| Notes |
- Commanded a British regiment during the Am Rev War. The Colonel was captured at Eutaw Springs and held a prisoner until after the battle of Cowpens. Ambrose and his son, William were both officers in the British Army. William was a major in his father's regiment. He says that he related to the maternal side of the Stanley Derby family of England. Pg. 3,of the book:"Mills, Forrester & Stokes, Primarily of Greenville County, South Carolina", says that he was hung after being captured at the battle of King's Mountain. He was supposed to have been hung at Robertson's Creek, about nine miles NE of Rutherfordton, North Carolina. This should be near a place called Biggerstaff or Bicckerstaff's Old Fields, since known as Red Chimneys.
Notes for AMBROSE MILLS:
Ambrose Mills, Colonel, was born about 1722 in Derbyshire, England, and died 14 September 1780 in Bur. Biggerstaff's Farm, Forrest City, Rutherford Co., NC. He married first Morning Stone in James City, Williamsburg, Va., daughter of Thomas Stone. She was born 1724 in James City, Williamsburg, Va., and died 1755 in Bur. Pine Tree Hill, Camden, S.C. He married second Ann Brown in Chester, S.C. She was born in Chester, S.C., and died June 1805 in Rutherford/Polk Co., NC. Ann/e is thought to be the sister of Thomas Fletchall's wife, Leah. Albert Gallatin Brown, governor of Mississippi from 1844-1848, representative from 1848-1852 and Senator from 1852 to 1861 (when he withdrew from the U.S. Senate with Jefferson Davis) is said to be of this family of Browns. Thomas Brown/e a SC Loyalist is also said to be related to Ann and Leah Brown (see notes on Ann/e Brown).
Note that Earl Peeler's information says that Morning Stone was the daughter of Thomas Stone and Alexander Brown. Is this just a typo, or could Alexander Brown be Anne's father? Check to see if there was an Alexander Brown in Chester Co., SC.
>From Earl Peeler's genealogy:
"Kings Mountain and Its Heroes," Lyman C. Draper, 1881, no 5 pg. 481, "Of the Loyalist leaders but little can be gleaned from history of tradition. Colonel Ambrose Mills, among the unfortuantes who were executed at Bickerstaff's, was born in England about 1722 and taken while yet young to Maryland.
"He married Mis Mourning Stone, settling on the James River, and finally removing to the frontiers of South Carolina, where his wife was killed by Indians, during the Indian war of 1755-61, leaving only a son, William.
"He afterwards married Miss Anne Brown of the Chester region, sister of the wife of the noted Loyalist leader Colonel Thomas Fletchall; and, about 1765 settled on Green River in Rutherford Co., North Carolina. By this second marriage had three sons and three daughters." (NOTE: William Twitty lived on the main branch of the Broad River. The Broad River intersects the Green River in the far southwestern tip of Rutherford Co.; they run together a short while with the Broad River branching off yet again. Runs along State Highway 1115 perhaps)
"In 1776, he served against the Cherokee Indians.
"In 1778, Colonel Mills and the notorious David Fanning raised a corps of five hudnred men with the design of joining the Royal standard at St. Augustine, when one of the party betrayed their plans. Mills and sixteen others were apprehended, and Conveyed to Salisbury jail; Fanning undertaking to rescuse him on the way, but his force proved too weak to effect the purpose. Mills was, in course of time, liberated; joined Ferguson with the Loyal militia of his regions, fought at Earle's Ford and King's Mountain; and, as viewed a century after the occurrence, he was too severely dealt with at Bickerstaffs. His descendents are among the ablest and best citizens in the south and southwest. "
The British account of the base treatment of these prisoners of war was published Dec. 27, 1780 in Charleston, in Scot's Magazine Jan. 1781. To wit: "A gentleman lately come to town has favored us with an account of the base treatment of the unfortuante officers and men who were surrendered prisoners of war, last October to the Rebel Colonel Campbell, in the action of King's Mountain. A small party fo the British militia returning from foraging, unacquainted with the surrender, happening to fire on the Rebels, the prisoners were immediately threatened with death if the firing should be repeated The morning after the action, the prisoners were marched sixteen miles; previous to their march, orders were given by Campbell, should they be attacked, to fire on and destroy every prisoner. The party kept marching for two days without any kind of provisions. On the third day's march all the baggage of the officers was seized and shared among the rebel officers. A few days after, a mock court-marital sat for the trial fo the militia prisoners; when, after a short hearing, thirty gentlemen, some of the most respectable characters of the country, had the sentence of death passed on them; and at six o'clock the same day they began to executie. Colonel Ambrose Mills and Capt. Chitwood of North Carolina, Captain Wilson of Ninety Six, S.C., and six privates were first executed. The British officers were compelled to attend the execution of their brave but unfortunate men; who with manly firmness avowed their loyalty in their last moments, and with their last breath expressed their unutterable detestation for the Rebels, and their base and infamous proceedings. The remaining twenty-one were reprieved for a time."
(Event took place was on Robertson's Creek, 9 miles northeast of Rutherfordton, NC. Biggerstaff's Old Fields known as the Red Chimneys.]
Ambrose Mills captured during Battle of Kings Mounton on Oct. 7, 1780.
Legend says that Martha Biggerstaff and a slave buried the nine men in a common grave. Charles Chitwood's body was exhumed later by his family and buried in the Biggerstaff family cemetery.
Mills Spring in Polk Co., NC, named for Ambrose Mills. According to family legend, "Mills likely sentenced himself to hanging years before the Revolution broke out. Mills turned Capt. Benjamin Merrill of the Rowan County Militia over to Gov. Tryon for his part in the 'War of the Regulators' tax revolt. Tyron had Merrill hanged and drawn and quartered. His head was placed on a pole outside Tryon's palace. Benjmain Merrill was William Merrill's brother, and was one of the men who hung Mills. Four months later, Merrill, a Patriot, was dragged from his Rowan County home by Tory nightriders and taken back to the hanging tree. Mills son William, who had been left for dead on top of Kings Mountain, swung him off."
"Colonel Mills was hung 6 p.m. Saturday 14 Oct. 1780
>From Abstracts of Lincoln, Tyron and Rutherford Counties, North Carolina, 1769-1786, Tryon Co. Willis and Estates (abstracted by Brent Holcomb, 1977)
pg. 680: 1 Dec 1770, THOMAS REYNOLDS of Tryon Co. to AMBROSE MILLS of same for 100 pounds proc. money ... land on both sides Green River including the mouth of Walnut Creek by the upper end of a small Island above the mouth of the creek, 640 A granted 25 Sept. 1760 ... Thomas Reynolds (+) (SEAL) Wit: William Mills, Mose MOORe, HENRY REYNOLDS. Rec. Jan term 1773.
pg. 182 27 Sept 1783 William MILLS of Rutherford Co. to William TWITTY of same for 200 pounds specia 150 A on north side of Green River, part of a tract conveyed to AMBROSE MILLS and falling to sd. William by heirship ... POWELS Cabin ... WILLIAM MILLS (SEAL) Wit: Ann MILLS, John MILLS.
>From Rutherford Co., NC., Abstract of Deeds 1773-1795, compiled/abstracted by Caroline Heath Davis, 1973:
G:213, No. 752, 30 June 1787 WILLIAM MILLS to Samuel McBryer for 100 pds. proc. money, 100 a. which formerly belonged to AMBROSE MILLS on Green River on N. side below mouth of Walnut Creek. THOMAS WADLINGTON, ROBT. YOUNG.
I:399, No. 945 7 April 1784 JOHN SCOOT to JAMES JEFFRY for 50 pds. tract of 50 a. on N. side of Green River on both sides of Walnut Creek adj. AMBROS MILLS.
J:42, No. 1036 23 Sept 1786 WILLIAM MILLS to John Young Sr. and Robert Young for 250 pds proc money, 200 a. Green River at mouth Walnut Creek above plantation where John Young now lives and run, up branch to AMBROSE MILL's line to John Scoot's new line. Rec. 13 July 1793.
>From Rutherford Co. NC Abstracts of Minutes Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions 1779-1786, compiled and edited Hedy Hughes Newton, 1974:
pg. 47: Wednesday Court met acco. to adjmt. ... Ord that Letters of Adm. issue to Ann Mills, widow of James Miller, on Estate of Amrose Mills, dec'd. She give bond with John Earle and William Gilbert security in the sum of one thousand specia.
pg. 162: William MILLS ack. a deed in open court to William TWITTY for 150 acres land. Ord. to be reg. [1, 2]
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1722 - 1780 (58 years)
[2] 