecution his sect had to endure under English rule. He settled in Massachusetts, and after seeing four of his faith hanged on Boston Common, left that colony and went to the New Netherlands where the Dutch really allowed religious freedom. David, son of John Akin, settled on "Quaker Hill," Pawling, Dutchess county, New York, a locality that has long been the headquarters for those of the name. William Akin, of the same family, moved from Quaker Hill to Rensselaer county, New York, where he purchased (with two others) a square mile of land from the Van Rensselaers, upon which in 1810 he founded the village of Greenbush, now the city of Rensselaer. He was foremost in its upbuilding and has descendants still living there.
(VI) Timothy, son of Jonathan and Mary (Akin) Millard, was born in Pawling, New York. He married Charlotte Roswell, who died in Ulster county, New York. The Roswell family were of Vandy Hall, Ireland. They had issue.
(VII) John Akin, son of Timothy and Charlotte (Roswell) Millard, was born in Delhi, New York, October 10, 1810, died in Troy, New York, January 1, 1869. He was educated for the law, and soon after his first marriage settled in Troy where he rose rapidly in his profession and became one of the leaders of the Rensselaer county bar. He was an active, public-spirited citizen, but would never accept public office, preferring to serve the interests of his fellows in other ways. He, was of fine physique, standing six feet in height and weighing two hundred and fifty pounds. He married, in Albany, February 6, 1840, Frances Mary, born in Rockingham, Vermont, October 19, 1816, died in Troy, New York, June 14, 1853, daughter of Roswell and Martha (Lovell) Bellows, granddaughter of Colonel John and Rebecca (Hubbard) Bellows, of Walpole, great-granddaughter of Benjamin Bellows, founder of Walpole, New Hampshire, who died July 10, 1777, aged sixty-five years, and his first wife, Abigail (Stearns) Bellows, born in Watertown, Massachusetts, June 2 or 3, 1708, died November 9, 1757. Colonel Benjamin Bellows was the only son of Benjamin and Dorcas (Cutter) (Millard) Bellows, of Concord, Massachusetts, and grandson of John and May Wood, the progenitors of the Bellows family of Walpole, New Hampshire, the "Boy Emigrant," who came from England to America in the "Hopewell," April 6, 1635, aged twelve years. Children of John A. and Frances M. (Bellows) Millard:
- Mary Lovell, born February 7, 1841, married Tyrus C. Dickinson; children: Mary Hasting, Herbert Millard, Willis Clayton.
- John Akin, born in Troy, January 13, 1843; served during the civil war in the Eighth Regiment, New York Artillery; was commander and third lieutenant; served with the Army of the Potomac; practiced dentistry in Dinard, France; married (first), Sarah Wentworth Brown; (second) Mary Crocker Sears.
- Anthony Gould, see forward.
- Edward Walter, see forward.
- Herbert Bellows, born in Troy, May 18, 1849; was of Lansingburg, New York, and Newtown, Massachusetts; married Grace Greenwood, daughter of Peter and Naomi Palmer, of Troy; children Maud Lovell, Bertha Grace, Herbert Palmer.
(VIII) Anthony Gould, second son of John A. and Frances Mary (Bellows) Millard, was born in Troy, February 10, 1845, died April 19, 1902. He was educated in common schools of Troy, attended a preparatory school (Brookside Institute), Sand Lake, New York and graduated from Professor Charlier's School, New York City. He engaged with John Warr in the grocery business; in 1880 he entered the employ of Rathbone, Sand & Company of Albany, and continued with them twenty-one years. He married, November 6, 1872, Adelaide Elizabeth Greene. Children:
- Elizabeth Virginia, born January 5, 1876.
- Chauncey Stuart, born June 8, 1879; graduate of Troy Academy; superintendent of railroad signal department of the Federal Signal Company; residence, Troy; married Pearl Holt, of Oneida, New York, daughter of John and Margaret (Boylan) Holt, July 22, 1908.
- Leonie Adelaide, born May 4, 1884.
(VIII) Edward Walter, son of John A. and Frances Mary (Bellows) Millard, was born in Troy, New York, June 1, 1847. He received a good preparatory and academic education in the public schools and at Troy Academy. After leaving school he began the study of law with his father. Early in the civil war, despite his youth, he enlisted in Company B, Twenty-first Regiment, New York Cavalry. This regiment fought hard with the Army of the Potomac and was under the command of the gallant Sheridan. Mr. Millard was engaged in all the battles of his regiment, including Fredericksburg, Winchester and all through Sheridan's Shenandoah Valley campaign. At Winchester he was shot in the leg and still carries a bullet. He served nearly three years, and was mustered out with his regiment at the close of the war. After his return to Troy, as one of the firm of Foxhall, Jones & Millard, he engaged in the manufacture of kitchen utensils, continuing for two and a half years. He spent the following year in Bennington, Vermont, regaining his health (badly shattered by his army life). Returning to Troy he resumed his former business. In 1870 he engaged in business in Troy as Funeral director, in which he still continues (1910). He is an attendant at the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church, and is affiliated with the Republican party. After the war he enlisted in Battery B, Troy City Artillery, and served three years as lieutenant.
He married, February 9, 1870, at Troy, Amelia M. Young, born in Troy, August 13, 1847, died in that city, January 16, 1909, daughter of Dr. Orange R. Young, born in 1816, at Williamstown, Massachusetts, died in Troy, March 17, 1892. He practiced dentistry in Troy until his death. He married Maria M. Bardwell, born and died in Troy. Children of Edward Walter and Amelia M. (Young) Millard, all born in Troy:
- Frances Mary, born March 8, 1871, died 1873.
- Rufus Gould, born November 30, 1874; educated in the Troy public schools; is engaged in the undertaking business; married, Mary E. Berger.
- Edward Walter, Jr., born June 21, 1877, died December 17, 1909; he was an electrician; a thirty-second degree Mason of the Scottish Rite, an Elk and a member of the Masonic Club.
(The Folger Line)
Closely allied with the Coffin family of Nantucket Island was the Folger. When the first English settlement was effected on the island, July 16, 1661, the first great need of the colonists was for an interpreter through whom they might speak with the Indians who peopled the island. So they sent to the island of Martha's Vineyard, and offered to give a half of one share of their estate to Peter Folger if he would come over to Nantucket and live with them. John Folger came from England in 1656 and as a surveyor laid out the town of Norwich, Suffolk county, Massachusetts. He afterward settled on Nantucket. He married Meribah Gibbs and had issue.
(II) Peter, son of John Folger, was an Englishman. He was a teacher to the Indians of the Vineyard. He knew how to measure and survey lands and laid out the original lots on Nantucket. He took up his residence on Nantucket, and in 1673 was clerk of writs and recorder of the court. There was a great deal of dissension and bad feeling in 1675-76 over the election, which seemed to be a triumph for the younger men over the older. Peter Folger in his letter of complaint to Governor Andros at New York speaks contemptuously of "our new young chief magistrates," whereupon he was put under arrest. He was ordered to produce the "Court Booke," but although he came to the court, answered not to the summons as required. Another was chosen clerk of the court and an indictment found against Peter for contempt of court. He was placed under 20 pounds bail and not finding an immediate bondsman was locked up in a place which he describes as "A place where never any Englishman was put and where the neighbors hogs had layed but the night before and in a bitter cold frost and deep snow," but friends brought him bedding and food. His name appears as a witness on the Indian deed of Nantucket, "Recorded for Mr. Tristram Coffin and Mr. Thomas Macy ye 29th day of June, 1671, aforesaid" (Deeds 111954, secretary office). Also on the Indian deed of Wonockmamack and other early official papers of the island. Peter Folger was a Baptist and helped to Christianize the Indians. When the Rev. Thomas Marpen went back to England he left his church in charge of Peter Folger. He married Mary Morrell and had issue.
(III) Elezer, son of Peter Folger, married Sarah, daughter of Richard Gardner. She died 1729, leaving issue.
(IV) Peter (2), son of Elezer and Sarah (Gardner) Folger, born 1674, married Judith, daughter of Stephen Coffin, and granddaughter of Tristram Coffin. She survived him and married a second and a third husband (see Coffin III).
(V) Daniel, second child of Peter (2) and Judith (Coffin) Folger, was born November 13, 1700. He married Abigail Folger, born April 8, 1703, at Nantucket, died there November 21, 1787. Daniel Folger was lost at sea, October 30, 1744, while going to Martha's Vineyard.
(VI) Daniel (2), son of Daniel (1) and Abigail (Folger) Folger, was born March 25, 1736. He married, 1757, Judith Worth. They removed to Dutchess county, New York, where Daniel Folger was engaged in farming. Thev were members of the Society of Friends.
(VII) Clarinda, second child of Daniel (2) and Judith (Worth) Folger, was born at Northampton, Dutchess county, New York, August 20, 1762, died May 22, 1804 (or 44), at Peru, Clinton county, New York. She married, October 23, 1783, Nicholas Barker, died in Peru, September 9, 1849.
(VIII) Phoebe, daughter of Nicholas and Clarinda (Folger) Barker, was born in New York, March 1, 1789. She married at Danby, Vermont, William (2) Greene, born at Groton. Massachusetts, December 22, 1801, died at North Bridgewater, Massachusetts, December 2, 1862. William Greene was a son of William Greene, born in Rhode Island, was of Groton, Massachusetts, then removed to Randolph, Vermont, afterward to Danby, Vermont, where he died. He was a stone cutter by trade. He married Betsey Hudson, of Massachusetts, and had issue.
(IX) Chauncey O., son of William (2) and Phoebe (Barker) Greene, was born in Weedsport, New York, April 2, 1825. He was of Watervliet, New York, and for a time was in business in Canada. He soon returned and located in Troy, New York. He was of the firm of Sheldon & Greene, stove manufacturers; he retired from that firm in 1873, to engage in the insurance business, which he continued until he died, February 15, 1910. He was a Republican in politics and represented the third ward in Troy common council. He married in Danby, Vermont, November 6, 1847, Elizabeth Eggleston, born in Danby, May 28, 1828. Now (1910) resident of Troy.
Elizabeth (Eggleston) Greene, wife of Chauncey O. Greene, was a daughter of Andrus Eggleston, born in Stonington, Connecticut, November 5, 1785, died at Danby, Vermont, April 18, 1860. He was a school teacher and for many years postmaster of Danby. He married, September 5, 1811, at Dorset, Vermont, Nancy Curtis, born at Dorset, November 28, 1787, died January 28, 1860, daughter of Joseph and Delia (Mead) Curtis, of Manchester, Vermont. Timothy Mead, father of Delia (Mead) Curtis, prior to 1800 was the owner of about all of the present site of Manchester Centre, Vermont. The original proprietors in 1780 gave him a grant of five hundred acres in consideration of his building and maintaining a grist mill in the town. Joseph and Delia (Mead) Curtis are buried in the old Curtis burying ground at East Dorset. Their gravestones read: "Joseph Curtis died December 17, 1833, aged 75 years," "Delia, wife of Joseph Curtis, died March 1, 1848, aged 81 years, 9 months." Andrus Eggleston was son of Benedict Eggleston, who during the revolution enlisted in the Second Connecticut Regiment when he was so young and undersized that he put on false heels to bring him up to height and perhaps did something similar to bring his age up to the requirements. He was in receipt of a revolutionary pension for forty years. Born at Hopkinton, Rhode Island, June 18, 1764, died at Dorset, Vermont, December 16, 1859, aged ninety-five years. He married, 1785, Content Brown, born in Stonington, Connecticut, February 21, 1767, died 1808.
(X) Adalaide Elizabeth [note spelling difference from reference in Anthony Millard], daughter of Chauncey O. and Elizabeth (Eggleston) Greene, was born in Brockville, Ontario, Canada. Her parents returned to the United States and located in Troy, New York, when she was an infant of three months. She was educated in Troy and was graduated from the Emma Willard School (Troy Female Seminary), class of 1868. She married, November 6, 1872, Anthony Gould Millard (see Millard VIII). Children: Elizabeth Virginia, Chauncey Stuart and Leonie Adalaide Millard.
(The Coffin Line)
The most ancient seat of the name of Coffin in England is now called Portledge in the county of Devon. The earliest mention of the name in any "Visitation of Devon" is in 1620. The family has been allied by intermarriages with many of the honorable families of England and even with royalty. Probably the most eminent of the name in England was Sir William Coffin, Knight in the reign of King Henry VIII. Tristram Coffyn, the American ancestor, was of the landed gentry, son of Peter, and grandson of Nicholas. According to his father's will he was to be provided for "According to his degree and calling." Therefore he must have had a calling or profession, although he never in America made any pretentions.
(I) Tristram ("Tristem") Coffyn, as he always signed his name, the founder of the family line in America, was born at Buxton, a small parish and village near Plymouth, in Devonshire, England, in the year 1605. He married Dionis Stevens, daughter of Robert Stevens, Esq., of Buxton, and in 1642 emigrated to America with his wife, five small children, his widowed mother and two unmarried sisters. He lived alternately in Salisbury, Haverhill and Newbury, Massachusetts, until 1659, when he went to Nantucket Island and arranged for the purchase of the island by a company which he organized in Salisbury. The island was then under the jurisdiction of New York. He returned to Nantucket with his family in 1660, where he lived until his death, October 2, 1681, at his new residence on the hill at Northam, near Capaum pond. Tristram Coffyn was thirty-seven years of age upon his removal to America and fifty-five when he settled in Nantucket. Joan, his mother, died in Boston, May, 1661, aged seventy-seven years, "a woman of extraordinary character." Of his two sisters who came to America with him, Eunice married William Butler, Mary married Alexander Adams. Three of his children, Peter, Tristram (2), and Elizabeth, were married at the time of the removal to Nantucket.
Tristram Coffyn was the leading spirit among the early islanders, and the large family interest gave him power to control in a great measure the enterprises of the island. During the first years he was the richest proprietor except his son Peter, who possessed a large estate. He was very generous, public-spirited, and did not seek his own advantage in an unreasonable degree. He assisted in developing the resources of the island, was friendly with the Indians and had great influence over them. The first general court for Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard was comprised of Tristram Coffyn, first chief magistrate of Nantucket; Thomas Mayhew, first chief magistrate of Martha's Vineyard, and two associates from each island. At their first session a law prohibiting the sale of intoxicants to the Indians was passed. This is probably the first prohibitory law on record. His commission as chief magistrate of the island bears date of June 29, 1671, and is signed by Governor Lovelace of New York. While he was reputed to be quite wealthy in goods and lands, owning together with his son one-fourth of the island of Nantucket and all of Tuckernuck island, he did not die rich. He made no will, but disposed of much of his land while he lived, by deeds, the consideration being, "regard and natural affection." Most of the remainder of his estate he deeded to his two youngest sons, John and Stephen, they to take possession after the death of Tristram and his wife. To each of his grandchildren he gave ten acres upon the island of Tuckernuck or to such of them "as would plant it." He was a man of strict integrity and generous kindly nature. He was buried in Nantucket, probably upon his own estate. His wife survived him and was tenderly cared for by her large family of children and grandchildren.
Children of Tristram and Dionis (Stevens) Coffyn:
- Hon. Peter, born in England; lieutenant in King Philip's war; deputy to general court of Plymouth three sessions; removed to Exeter, New Hampshire, where from 1692 to 1714 he was at different times associate justice and chief justice of the supreme court of New Hampshire, and member of the governor's council; he married Abigail, daughter of Edward and Katherine Starbuck, of Dover, New Hampshire, and had ten children.
- Tristram, born in England; was deacon for twenty years of the First Church of Newbury, and filled many positions of trust; he was a merchant tailor; he married Mrs. Judith (Greenleaf) Somberly, daughter of Edward and Sarah Greenleaf, and had ten children.
- Elizabeth, born in England; married Captain Stephen Greenleaf and had ten children.
- James, born in England; was judge of the probate court and filled several of the important offices of Nantucket; this branch furnished the families that remained loyal to Great Britain; General John Coffin and Admiral Sir Isaac Coffin, two sons of General John, afterward held admiral's commissions in the Royal navy; one of America's most illustrious women, Lucretia Mott, was a descendant of James Coffin; he married Mary Severance, of Salisbury, Massachusetts, who bore him fourteen children, all except two grew to maturity and married; Deborah Coffin, the sixth child and third daughter, born on Nantucket, married, October 10, 1695, George, son of William Bunker.
- John, born in England, died in infancy.
- Deborah, the first Coffin born in America, died at Haverhill, Massachusetts (the town of her birth) in infancy.
- Mary, born in Haverhill, Massachusetts, February 20, 1645, married, at age of seventeen, Nathaniel Starbuck; their daughter Mary was the first white child born upon Nantucket Island; Mrs. Mary (Coffin) Starbuck was a most extraordinary woman, participating in the public gatherings and town meetings. where her words were listened to with marked respect; she anticipated the Woman's Rights and Suffragette movement by more than two centuries; she was consulted upon all matters of public importance because her judgment was superior, and as the Rev. John Richardson says: "The Islanders esteemed her as a judge among them, for little of moment was done without her;" in town meetings she took an active part in debates, usually commencing her remarks with: "My husband thinks" or "My husband and I, having considered the subject, think;" she was possessed of sound judgment, clear understanding, an eloquent, easy and natural mode of expression; in 1701, at the age of fifty-six, she became interested in the religious faith of the Society of Friends or Quakers, and took the spiritual concern of the whole island under her care; she held meetings at her own house, wrote the quarterly epistles and preached in a most eloquent and impressive manner and withal was as noted for her good housekeeping as for her ability as a preacher; says the same Rev. John Richardson: "The order of her house was such in all the parts thereof, as I had not seen the like before;" she was the mother of ten children.
- Lieutenant John, born in Haverhill; removed to Edgartown, Martha's Vineyard, after his father's death: he married Deborah, daughter of Joseph and Sarah Austin; he had eleven children, among them Enoch, who was judge of Dukes county, and had ten children, all of whom lived to be over seventy years of age, six above eighty years and two of them to ninety years.
- Stephen, see forward.
(II) Stephen, youngest child of Tristram and Dionis (Stevens) Coffyn, was born in Newbury, Massachusetts, March 10, 1652, died November 14, 1734. He remained upon his father's estate and was helpful to his parents in their old age. He married Mary, daughter of George and Jane (Godfrey) Bunker. They had ten children.
(III) Judith, fifth child and second daughter of Stephen and Mary (Bunker) Coffin, died December 2, 1760. She married (first) Peter Folger (see Folger IV); married (second) Nathaniel Barnard; married (third) Stephen Wilcox.