The name of Mendenhall is derived from a village, Milden Hall, pictured on the left, in Wiltshire, England. The village and the estates of Milden Hall are listed in the eleventh century Doomsday Book of William the Conqueror, and the name is therefore one of the most ancient. Marridge Hill, home of the Mildenhalls, as the name is spelt in England, is situated on a beautiful ridge which rises about 400 feet above a highway below, that runs between Aldbourne and Banbury, the two
nearest towns. Milden Hall village is a little further west, 4 miles past Ramsbury. The Hill has been farmed for thousands of years. Field systems there date from Roman times and barrows also exist dating to pre-Roman times. It has never had a church, so records of its inhabitants were found kept by the Ramsbury church. There are records of our "Minall" family dating back as far as 1381 in Ramsbury, but it's unclear whether they lived back then in the town or out at Marridge Hill. The land up on the ridge use to be owned mainly by the church, in the Middle Ages. They had a monastery there, and its ruins can be found buried today.

Ralph de Mildhale, mentioned in connection with a Parliament or General Assembly held by Henry III in 1267, appears to be the earliest Mildenhall. References of that name continue through the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, and it is presumed that the family, being partial to the ruling House of Lancaster, was dispossessed upon the accession of the House of York to the throne in the fifteenth century. There is however, a record of a John Mildenhall undertaking an embassy to the Great Mogul in 1599, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth.

There is some debate over whom is the progenitor of our line. Some favor Thomas Monall (1580-1638). Some favor Francis Mildenhall, born 1588. Out of loyalty to the original Foster researcher, Atchinson Morris "Uncle Jimmy" Foster, I have accepted Francis Mildenhall of Great Bedwin, Wiltshire, England for that honor.

One of these sired Thomas Mildenhall who married Joane Strode. His will can be found at Somerset House, Prerogative Court of Canterbury, Vol. 371, Cottle Vol. 3, 1682, folio 135 for Thomas Mildenhall. Made 17 November 1682, it is a typical statement of a yeoman farmer and landowner. He names his five sons, Thomas, John, Benjamin, Stephen and Moses and details the lands and provisions he has made for their living. His treatment of his three daughters is typical of the times:

"I give and bequeath to my DAU MARY £4 score one year decease. To DAU MARGERY wf of Thomas Martin of Bedwin Magna 40 shillings. To DAU JOANE wf of John Spier one shilling."

Mary is apparently unmarried at this time and is given an amount to sustain her for a year. Joane Spier either has a well-to-do husband or was a disappointment to Thomas as he left her the minimum amount to recognize her.

Benjamin Mildenhall was just 20 when his father died. John, the second born, saw light on August 30, 1659. We know Thomas and Joane married in 1649 so we can make a rough guess as to the ages of the other children. In 1683, a year after Thomas Mildenhall's death, John, Benjamin and Moses, accompanyed by Mary still unmarried, imagrated to America and settled in what is now Concord Township, Delaware.

The earliest records of the family in America are from the session of the Chester County court on February 22, 1682-3, when John Mendenhall was named constable of Concord Township. In 1685 he married Elizabeth Maris, daughter of George Maris, of Springfield Township, and in the same year Mary Mendenhall married Nathaniel Newlin, who had arrived from Ireland in 1683. In 1686 Moses Mendenhall, a resident of Concord, Pennsylvania, purchased land from his brother, Benjamin. Moses, who does not appear to have been a Quaker, returned to England. The families of Benjamin Mendenhall, John Mendenhall and Nathaniel Newlin remained in Chester county, and descendants of all three remaining emigrants attended the wedding of Aaron, John's son, in 1715, in Chester.