On 12 July 1770, at Old Bailey in London, England, John Millbank (no "s" on the end) was tried for robbery, and sentenced to death. The sentence was commuted to transportation for life, and he was brought to America on the ship Scarsdale. He may have been auctioned off as an indentured servant.
On 10 April 1773, at about 16 years of age, Mary Barlow married John Millbank in Culpeper County, Virginia. Their first child was born 16 April 1774. Mary was confirmed in the German Evangelical Church (Hebron) on Easter of 1776 [shortly after Jacob Franck had come as pastor]. She was a communicant on Easter 1777. The next two children, Elizabeth and Charles, were also baptized in the church.
We have no positive proof that the two John Millbanks in these last two paragraphs were the same individual, but it seems very probable. There may be negative arguments against the two Johns being the same person, but Ellie Caroland of Georgetown, Kentucky, who researched this case, believes that the two John Millbanks are the same person. One of the points in favor of them being the same person is that Mary Millbank associated John with the sea. That is, she thought he was a sailor. In fact, she applied for a Revolutionary War pension on the basis that he was a sailor of the line, but no record of such service could be found. What is known is that three other men, who were tried in court with John Millbank, do have records as sailors, leading, with some probability, to John being a sailor also.
Christopher Barlow, in his will, mentions his daughter Mary Millbank, above. The Millbanks were the parents of Anna, who married Daniel Delph, on 9 Jan 1798. Daniel died early in life, and Anna took the children to Kentucky, where she lived with her father John Millbank. She had four sons, one of whom was John Millbank Delph, born 18 Aug 1805. This John was successively a carpenter, a manufacturer of bagging and rope, and a politician, including the office of Mayor of Louisville in 1850. He was mayor in 1860 during a turbulent period in the history of Louisville, and later he served one term as in the legislature.
This little bit of history shows that having a "convict" ancestor is not necessarily bad for the descendants. As with the Humes, John Millbank came to America with a stigma attached, but quickly shed it for a productive life here.
If you have an elusive ancestor, you might want to consult the book by Peter Wilson Coldham entitled "
English Convicts in Colonial America: Middlesex, 16171775
".
(07 May 01)
We gratefully acknowledge the work of John Blankenbaker who published over 2,500 Germanna History Notes via the Germanna-L@rootsweb.com email list from 1997 to 2008. We are equally thankful to George Durman (Sgt. George) for hosting the list and republishing the notes via rootsweb.com.