Note: As of December 2011, proof of birth/marriage/death dates has not been found by myself. This is mostly a collection of info from the internet.

Gilbert Mills was born 1670 in Derbyshire, England. Online trees show Gilberts birthday anytime between 1670 and 1695. Some say born in Derbyshire, England and some say Augusta County Virginia. I can find no documentation either way.

Another discrepancy is in marriage information. Some sources say he was married once to Margaret Ashmore. Some sources also have him marrying an Agnes Alexander also.

Sources have Margaret born in Derbyshire, England or Wilkes County, Georgia about 1668 and Agnes Alexander about 1669 in Rappahannock County, Virginia. One source lists Gilbert and Margaret as being married on October 10, 1688 in Rappahannock, Virginia and other sources say in Derbyshire, England. She passed away before 1700 as it appears Gilbert remarried about 1700.

It was said that Gilbert received a 9000 acre land grant in the from King Charles II, in the “Carolinas including 40 miles from Wateree, South Carolina to what is now Buncombe County. He also received a grant of 500 acres.” These land grants were said to be given to men who were allies with King Charles II and it does appear that the Mills were loyalist. But again some discrepancy. There were eight men, Lord John Berkeley, Sir William Berkeley, Sir John Carteret, Sir John Collerton, Lord Anthony Ashley Cooper, Sir William Craven, Earl Edward Hyde, and Duke George Monck who obtained the original grants from Charles II in 1662-1663 before Gilbert was born in about 1670. But the history of the Tinkling church states that William Beverley (could this be William Berkeley??) settled the area being given a large land grant in 1736, so that would make it possible for Gilbert to have gotten one at the same time.

Gilbert was a planter and a member of the Tinkling Springs Presbyterian Church. The Scots-Irish Presbyterians came soon after William Berkeley and soon formed the Triple Forks of the Shenandoah Congregation and petitioned the Donegal Presbytery for the services of a minister. Two centers of worship developed - Tinkling Spring and Augusta Stone Meeting Houses, which were served by the same minister. Tinkling Spring Church was officially founded in 1740 in what is presently Fishersville, Virginia.. The first meeting house was a log cabin measuring twenty-four by fifty feet.

Gilbert died in Augusta County, Virginia between August 25, 1757 (when will signed) and November 16, 1757 when the will was probated. According to The Georgians: genealogies of pioneer settlers Gilbert’s descendants moved to Abbeville, South Carolina and then Wilkes, Washington, Pike Counties in Georgia.

Gilbert’s will only lists 3 legecees: Sons, William and Alexander and granddaughter Agnes Mills. The will speaks of trustees for Agnes so she was probably a minor.

References:
Virginia Land, Marriage, and Probate Records, 1639-1850
Chronicles of the Scotch-Irish settlement in Virginia Volume 3
The Georgians: genealogies of pioneer settlers by Jeannette Holland Austin
The ones who came before: a family history and memoirs: Volume 2
History of Tinkling Springs Presbyterian Church – internet
ancestry.com

Gilbert Mills Will