He claims the family to be descended from Johannes de Malamanus, a Norman officer sent by William the Conqueror to quell Hereward's 1070 rebellion on the Isle of Ely.
[4] Johannes de Malamanus is depicted on the 1596 Tabula Eliensis alongside Otto the Benedictine, in the section of the painting that portrays the "forty knights and gentlemen who were quartered with the monks of Ely during the reign of William the Conqueror.
[6][7] It is not stated how the Chelsea, Devon, and Holderness branches of the family are connected, but the inheritance of Sir William's private chapel by the Milman Baronets is indicative of the link.
According to Le Neve's Pedigree of Knights, William Milman the elder worked as a shoemaker at the New Exchange in the Strand, but failed in business and later ran a coffeehouse.
"[15] His nieces, Elizabeth, Robella, Mary, and Diana, were bequeathed quarter-shares of Sir William's estate, on the condition they and their heirs retained the surname Milman.
The chapel, originally the private property of Thomas Moore, came into the ownership of Sir William Milman on his acquisition of Gorges House.
His tombstone, inscribed with his arms, reads: "Here Lyeth The Body of Sr WILLIAM MILMAN Kr Barister at Law of the Inner Temple LONDON who Died at his House in CHELSEA Febry ye 3d in the 64th Year of his Age Annoque Dom 1713.
"[22] Le Neve finishes by quoting the assassins of Maximinus I and his children; "canis pessimi ne catulum esse relinquendum," that no child be left alive to a heretic parent.
[23] "Arms: Azure, 3 sinister gauntlets argent (Milman), impaling sable, a cheveron between 3 boys' heads with adders about their necks (Vaughan).