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England (Counties as in 1851-1901) => England => Devon => Topic started by: king william on Wednesday 26 November 08 21:49 GMT (UK)
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I have Millis ancestors from Kingston-upon-Thames in London, but I am getting the idea they may have originated in Devon in a village name something liked Melhuish which I did not find in the atlas.
I also have Mellis ancestors from the same area of London and I am beginning to wonder if both families had the same beginnings.
I looked up the crest of the Mellis, Millis and Melhuish families and they all apparently have the same three fleur-de-lis emblems.
Any ideas on my Millis and Mellis families.
My earliest Millis is Thomas Millis (a butcher) who was baptised in Kingston-upon-Thames in 1714, he was a son of Richard and Jane Millis.
My earliest Mellis is John Mellis who was born in 1766, I do not know where, he married Ann Sparks in 1789 in Holborn, St Georges and died in St Helena
in 1820 (he was an assistant surgeon in the Indian Medical Service)
I would love to have any insight of both the Mellis and Millis families and also to know if they are from the same family originally
Robin
New Zealand
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Melhuish is certainly a name from Devon, Google threw the name up in Genuki family names on Devon.
Just a quick search on Google shows this lot...
http://genuki.cs.ncl.ac.uk/DEV/DevonFHS/Surnames.html
Have you tried the One Name study site or this Melhuish Family site on
http://x-stream.fortunecity.com/pasteur/144/
The Devon Family History centre has a family Bible but that would require a visit to the Tree House in Exeter.
http://www.devonfhs.org.uk/index.htm
Take a look at
http://genforum.genealogy.com/melhuish/
and theres this too
doesnt specify exact location but the one after that does. Near Exeter.
This was a on heraldry site
The surname of MELHUISH was a locational name 'of Melhuish' a small place in County Devon. Surnames derived from placenames are divided into two broad categories; topographic names and habitation names. Topographic names are derived from general descriptive references to someone who lived near a physical feature such as an oak tree, a hill, a stream or a church. Habitation names are derived from pre-existing names denoting towns, villages and farmsteads. Other classes of local names include those derived from the names of rivers, individual houses with signs on them, regions and whole countries. The earliest of the name on record appears to be John de Melewis who was documented in the year 1242 in County Devon and Elina de Malhwys was documented in 1274. Many factors contributed to the establishment of a surname system. For generations after the Norman Conquest of 1066 a very few dynasts and magnates passed on hereditary surnames, but most of the population, with a wide choice of first-names out of Celtic, Old English, Norman and Latin, avoided ambiguity without the need for a second name. As society became more stabilized, there was property to leave in wills, the towns and villages grew and the labels that had served to distinguish a handful of folk in a friendly village were not adequate for a teeming slum where perhaps most of the householders were engaged in the same monotonous trade, so not even their occupations could distinguish them, and some first names were gaining a tiresome popularity, especially Thomas after 1170. The hereditary principle in surnames gained currency first in the South, and the poorer folk were slower to apply it. By the 14th century however, most of the population had acquired a second name. Later instances of the name include Robert Mellish who married Anne Smith at St. Michael, Cornhill, London in the year 1674. The associated arms are recorded in Sir Bernard Burkes General Armory. Ulster King of Arms in 1884. Registered at Taunton, County Somerset, and County Devon. In the Middle Ages heraldry came into use as a practical matter. It originated in the devices used to distinguish the armoured warriors in tournament and war, and was also placed on seals as marks of identity. As far as records show, true heraldry began in the middle of the 12th century, and appeared almost simultaneously in several countries of Western Europe.
AND THERES IS ALSO THIS
There's a village in Somerset called Huish as well as roads and
districts and a college (Richard Huish College, Taunton). I've heard
it pronounced as "hue-ish".
Literally, 'household'. Used interchangeably with OE hid, 'a hide of land', it later came to denote a measure of land which could support a household. OE hiwisc, The Somerset villages are, Huish Champflower OE hiwisc, Z family-name
Huish Episcopi OE hiwisc, L episcopus
There are also the villages of Cushuish and Rodhuish The Ordnance Survey gives 31 places with Huish in the name.
Regards Stan Mapstone
www.mapstone.org
The name Melhuish originated about the year 500 when a bloke Maegla took up a hide of land somewhere near Tedburn St. Mary (just west of Exeter).
Thus Maegla's hiwisc. The name has gone through many variations over the years as the family moved generally North East through Cruwys Morchard, Witheridge, Washfield and so on into Somerset.
The earliest mention that I have of a name recognizable is from the Feudal Aids, page 345, AD 1303, Petrus de Melehywyssh tenet in Melehywyssh et Langeston un fee. Also, the Devonshire lay subsidy roll of 1332, where one William Melhywish paid a fee of 2 shillings on Melhiwysh (Melhuish Barton) near Tedburn St. Mary. There are other bits and pieces, but I don't have anything substantial until about 1550 when the Melhuishs of Witheridge burst on the scene.
There are also Melhuishs in Cornwall.
happy hunting
Foxy
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Heres a bit more for you from GENUKI that includes 1821 census
http://genuki.cs.ncl.ac.uk/DEV/TedburnStMary/
TEDBURN ST. MARY
"TEDBURN ST. MARY, a pleasant village on the Okehampton road, 7½ miles W. by N. of Exeter, has in its parish 867 souls and 4433 acres of land, generally fertile, and hilly. It has a cattle fair, on the Monday before Michaelmas day, and includes the hamlet of Upcott, and many scattered farm-houses. At Domesday Survey, Tedbourne (Teteborne) was held by Ralph de Pomerai, under Baldwin de Sap. It is now held by John Hippesley, Esq.
The manors of Hackworthy and Melhuish were formerly held by families of their own names, and now belong to Baldwin Fulford, Esq., of Fulford House, which is noticed with Dunsford, at page 192. John Abbot, Esq., and several smaller owners have estates in the parish. The Church is an ancient structure, with a tower and six bells . . . " [From White's Devonshire Directory (1850)]
http://genuki.cs.ncl.ac.uk/DEV/TedburnStMary/TedburnStMary1821.html
good luck
foxy
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Wow, thanks to all, so much to look through, lovely stuff, where do you find it all.
Robin
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I put all the sources in the email.
I just love ferreting things out. I admit it! I'm totally addicted to genealogy!!
Reason for interest is that my daughter lives with a Melhuish!
Good luck!
Foxy
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I have information on the Millis family connected to the one you mentioned. Thomas Millis bp 1714 son of Richard and Jane. The Kingston Millis family has been traced back a further 100 years to Richard Millest who was also a butcher at Cobham. Can send info if interested.
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Millisk,
Many thanks - I would love any more information, look forward to it,
Robin - aka King William
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Robin
you could have a look at this site and contact the author, Marvin Millis, for detailed access.
http://milliskingston.tribalpages.com/
Both myself and Marvin would welcome information and research from your side of the family.
Millisk
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Millisk - I did actually contact Marvin a couple of years ago and he did give me some information that I did not have.
I just tried to get into his site but I had to give an access code which of course I do not have so got nowhere
My line going backwards is
1..Sarah Millis, 1751 - 1790, married James Bush in 1770, he was a prosperous carpenter.
2..Thomas Millis, 1724 - 1775, born K.U.T., a butcher, married Mary Jarvis in 1741 in Fleets Debtors Prison of all places, secondly married Eleanor Wilcox in 1755
3..Thomas Millis married Elizabeth Simmons in Kingston-upon-Thames in 1718.
4..Richard Millest, born about 1622, of Cobham.
If there are any errors here in my line-up or anything you can add to this, I would be very grateful. I did note that on the tribalpages, that the name of Bush and Jarvis did not feature in the list of surnames, so maybe this info. will add to the sum of your family knowledge.
Many thanks for your reply
Robin aka King William
New Zealand
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Hi there!
I have a portrait painted by Albert Henry Collings of a "May Melhuish", and I'm trying to find out who May was and where she came from. I guess hers was an important family (Collings was the royal portrait painter of the day), but I cant seem to find any records of her. The painting is around 1910 and she looks t be in her mid to late twenties or even early thirties, so maybe she was born around 1880 onwards? She is also painted wearing riding attire, so obviously she came from a privileged background. Can anyone help?
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Cheers,
Dom
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Hi Dom. A quickie search at
http://freebmd.rootsweb.com/cgi/search.pl
for surname Melhuish born 1875-1890 shows only two with first given name May:
May Pearl Melhuish, Haslingden, June quarter 1879
May Melhuish, Chelsea, June quarter 1884
Of course the questions are: was May a nickname? was Melhuish her birth surname or a married surname?
Neither of those seems to be in the 1911 census, so presumably both had married (or died).
May Pearl married in 1900, for one.
I wonder whether the Chelsea May might be the one who married Herbert W E White in Hampstead in 1918. Those are potentially 'privileged' locations.
A May A Melhuish aged 28 (born c1883) died in 1911 in Wandsworth. I wonder whether your portrait might have arisen out of a young woman's death. She would most likely have been the Mary Ada Wisdom who married the marvellously named Canute Ridge Melhuish in Wandsworth in 1900. In 1901 in Gravesend she is called May Ada Melhuish, and she was born May Ada Wisdom in 1879 in Kensington. He was a cycle maker, but he was later in a theatrical occupation, and May was not in the 1911 household - perhaps being ill.
The two couples, White and Melhuish, both had children. The Melhuish-Wisdom children can be seen in the 1901 and 1911 censuses, and the White-Melhuish children by searching at FreeBMD for births with those surnames.
Those look like the most likely possibles!
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Thanks Janey, that's a great help! is there any way i could send you a picture of the painting? i tried to attach here but cant upload for some reason. my email address is (*).
You brilliant research seems to throw up more questions! Is there any way "May" is just a nickname and not on her birth cert at all? was this common at the time?
Cheers,
Dom
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BTW...forgot to mention that is could be May Pearl Melhuish, born in Lancashire - the background countryside in the painting leads me to believe was was born in the country and lived there and not London...see what you think!
cheers,
Dom