Thomas Myles, Sir

BIRTH: circa 1536 (Great Munden, Hertfordshire, England)

In the July 1957 and October 1958 issues of TAG, John Insley Coddington and Donald Lines Jacobus presented a proposed English origin for Richard Miles which they thought likely but not proven.

Relying on a printed marriage entry in W. P. W. Phillirnore’s Hertfordshire Marriages, Coddington and Jacobus suggest that Richard’ Miles’s grandfather was the Thomas “Mylles” who was married at Ardeley, co. Herts., on 2 December 1562 to Elizabeth “Eacre,” and they interpret her surname as a variant of Aker or Acre. They also note that Ardeley was a “marrying parish” and that its registers include many weddings of couples from neighboring communities. Their suspicions that something was wrong with Elizabeth’s surname should have been aroused, as neither Aker nor Eacre appear in the 1545 lay subsidy of Hertfordshire at Ardeley or elsewhere in the neighborhood. [%E2%80%9CSubsidy Rolls for Hertfordshire, Hundred of Cashio, 1545,” The Herts Genealogist and Antiquarv 1(1895).]

A photocopy of the original parish register of Ardeley reveals the names in the marriage entry to be clearly written as “Thomas Myles” and “Elizabeth Eaire,” an obvious variant of Eyre. [The original register is deposited at the Hertfordshire Record Office, Hertford.]

William Eyre is in the 1545 subsidy, [%E2%80%9CSubsidy Rolls,” Hefls Genealogist andAnuiquary l(1895):225, 2(1897):346.] and his 1559 will mentions a daughter Elizabeth, whose marriage naturally took place at Ardeley because it was her own parish, whether or not it was popular with marrying couples.3

MARRAIGE: 2 Dec 1562, Thomas Miles married Elizabeth Eyre, daughter of William Eyre and Margaret (?), 2 December 1562 in Ardeley, Herfordshire, England. Their children may have included: Richard Miles (1563 – 1628), Elizabeth Myles (1570 – ?), James Myles (1576 – ?), Joan Myles (1578 – ?), Emme Myles (1580 – ?), Ellen Myles (1582 – ?), Elizabeth Myles (1584 – ?), James Miles (1590 – ?); FAMILY: Elizabeth Eyre (b. circa 1540, d. 9 September 1628); CHILD: Richard Miles (b. circa 1567, d. 14 Oct 1628)