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I've been doing some more research where I can of the Mills in Rathdrum and their connection to Sarah Mills who married Thomas Williams of Rockstown in 1739. It's difficult to figure out sons from cousins from brothers from remarriages, but so far my guess would be that there was a Daniel Mills who was the father of the apothecary Daniel Mills (~1693 to 1789), and probably also the father of a Richard Mills (burial record for "Mr Richard Mills" at Rathdrum in 1758, age unknown) and a Joseph Mills (from Cantwell, buried at Rathdrum aged 88, ~1682 to 1770).

A few random bits and pieces:

https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CSJW-JJ43
No. 31386
1725 - A Daniel Mills of Rathdrum is mentioned, innkeeper. Possibly the father of Daniel, Richard and Joseph, if they were brothers.

https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-89LW-GPDS
No. 302
1732 - Thomas Williams of Rockstown in Wicklow, wife Sarah, eldest son George, middle son Thomas (who would go on to marry Sarah Mills), youngest son William. Daughters Elizabeth Long nee Williams, Febey and Sarah. Grandson George Long, Elizabeth's son.

https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CSN1-63YM-M
No. 49225
1732 - Unusually for the time, Thomas Williams (father of the Thomas who married Sarah Mills) bequeaths the entirety of the Rockstown farm to his youngest son, William Williams.

https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-99LW-2ZML
No. 39
1736 - Richard Mills of County Wicklow, farmer, marries Elizabeth Sherrard of Arklow Parish. Starting from 1738, numerous baptisms of a Richard and Elizabeth Mills are performed at Rathdrum, including their first son which is a Daniel Mills. The last baptism is in 1757, the year before the burial record for Richard.

https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CSH3-S3XR-G
No. 65202
1738 - There's a Joseph Mills, son of Daniel Mills of Rathdrum.

https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QSQ-G9LW-KFDH
No. 216
1739 - Thomas Williams, now working as a clothier in Wicklow, married Sarah Mills of Rathdrum. Their earlier children are baptised in Rathdrum, and most later children at the Castlemacadam parish closer to Rockstown. Three of their sons are named Joseph Williams, Richard Williams and Daniel Mills Williams.

https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CSJW-GD3T
No. 55584
1743 - This entry seems to be confused and alternates between a Joseph Mills and a Joseph Wills. I think the actual person may be Joseph Mills, carpenter of Rathdrum, and he is obtaining a property currently inhabited by John Wills the elder and his son John. There is indeed a John Wills, son of John, baptised in Rathdrum in 1708. Witnessing the article is Daniel Mills of Rathdrum, gentleman.

https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CSJM-Q6BQ
No. 99141
1744 - Mentions the original lease of Rockstown by the elder Thomas Williams from Rev. Thomas Whaley of County Meath in 1712 and tied to the lives of three people. The lease is now being renegotiated with the late Whaley's nephew Richard Chappell Whaley of Whaley Abbey in Wicklow. In place of William Williams and Sarah Williams (his wife?) who have apparently died somehow, Thomas Williams and his wife Sarah Mills are added to the deed along with the existing name George Williams.
Witnesses to the memorial are Richard Lambert, gentleman, and Daniel Mills, apothecary, both of Rathdrum.

https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CSNH-WGT1
No. 93415
1749 - Some organising of funds between Thomas Williams of Rockstown, farmer, and George Williams of Dublin, chandler. Presumably the two brothers. Subserving witnesses to the deed are Daniel Mills and Richard Mills, both listed as farmers of Rathdrum.

https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CSH3-97F8
No. 188713
1768 - Some sublease agreements or somesuch of Rockstown between Thomas Williams and Hugh Byrne and widow Elinor Byrne. A Richard Mills of "Longhouse" in Wicklow is mentioned as a witness.

https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CSNH-496P-C
No. 212937
1777 - More lease arrangements regarding Rockstown between Thomas and Sarah Williams and their eldest son Daniel Mills Williams. Also mentioned is Thomas King of Ballynaclash (Ballinaclash), I believe the one who later willed his estate to Daniel Mills MD, son of the apothecary Daniel Mills.

https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CSH3-33BH-2
No. 379104
1803 - Thomas Williams and his wife Margaret Edge, Thomas being the eldest son of the now late Daniel Mills Williams. Thomas King mentioned again.

https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CS54-33S3-G
No. 422309
1809 - Thomas Williams of Rockstown. Mentions Thomas King of Kingston along with a Daniel Williams and Daniel Mills Williams. The latter two probably Thomas' brother and son, respectively.

Hi, My 4 times great grandmother Grace Mills born 1762 in Rathdrum and was the daughter of Dr Daniel and Elinor (nee Coggin) Mills. Daniel's parents were Richard and Elizabeth. I have not gone back further. Grace's uncles and aunts include Elizabeth Mills, Martha Mills,Jane Mills, Susannah Mills, Richard Mills and John Scott Mills. Grace's siblings born from 1760 to 1780 incl Elizabeth, Elenor, Frances, Mary, Daniel also a doctor who inherited the property "Kingston" in Rathdrum on condition he change his name to King, John, Maria,Ester,and Mary. Grace Mills married Revd William Lynar Fawcett, son of James Fawcett and Hannah Lynar. James was a builder and property owner with land in Dublin and a farm up the road from "Kingston" called "Avon Hill". He was also a church warden at the Rathdrum church (established church). Well done on your research.

Thanks, that's some interesting information you found! Was that the Daniel Mill who was, I think, an apothecary? Died 1779, born maybe around 1693? I was doing a little bit of research a while back on him but I didn't get too far. I know he married an Eleanor Coggin/Goggin, but I couldn't figure out if he had a previous wife Elizabeth and a daughter Sarah Mills baptised much earlier around 1720. With a few assumptions, I think this was the Sarah Mills that married a Thomas Williams and they were apparently living around the Rockstown townlands near Rathdrum. Their first child was named Daniel Mills Williams. Daniel Mills Williams married an Elizabeth and they had a daughter Elizabeth Williams. This Elizabeth Williams married a James Williams, also from Rathdrum and they moved to "Streamstown" at Newtownmountkennedy. One of their children was Thomas Williams, my 3rd-great grandfather who moved to Tasmania.

As I said though, a lot of assumptions that far back, but if the baptism/marriage/address trail is right, that would make Daniel Mills my... 7th-great grandfather? The reason I tried to figure it out in the first place is because among Thomas Williams' siblings, uncles, aunts, etc. is that recurring name of Daniel Mills Williams. I've counted at least five Daniel Mills Williams so far, and probably a sixth in Canada.

I hope I'm okay reply to this thread a decade later since it's the exact topic I'm curious about.

It's a long shot if anyone knows anything, but I'm trying to find more information on my 3rd-great grandfather William Mills, now that I've finally confirmed he is who I thought he was. He was tried in Wexford around February 1843 for theft from his employer and sentenced to 7 years transportation to Tasmania aboard the "Orator". Before the journey he was imprisoned in Kilmainham and was apparently only 15. He died in Hobart in 1893 and later in life his reported age bounces all over the place, either due to uncertainly, carelessness or attempting to hide his criminal past as some did. His early records around imprisonment and transport were fairly consistent, putting him as being born around late 1827 or so. The convict indent says his native place is Wicklow, and I believe from news articles he was arrested wandering around Newtown Mount Kennedy.

He was Protestant originally but he became Catholic in Tasmania and married twice; his first wife my 3rd-great grandmother was Catherine Dunn who died young, and his second wife was Mary Healey/Haley. The children he had with Catherine were four boys, in order of birth Edward, John, William and Walter. John was Catherine's father's name, so I'm inclined to think William's father's name was probably Edward. Also according to the indent William lists no parents but does list siblings: one brother John and four sisters Mary, Ann, Emma Maria and Betty. Emma and Maria are underlined together, so without commas I'm assuming that's a single name.

So why Rathdrum specifically?
For a start there seemed to be quite a few Mills protestants there, or at least where there's surviving records.
Additionally, William's eldest son Edward (my 2nd-g grandfather) married Charlotte Williams, a Tasmanian-born daughter of Thomas and Mary Williams (nee Williams). Thomas and Mary were also from Wicklow and migrated to Tasmania in 1854. Thomas Williams was the son of a James and Elizabeth (nee Williams) and was from somewhere called Streamstown at Newtown Mount Kennedy, being baptised at Newcastle parish in 1808. Mary Williams was the daughter of a Richard and Catherine (nee ) from around the Stump of the Castle townland near Rathdrum where she was baptised in 1813. I think Mary's family maybe moved to the Glenealy parish which was where a younger brother was baptised and Thomas and Mary were married in 1839, the couple then living at Streamstown at NMK until they migrated. It all seems an awful coincidence that William Mills wouldn't have known this family in Wicklow but knew them while living in separate towns in Tasmania.

As a slight aside, Mary's sister Jane Williams married a James Campbell (occupation "police" or "police pensioner" is all I know about this man) in Glenealy in 1832. Jane and her husband had at least three children baptised in Rathdrum: Samuel, Richard and Catherine. For reasons as yet unknown to me, one of Thomas and Mary's daughters Mary-Jane, born at NMK in 1849, did not travel with her parents to Tasmania. Mary-Jane instead arrived in Tasmania 12 years later in early 1866 with her apparently now widowed Aunt Jane. Another girl of the same age was travelling with them, Kate Reeves, I believe probably the daughter of a baker from Rathdrum named Hercules Reeves. I highly suspect Jane's daughter Catherine Campbell was the Catherine Campbell that married Thomas and Mary's son James Williams, her cousin. The age is right, and Jane stuck to the same town in Tasmania as her nephew James and his wife until she died in 1899.


If anyone has any clues about these particular Mills and Williams Protestants of Wicklow, or even just what Streamstown was at Newtown Mount Kennedy (a farm name?), I'd certainly be grateful to hear it.