Colonel Ambrose Mills

 

Colonel Ambrose Mills

Born: 1722 Derbyshire, England
Died: October 14, 1780 at Biggerstaff Farm, Rutherford County, North Carolina

The Mills family legacy says that the family came from Derbyshire, England.  It is said that Col. Ambrose Mills’ maternal ancestors descended from the Stanley Derbys of England.  Tradition states Ambrose came to Maryland as a toddler with his father and grandfather.  It was also believed that Ambrose Mills had a brother, William, who returned to England after the Revolutionary War since he was also a Tory.

After his marriage in 1745 to Mourning Stone, Ambrose settled in Virginia and he farmed on the banks of the James River.  He moved the family to the area of Wateree, SC, in 1765.  There was a grant of land containing 600 acres to Ambrose Mills filed on Dec. 16, 1766, in Craven County, S.C., bounding "on the said river on Patrick McCommicks and Frances Laton ... one Pickett... Richard Ricklands."  While out with his son, William (you can read William's blog post here: https://dashbetweendates.blogspot.com/2020/12/major-william-mills.html), Ambrose’s wife, Mourning, and possibly other children were killed by Indians at Pine Tree Hill in Camden County, SC.  (I had written a blog post about Mourning Stone earlier which you can read via this link:  https://dashbetweendates.blogspot.com/2019/03/whats-in-name.html )

Ambrose later married Anne Brown of Chester, SC and together they had three sons and three daughters.  In 1770, he bought a tract of land containing 640 acres in Old Tryon County from Thomas Reynolds for 100 pounds which was on both sides of Green River, including the mouth of Walnut Creek.  Reynolds had bought the property in 1760 and there was a cabin on it called Powell's cabin.  Ambrose established a trading post and a sawmill by a spring.  It is said the basin was sculpted from solid rock and was known as Mills Spring.

The military services of Ambrose Mills during the Revolutionary War included actions against the Cherokee Indians in 1776, in ignorance of the alleged alliance between the Cherokees and the British, an ignorance which was shared with the loyalists, Colonel John Phillips  and Alexander Chesney.  In 1778, Ambrose Mills and Colonel David Fanning raised a corps of 500 loyalists for the purpose of joining the royal standard at St. Augustine in East Florida.  This scheme was frustrated by the treachery of a traitor in the camp betraying their plans to the enemy.  Colonel Mills and sixteen others were apprehended and taken to Salisbury jail.  On the way, David Fanning with characteristic courage endeavored to rescue his brother loyalist, but his small force was too weak to break through the American guard.  Later efforts secured the release of Ambrose Mills. 

One of the first engagements of Colonel Ambrose Mills after he was freed was the action at Baylis Earle's Ford on the North Pacolet River in North Carolina,  He surprised and attacked the American camp of Colonel Charles McDowell on the night of 15 July, 1780.  In this action the loyalists under Mills, and Major James Dunlap's party of seventy dragoons, killed Noah Hampton, son of Colonel Hampton, and wounded Colonel John Jones of Burke County, NC.  This attack was revenged later by Captain Edward Hampton's exploit in overtaking Dunlap's party and inflicting defeat. 

Col Ambrose Mills commanded Tory cavalry at the Battle of Kings Mountain on Oct. 7, 1780.  The Loyalists were severely defeated, but Mills survived the battle,  However, he and the other captured Tories were marched westward with the victorious over-the-mountain-men.  When the march reached the area of present day Rutherford Co, NC on Oct. 14, 1780 court marshals were held on Biggerstaff’s farm.  The American Patriots convicted 36 Loyalist prisoners. Some were testified against by Patriots who had previously fought alongside them and later changed sides.  Nine of the prisoners were hanged before Isaac Shelby brought an end to the proceedings. Ambrose Mills had the misfortune to be the second person tried.  The so-called court found that in addition to being a Tory who fought against Patriot forces, Mills had incited the Cherokee to attack the frontier Patriots of South Carolina.  (How ironic that Ambrose’s first wife was murdered by American Natives at their home in SC.)  Ambrose the first to be hung and was placed on a horse with a noose around his neck. William Merrill slapped the horse from under him.  Its is said that Ambrose's wife, Anne, was at the trial and sat all night in the rain as his body dangled from the tree.

The bodies were finally cut down by Mrs. Biggerstaff and an elderly man.   Eight of the nine persons hung were buried in a shallow trench some two feet deep dug by Mrs. Biggerstaff and a slave.  Family legend states that four months after Ambrose Mills had been hanged, a group of Tories dragged William Merrill from his home in Rowan County and took him back to the tree where Mills had been hanged.  It was there that Ambrose's son, William Mills,  “swung him off.”

In most instances, I would champion the victory at Kings Mountain for the Patriots and the hanging of our enemies, but when it is your 7^th great grand father who was among those who swung, the heart weeps a bit.

The Mills lineage is through the Edney line in my family:

Kate Edney (Raburn Anglin) (3rd great grandparents)

Calvin Edney (Lucinda Wilson)

Sarah Mills (Asa Edney)

William Mills, Maj (Eleanor Morris)

Ambrose Mills, Col (Mourning Stone )

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Special thanks and credit to:

~Lyman Draper:  King's Mountain and Its Heroes

 ~Elizabeth Shown Mills for her extensive research on the Mills family  https://www.historicpathways.com/download/MillsAmbroseResearchNotes.pdf :