William Millikan Sr.

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William Millikan Sr. Grave Marker

William Millikan Sr. was born April 6, 1720 (This birth date is used by many researchers and the year 1720 was accepted by DAR as is his death year 1804).  William was born in Dromore, Down, Ireland, the son of Samuel Millikan also born in Ireland in 1694. 

William married Jane White in 1740. The 1907 book “History of the Families Millingas” mentions that Jane White Millikan was more than likely the daughter of Alexander White of Chester County, Pennsylvania. This marriage produced 10 children.  After the death of his first wife William married Hannah Rowan on June 19, 1759.  It is believed that Jane is the mother of all his children.   

Children of William and Jane:

6 A High Point Enterprise
August 7, 1976

Abigail Millikan (Frazier) 1741-1806

Samuel Millikan 1742-1817 

Sarah Millikan (Mills) 1743-1826

David Millikan 1745-

Mary Millikan (Brattain) 1747-1814 

Martha Millikan (Frazier) 1748-1837 

William Millikan, Jr. 1753-1838 

Benjamin Millikan 1755-1842

Hannah Millikan (Blair) 1756-1852 

Alexander Millikan 1757-1830

William served Randolph County, North Carolina (formed from Rowan in 1779), as a Justice, a Register of Deeds, and Clerk of Courts. Based on his status as a Justice of the Peace, Clerk of the Courts and Registrar of Deeds, William Millikan Sr. and his descendants have been granted membership in the Daughters of the American Revolution. William Sr. is Ancestor #A079802 and there is a long list of descendants with corresponding membership numbers.

William is often referred to as a Quaker.  Quaker Meeting records of his children in North Carolina indicate they were birthright Quakers. The book called "Carolina Cradle" by Robert W. Ramsey states that many Quakers gave up their faith in order to run for county offices, as William would have had to do during the American Revolution while in office.

Being a Quaker, William Millikan was non-combatant during the American Revolution.  He was against fighting but was in favor of establishing the new country.  William and his family were intensely patriotic.  His sympathies made him an enemy to the English.  In 1782, William was living on Back Creek in Randolph County, near the Guilford County line. On March 10, a band of Tories came to his farm. Finding William absent, they burned his house to the ground. Still he, himself, was never caught. The story is given in the “Millingas History” as follows: "On Sunday, March 10, 1782, Col. David Fanning went to the house of William Millikan Esq. who lived on Back Creek, about two miles from Johnsonville, on the old cross road. As Millikan was away (it is said that he was driving his cows home) from home they burned his buildings and destroyed everything they could. While the house was on fire, Mrs. Jane Millikan carried out a favorite feather bed, but they carried it back and threw it on the fire. When the bed began to burn, they twisted a stick into the feathers and scattered them over the house. When the blazing feathers, as they flew in every direction through the room, caught in a bundle of yarn which was hanging on the wall, they taunted Mrs. Millikan and said: “Look at your yarn old woman.” When leaving Millikan's they compelled his son, Benjamin Millikin, to pilot them to the house of Col. John Collier. (Col. John Collier was Lieutenant of Randolph Militia, Sheriff, County Surveyor and a member of the Legislature).  Col. David Fanning came up after night. Collier was asleep, but before he lay down he put a young man out as sentinel on a pile of rails a few rods from the door. Col. David Fanning made Benjamin Millikan answer that they were friends.  Col. David Fanning took Benjamin Millikan and the young man out to hang them, and that while they were stringing the other up to the branch of a tree, Benjamin Millikan managed to escape. There are men now living (year 1903) who remember having seen the stump of the tree on which the young man was hung.

After the war William and his daughter Hannah Blair were pensioned by the government for their heroic acts of patriotism and on November 2, 1784 he acquired 400 acres on Back Creek.  William Millikan Sr. died intestate, and an inventory of his estate was reported in the December term 1793 of the Randolph County Court as follows:

Samuel Millikan, administrator of the estate of William Millikan deceased

Returns the Inventory Joined with the account of sales of said estate:

39 - 10.7 (Pounds) Amount of the Sales of personal Estate

60 - 5 Account of sundry notes on hand

106 - 11.8 Cash on hand

14 - 10 Book debts

220 - 7.3 (Pounds total)

5 - Notes on James Robbins for Indian corn amounting in the whole to two hundred bushels.

The fact that Samuel was termed "administrator" rather than "executor" tells us that William Millikan Sr. had no will. 

Monument at Springfield's Meeting House Cemetery High Point
Guilford County, North Carolina, USA Plot: Section 1, Row 10

Documents of William Millikan Sr. (Click on picture for more information)

Source: Biography written by Debbie West from a compilation of the following:

DAR application for William Millikan filed 1979 by Janice Lee Johnson Klaus

History of the Families Millingas and Millanges," by Rev. G. T. Ridlon, 1907
The Millikan/Hinrichs Connections by Ilona Hinrichs Stone

Ancestry.com - Family Data Collections, Millikan Websites