Miles Oakley

Miles Oakley was possibly born on 15 July 1645 in Oakley Grove, Parish of Oakley, Salop, Shropshire, England. He was the son of John Oakley.¹

The information regarding Miles Oakley senior who was born in England and eventually resided in the Borough Town of Westchester, is confusing and contradictory.

The sources available to the compiler include:
     Martha Bockée Flint, The Bockée Family, 1897²
     Howard L. Jones, Early Westchester Families, 1953³
     May Cooper Burnham, Frances Holbert Westerman, 1953⁴
     Philip Field Horne, The Oakley Genealogy: The Westchester Branch, 1962⁵
     Grenville C. Mackenzie, Families of the Colonial Town of Philipsburgh, 1966⁶
     Norman Davis, Westchester Patriarchs, 1988⁷

All these sources except Davis refer to an inscription on the gravestone of a Miles Oakley in the churchyard of St. Peter's Church, Borough Town of Westchester, New York. Horne states Mrs. Hans Brunner of Trenton, New Jersey had a copy of the inscription . . . copied by Gilbert Willett and B. Ferris. According to Jones, the gravestone was gone by 1910. The most accurate transcription may be that given by Burnham:
Beneath this stone lies the Body of Miles Oakley who was born in Oakley Grove, in the Parish of Oakley, England, on the 15th of July, 1615, and died in the Borough of West Chester May 10, 1698. He was the first Mayor thereof.

Based on this inscription, Flint, Jones, and Burnham give 15 July 1615 as the birth date of Miles Oakley. Horne, however, assumes that Miles Oakley was actually born on 15 July 1645, and that part of the 4 in 1645 on the gravestone inscription had weathered away and appeared to be 1 when copied. Mackenzie repeats this birth date of 15 July 1645.

The location in England of Oakley Grove, mentioned on the gravestone, is uncertain. Flint claims the gravestone specified county Cumberland. Jones shows Miles senior as a member of the Oakley family in Salop (an old name for Shropshire).

For the death of Miles Oakley, Flint and Burnham give the date 10 May 1698 supposedly shown on the gravestone. However, Flint, Jones, and Mackenzie state that the widow Mary of a Miles Oakley was given letters of administration dated 3 November 1682, suggesting that her husband died earlier in 1682. To reconcile this fact with the date supposedly on the gravestone, Flint assumes Miles senior had a nephew Miles who died about 1682, and Burnham assumes Miles senior had a son Miles who died before 3 November 1682. On the other hand, Jones writes We can not assume that the Miles Oakley who died in 1682 was the son of a Miles Oakley who died in 1698, for there was only one Miles Oakley in that locality [the Borough Town of Westchester] until his son Miles came into the records, when they were distinguished as senior and junior. We must assume, therefore, that the tombstone had partially decomposed before the inscription was copied and that the year taken as 1698 was actually 1682. Horne and Mackenzie also give the year of death of Miles Oakley senior as 1682; Horne claims the gravestone inscription read "May, 1682."

Here is a summary of the dates assumed by these sources for the birth and death of Miles Oakley senior:
     Flint: 15 July 1615 - 10 May 1698
     Jones: 15 July 1615 - 10 May 1682
     Burnham: 15 July 1615 - 10 May 1698
     Horne: 15 July 1645 - 16 May 1682
     Mackenzie: 15 July 1645 - 1682
     Davis: ? - before 2 December 1686.

Miles Oakley immigrated to Boston, Massachusetts, in 1651 together with either his father John (according to Horne) or his brother John (according to Jones), and with his brother Thomas.^8,5

Miles Oakley married Mary Wilmot, daughter of John Wilmot and Bridget ____, in 1669 at Great Neck, Nassau County, New York.^9,5,6 Some say this was Miles's fourth marriage, although Jones¹ states this seems very doubtful. He became the first mayor of the Borough Town of Westchester (in an area that is now part of The Bronx, New York City) when it was organized in 1675.^10,4

Miles Oakley probably died in 1682 in the Borough Town of Westchester, New York.^11,10,6 He was buried in St. Peter's Episcopal Churchyard, the Borough Town of Westchester, New York.