in Australia
About me
I'm Thomas A. Mylne, a great-great grandson of Thomas Mylne, fifth Mylne of Mylnefield (see below). Like almost all members of my family from my grandfather down, I was born and raised in Australia. I have worked in the fields of civil engineering, public administration, linguistics and university education, and for recreation I have read, among other things, European history.
I am now retired, and having developed an interest in the history of the Mylnefield Mylne family, I now take pleasure in applying the research skills I learnt during my academic life to the study of my family.
About the Mylnefield Mylnes (very briefly)
In 1649, Alexander Mylne was admitted as minister of the parish of Longforgan, some ten kilometres west of Dundee, Scotland. A few years later Alexander purchased the estates of Pilmore and Muirton, both located in his parish, and became known as Alexander of Muirton. Alexander’s son Alexander inherited these estates in 1666, but he died in 1670 and the estates passed to Alexander’s next surviving son, Thomas. For the next eighteen years or so, Thomas was known as Thomas Mylne of Muirton.
In 1688, Thomas bought the estate and quarry of Kingoody and he declared that from that time his combined estates would be known as Mylnefield. With what appears to us to be a lack of originality, but following good Scottish tradition, Thomas’s successors at Mylnefield were James (second), Thomas (third), James (fourth), Thomas (fifth) and James (sixth and last Mylne of Mylnefield).
Thomas Mylne fifth of Mylnefield (1785– 1836) and his wife Elizabeth Guthrie had ten children, all born in Scotland. Eight of their children survived to adulthood, and of these eight, none died in Scotland. John, Tom, Anne and Elizabeth died in a shipwreck off Sydney, Australia; James died aboard ship near Malta; William died in England; Charles died in India, and Graham, the youngest and my great-grandfather, died in Australia.
Thomas was effectively the last Scottish Mylne of Mylnefield. He is survived today only by the Australian descendants of his youngest son Graham Douglas Mylne of Eatonswill (1834–1876). Graham Douglas in turn is survived by descendants of his daughter Ethel Ogilvie and his son Graham Ernest Mylne of Lota (1866–1958).