Peter Mills (1598–1670)
Peter Mills was baptised on 12 February 1597/8 in East Dean, Sussex, where his father was a tailor. In 1613 he was apprenticed to John Williams, a tyler and bricklayer in London. In 1643 he became Bricklayer to the City of London and was Master of the Tylers' and Bricklayers' Company in 1649-50 and 1659-60.
In about 1640 he probably designed a row of houses on the south side of Great Queen Street, London, decorated with Corinthian pilasters.
In 1653 he designed Thorpe Hall near Peterborough for Oliver St John, Oliver Cromwell's Lord Chief Justice.
He probably designed the Hitcham Building in 1659-61 at Pembroke College, Cambridge. In 1661 he helped design triumphal arches in London for the coronation of King Charles II.
In 1661 -63 he remodelled the Cross Wing at Cobham Hall, Kent, for the third Duke of Richmond. It is probable that he designed certain works at Forde Abbey, Dorset for Sir Edmund Prideaux in about 1650. Sir Edmund Prideaux became Attorney General for Oliver Cromwell and was MP for Lyme Regis and the founder of the British Postal Service.
After the Great Fire of London of 1666 Mills was appointed as one of the four surveyors to rebuild London.
