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Name
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Mills, William
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Date of birth
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1848
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Location
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Ablington
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Notes
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Birth / baptism
Gloucestershire, Northleach, 1848, Oct, Nov, Dec, Vol. 11, p. 365, William Thomas Mills;
Chedworth, Gloucestershire, 14 December, 1848 [AB];
Marriage
Gloucestershire, Northleach, 1873, Oct, Nov, Dec, Vol. 6a, p. 787, William Thomas B. Mills probably married Mary Ann Habgood.
Death / burial
Gloucestershire, Northleach, 1920, Jan, Feb, Mar, Vol. 6a, p. 519, age, 71, William T. B. Mills died;
29 January, 1920 [AB]
Williams / others notes
Literate [AB]
Wilts and Gloucestershire Standard, 31/1/20 p.5 [Local news, Bibury]
DEATH OF MR WILLIAM MILLS
By the death of Mr William Mills, which took place on Monday last at the age of 72 years, the village of Bibury loses a popular and familiar figure who will be greatly missed. Mr Mills was a member of an old and well-known Cotswold farming family, being the oldest son of the late Mr William Mills, of Ablington. Unlike the other members, he had little taste for practical farming, but he was ardently devoted to all kinds of country sport, his knowledge being encyclopaedic, and his skill with the rod and gun phenomenal. In addition to his sack business for many years he acted as keeper on the Ablington Manor estate – a post to which he was appointed at his own request. In later years his sporting occupation was mainly confined to coaching and assisting the many anglers attracted during the fishing season to the famous Bibury water, there being few days when he was not so engaged, his services being eagerly sought after, for he could usually be relied on to land a brace or two of trout when nobody else could move a fish. Mr Mills figured as Tom Peregrine in Mr J. Arthur Gibbss book A Cotswold Village and some extracts relating to him will be found in Ramblers Chit-Chat notes.
My particular thanks to Dr. C J Bearman who researched a number of Gloucestershire singers as part of the Singing Landscape Project, 2008 - 2010 with whose kind permission this obituary is reproduced.
