THE MILLINER STORY
as related by Herbert Russell MILLINER in 1962 to his grandson, Nigel.

What I have been told... HANCOCK was the family name. They lived in Wiltshire. The father of our branch was very well-off. His son fell in love with a poor girl who was a MILLINER in her work (that is, a dresser of hats). His father objected and said if he married her he would cut him off. He defied his father and told him he would not only marry the girl, but would take a Deed Poll and adopt the despised occupation of the girl as his surname, which he did. Hence our name, “MILLINER”. He had a little money of his own and brought his family to Jamaica. He bought a property in Trelawney named Spring Garden. He remained here three years and settled them and returned to England with his daughters.

He divided Spring Garden into three parts, one to each son. My father’s father and mother died when he was six, leaving two sons and two daughters; my father and my uncle Tom. They were brought up by their uncle George, who was very unkind to them. He sent the two girls to MULLER’S ORPHANAGE in Bristol.

Of his daughters, one died leaving my father’s sister, HANNAH. She returned to Jamaica and was here some time before she returned to England, so I got to know her here. She returned to England and married. She had a daughter, MAY, who married HUGH MENEFY. She is still alive and lives at 64 SANDY PARK ROAD, BRISLINGTON, BRISTOL. She had a son, LIONEL, recently nearly killed in a motor accident.

The original (sic) MILLINER had several daughters; two in England, Mrs SCULL and Mrs CAFFREY. I think a couple went to Australia and we have several relations over there. Of his three sons, my grandfather and wife died very young. Eldest son, George, was a very versatile man; a parson, used to give medicine and an able agriculturalist. All of his children migrated to Colorado in the USA and one of his sons would be the senior member of the family. The youngest son, JOHN, was ALVA and Guy’s grandfather. He had also BESSIE (now Mrs BOLTON) living in London and Mrs CREEP, living in Canada. IDA, the oldest died. WINNIE, adopted by my parents, lives in Kingston.

The senior branch of the family, GEORGE’s children, after some time stopped writing and we have no trace of them, but they must be in the USA.

When old HANCOCK disowned his son he died without a Will and his considerable fortune was held in Chancery. Should it be recoverable it would go to the MILLINERs in the USA as they are the oldest branch.

Nigel’s notes on the above, written to Stephen GADD in 1999:

A. All early records show varying spellings of the name MILLINER and B M & D records have been signed with a cross. Therefore, the family was illiterate. The son of allegedly wealthy HANCOCK would not have forgotten how to write because he married beneath himself.

B. James Milliner married MARY BANKS in 1821 in Melksham. She was a Milliner by trade? Possible, as another BANKS in the same town certainly was, from the 1841 census.

C. In 1843 2,000,000 people were unemployed in the UK (3 persons per square mile). The Royal Emigration Company was created in order to encourage commercial and agricultural colonisation. £100 per man and wife was being provided, together with tools and equipment. In 1845 101 emigrants went from England to Jamaica. From a visit to Trowbridge last month I now know that 17 did this trip from Melksham alone in 1841.

D. There is no deed poll record of a HANCOCK changing his name to MILLINER at this time.

E. JAMES MILLINER was one of about eleven children born of SARAH MILLINER (1766—1844) and ISAAC MILLINER. He was baptised into the Baptist Church in Melksham in 1835 (the same year as his mother). In the parish minutes there is no mention of his departure for Jamaica, but, curiously, there is an 1845 record that his son, GEORGE, left for that island in 1845. If George was as resourceful as my Grandfather stated him to be, perhaps emigration was his idea and he instigated the move for the whole family. At that time George would have been about 23 years old.

There are other facts, which could be dismissed as circumstantial, but I will again pass those over at this stage. At this point I can offer no more than conjecture, but, for what it is worth, this is what I think is the outline of the story.

JAMES MILLINER was an illiterate teazle picker from Melksham in Wiltshire. He and his family were devout church-goers, but non-conformists. Part of the problem of research has been the scanty records kept by the Baptists.

The 1840s were a very difficult time for the country economica1 and for the Bristol area in particular. Innovations in the production of wool created job losses and hit the unskilled workers in particular. The exceptionally high level of unemployment caused great embarrassment for the Government, so the way out was to encourage emigration.
This was within a few years of the abolition of slavery so the ideal place to send manual workers, with the incentive to make good on their own land, was the West Indies. Although most families of the manual class had scarcely left their counties, let alone country, desperation drove many to seize this opportunity.

The MILLINERS Would have noted that several of their friends and acquaintances had made the trip in 1841 and may have received word back from Jamaica that they had been successful. George may have taken the initiative and persuaded his father and siblings to join him in the adventure.

After a few years JAMES decided to return to Melksham. The 1851 census records that he was living at 103 Old Broughton Road, Melksham, with his wife and two daughters. MARY M his wife, did not die until 1876 and ELLEN GADD was present at her death.

MARY ELLEN GADD, your great great grandmother, was born in 1855, maybe five years after James returned from Jamaica. James spent his last years with ELLEN and died in her home in 184. HAROLD GADD was the fourth child of ELLEN, born when she was 45 years old. Could it be that in his final years JAMES imagination became a little over-exercised and that his grand-daughter was understandably impressed. And would these tales of adventure, change of name, fortune in Chancery etc. not be passed on to young HAROLD? It so happens that I.K.BRUNELL was buying up land around the BOX area in the early 1840s to build his railway and there was a HANCOCK who died intestate at about that time, having owned land-in the area of BOX tunnel. Could old JAMES MILLINER have woven a plausible story around this, with the result that following generations of MILLINERS, GADDs and others have passed the tale on?

As I said, that part is all conjecture of my own. Certainly, my many aunts were unshakable in their belief of the old story and I believe that grandfather Milliner went so far as trying to find the Chancery records in the 1930s.