Mill Field
Place research page generated from the structured place spine and the companion place markdown.
An open-field division of early Weymouth in which John Gurney Sr. (G13) held a four-acre grant recorded in Nash's 1643 property list as 'first giuen to John Gurnie' under the land of Thomas Richardes, bounded east by Nicholas Norton, west by Richard Rawlings, north by John Giles, south by William Brandon of Ashton Clinton, Buckinghamshire (Nash, Historical Sketch of Weymouth, Appendix C, p. 278). The Mill Field lay in East Weymouth near Whitman's Pond and the early mills (the Bates Mill of 1640) and Mill River: a parallel grant to Matthew Pratt is described as 'in the mill field, now east of Weymouth' and 'on the west side of Mill River,' and another Mill Field lot is 'bounded on the East and South with Hingham Line.' The parcel's exact bounds are not established from sources to hand.
Linked ancestors
- G13 John Gurney Probable landholding / property reference
Research notes
What we know. John Gurney Sr. held a four-acre grant “in the mill field,” recorded in Nash’s 1643 property list under “the land of Thomas Richardes” as “first giuen to John Gurnie,” bounded east by Nicholas Norton’s land, west by Richard Rawlings, north by John Giles, south by William Brandon (Nash, Historical Sketch of Weymouth, Appendix C, p. 278). The landholder Thomas Richards married his daughter to Ephraim Hunt of the Lee/Wendover Buckinghamshire group, and the south abutter William Brandon came from Ashton Clinton, Bucks — placing this parcel within the Aylesbury-Vale settler cluster analysed in research/topics/g13-john-gurney-immigration-by-association.md. The Mill Field lay in East Weymouth near Whitman’s Pond and the early mills (the Bates Mill of 1640) on Mill River, abutting the Hingham town line. A parallel grant to Matthew Pratt is described as “twenty acres … in the mill field,” now “east of Weymouth,” with eighteen acres “on the west side of Mill River”; another Mill Field lot is “bounded on the East and South with Hingham Line,” confirming the field’s position against the Hingham boundary.
What we don’t. Which mill the field abutted and the parcel’s exact bounds are not established from sources to hand; the grant was “subsequently granted to others.” The coordinate is a low-precision placement in the East Weymouth mill area near the Hingham line. Locating it would require the Weymouth proprietors’ land-grant book entries. Tracked as a research lead.
See the John Gurney (G13) companion, the printed extracts in nash-…-gurney-extracts.md, and the manuscript read in weymouth-land-grants-book-1643-gurney-manuscript-extracts.md (film 007009659, ms p. 31; Source ID weymouth-land-grants-book-ms). Related place: East Field.