Abraham Mills (geologist)
Abraham Mills | |
|---|---|
| Born | c. 1750 Near Exeter, Devon, England |
| Died | March 2, 1828 (aged 78) Bodlendeb, Caernarvonshire, Wales |
| Occupation(s) | Geologist, mining manager, banker |
| Years active | 1783–1828 |
| Known for | Management of Roe & Co. mining operations; contributions to geology and mineralogy; discovery reports of gold in Ireland |
Abraham Mills (circa 1750 – 2 March 1828) was a British geologist and manager within the mining industry.
Life
Mills spent his early years close to Exeter in Devon. By 1783, he had secured a lease on land at Gerston near West Alvington, while his brother Henry operated as a timber merchant in Rotherhithe. William Roe appointed Mills to oversee the Macclesfield operations of Roe & Co., a British copper smelting enterprise.
Following Roe & Co.'s loss of its copper mining lease on Anglesey in 1785, the company took over abandoned copper mines in County Wicklow, Ireland. Beginning in 1787, Mills managed the Cronebane copper mines alongside Thomas Weaver the elder. The Associated Irish Mining Company maintained operations there until 1816. Upon the local discovery of gold in 1795, Mills and Weaver reported their findings to government authorities; Mills and John Lloyd also produced scientific articles concerning this discovery. During the Irish Rebellion of 1798, Mills held the rank of militia captain with the Cronebane Infantry. In November 1798, ownership of the mines shifted to a partnership between Mills and Thomas Weaver the younger.
Mills was instrumental in relocating Roe & Co.'s smelting facility from Toxteth to a new location along the River Neath in South Wales, negotiating interim arrangements for leased land from George Rice, 3rd Baron Dynevor.
In 1799, Mills provided testimony before a House of Commons committee investigating the copper industry. That same year saw the closure of Hawkins & Mills bank—the earliest banking institution in Macclesfield—founded by Mills and Edward Hawkins in 1787; however, Mills did not participate actively in its management.
As a Fellow of the Royal Society, Mills contributed to the Chemistry and Mineralogy Committee of the Dublin Society. From 1810 onward, he voiced concerns regarding Roe & Co.'s viability; ultimately, the company was dissolved around 1817. Subsequently, he held a post within Dublin's Ordnance Department. Mills passed away at Bodlendeb, Caernarvonshire, on 2 March 1828 at age 78. He fathered one daughter, Mary Anne, who wed Thomas Legh of Macclesfield in 1792. After his death, his personal library was sold at auction in August 1828.
Geological works
In 1789, Mills engaged in correspondence with Richard Kirwan to address inaccuracies in a paper about English coal mines, referencing specifically the Blakelow pit near Macclesfield. Kirwan arranged for Mills's letter to be presented to the Royal Irish Academy. A visit to Islay, where Roe & Co. had recently closed a mine, inspired Mills’s 1790 article in the New Annual Register entitled Observations on the Whyn Dykes of Ilay. In this work, he argued for a volcanic origin of local quartz-dolerite formations referred to as "whin dykes." After receiving criticism from John Lloyd, Mills published On the Strata and Volcanic Appearances in the North of Ireland and Western Islands of Scotland (1790), advocating for igneous processes within ongoing geological discussions. This publication influenced James Hutton's Theory of the Earth.
Among his other works is:
- A mineralogical account of the native gold lately discovered in Ireland (1796)
Death Announcement
Evening Mail 12 March 1828 – Deaths: On Sunday, 2nd instant, at Bodlendeb near Conway, Caernarvonshire, Abraham Mills Esq., F.R.S., formerly an officer with His Majesty's Ordnance department, passed away in his seventy-ninth year; he was deeply mourned by family and acquaintances. Dublin.
His interment took place on 8 March 1828 at Conway, Caernarvonshire, Wales.
See also
References
- Timothy Alborn, An Irish El Dorado: Recovering Gold in County Wicklow, Journal of British Studies, Vol. 50, No. 2 (April 2011), pp. 359–380. Published by The University of Chicago Press for The North American Conference on British Studies. Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/658187. PDF.
- Dorothy Bentley Smith, A Georgian Gent & Co.: the life and times of Charles Roe, 2005, Landmark Publishing, ISBN 978-1843061755