The family name in the waterfront record
The Milgate surname appears in photographs, interviews and histories of West Mersea's boats and oyster grounds. An early twentieth-century photograph identifies Zebedee Milgate with his son John and Len Stoker among a group of oystermen. Those identifications provide named evidence of a family at work, but do not establish the full relationships between every later Milgate found in the records.
Johnny Milgate's earlier life
Johnny Milgate, born in The Lane in 1890, recalled West Mersea schooldays, employment on yachts and sailing barges and First World War naval service. His two 1983 interviews were made when he was 93. He later worked for the council and became known for his gardening.
John Milgate and wooden-boatbuilding
A different John Milgate was born in Smugglers Way and apprenticed at Wyatt's yard after the Second World War. He worked for the River Police in London, returned to Mersea and became an independent shipwright. His restoration projects included PURITAN and BOY GEORGE.
The Milgate duck punt
In retirement the shipwright studied Wyatt's 1919 punt and created a lighter plywood design, later described in Small Boats Monthly in 2016. The plans used three 10 mm plywood sheets and eliminated a centreboard and rudder. The boat and its construction are described in the John Milgate biography.
Families living and working close together
Other waterfront family accounts include the Hewes, Green, Stoker and Mole names. Connections appear in marriage records and photographs, but the surname alone is not enough to turn those accounts into a single proved family tree. The Green family history provides one separate branch of that network.