[19] Of these seven sons, Jedediah graduated at Yale College in 1722, and was a clergyman and theological author of considerable note. Pelatiah was a useful citizen, and an able attorney at law. John was the father of two clergymen. Peter had a numerous offspring, one of whom was the first minister of East Granby. Of two other and younger sons no record exists; of Return, a daughter, all that is told is the date of her death, 1689. Gideon, the seventh son, and the great grandfather of John Brown, the liberator, married Elizabeth Higley, a cousin of the first Governor Trumbull, of Lebanon. He was the minister at Old Simsbury about ten years previous to 1755; and, after living and preaching one or two years at West Simsbury, was installed in 1759, and died there in 1772. His character may be judged by the following interesting incident of his life:
At the time of his ministry in ‘West Simsbury, he lived two and a half miles from the meeting house, over a very hilly, cold, and uneven road, which would now be called a hard Sabbath-day's journey for a clergyman or a layman. This road he travelled weekly, and sometimes much oftener. One incident respecting the Rev. Gideon 3Mills is thought worthy of notice. He was habitually fond of sacred music, and would request others that could sing to join with him, and he retained his relish for singing even to his dying moments. He died of a cancer in the face, which kept him in great suffering for many of the last weeks of his life. He dwelt much on the sentiments expressed in the thirty-eighth psalm, (Watts,) ’ Amidst thy wrath remember love, ‘ &c.; also, the thirty-ninth--God of my life, look gently down.’ Just before he expired, he requested the friends in attendance to sing the thirty-eighth psalm- ‘Amidst thy wrath remember love,’ --and attempted to join with them, but when the fore part of the psalm was sung he expired; so that it was said by Mr. Hallock, on a certain occasion, that he died singing the thirty-eighth psalm.
