MILLES, THOMAS (1671–1740), bishop of Waterford, eldest son of Isaac Milles the elder [q. v.], was born at Barley, Hertfordshire, on 19 June 1671. He matriculated at Wadham College, Oxford, on 12 March 1689, was exhibitioner of the college in 1691–2, and graduated B.A. in 1692, M.A. in 1695, and B.D. in 1704.
Having been ordained by Bishop Hough, he became chaplain of Christ Church, Oxford, in 1694, and was from 1695 to 1707 vice-principal of St. Edmund Hall. According to Wood (Antiq. Oxon., ed. Gutch, vol. ii. pt. ii. p. 855) he was appointed regius professor of Greek in 1705; but Le Neve (Fasti Eccles. iii. 516) gives the date of his nomination as 8 Feb. 1706–7. In April 1707 he accompanied to Ireland as chaplain the new lord-lieutenant, Thomas Herbert, earl of Pembroke, and on 11 March 1708 was appointed bishop of Waterford and Lismore. He was consecrated in St. Patrick's, Dublin, on 18 April.
Milles's appointment was unpopular in Ireland. On 28 Feb. 1708 Archbishop King wrote to Swift: ‘You will not expect from me any account of how it [the appointment] is relished here. Some say if General Laureston had been primate it would not have been so.’ On 7 Jan. 1720 Swift wrote to Dr. Charlet: ‘I do not wonder at the Bishop of Waterford appearing among the Sorbonne doctors. I do not hear that he showed his crucifix that he wears continually at his breast. He is one you sent us, and you must answer for him’ (Mant, History of the Irish Church, ii. 98).
Archbishop King, in a letter of 29 Dec. 1725, charged Milles with not only giving ‘all livings of value in his gift to brothers and relations, but likewise his vicar-generalship and registry, tho' none of them reside in the kingdom’ (ib. ii. 445, cf. art. Isaac Milles). As bishop, Milles is said to have taken great pains in restoring decayed churches and to have contributed liberally from his own purse to the work.
After an episcopate of more than forty years he died of the stone at Waterford on 13 May 1740, and was buried in the cathedral. He was unmarried, and left his property to his nephew Jeremiah [q. v.], afterwards dean of Exeter.
Milles was a man of considerable learning. In 1703 he published while at Oxford a valuable folio edition of the works of St. Cyril of Jerusalem, with Greek and Latin notes; and in addition to some controversial tracts and sermons (see Harris's edition of Ware's History of Ireland) he was author of:
- ‘The Natural Immortality of the Soul asserted and proved from Scripture and the first Fathers, in answer to Mr. Dodwell,’ Oxford, 1707, 8vo; 2nd ed. 1726.
- ‘De Officio eorum qui de Fide certant; concio coram Acad. Oxon.’ 1707, 4to.
An ‘Account of the Life and Conversation of Isaac Milles of Highcleer [his father],’ London, 1721, 8vo, is also attributed to him (Halkett and Laing, Dict. of Anonymous and Pseudon. Lit. col. 22).
[The Life of Isaac Milles is the only authority which states accurately Thomas Milles's parentage. Besides the works mentioned above, see Cotton's Fasti Eccles. Hibern. i. 13, 14, v. 20; Foster's Alumni Oxon. 1500–1714; Chalmers's Biog. Dict. art. ‘Jeremiah Milles;’ Gent. Mag. 1740, p. 262; Brit. Mus. Cat.]
MILLHOUSE, ROBERT (1788–1839), weaver and poet, second son of John and Mary Millhouse, was born on 14 (or 17?) Oct. 1788, at Nottingham. His only education was obtained at a Sunday-school. At the age of ten he worked at a stocking-loom and sang in the choir of St. Peter's Church. During 1804 he read with his elder brother John much poetry, including the works of Shakespeare, Milton, Pope, and Gray. In 1810, at the age of twenty-two, he joined the Nottinghamshire militia, and it was while with his regiment at Plymouth that his first verses were written and sent to the ‘Nottingham Review.’ When the regiment was disbanded in 1814, Millhouse resumed his weaving, employing his leisure in writing verses. His poems attracted favourable notice (vide Appendix to Songs of the Patriot), and he found friends who in 1822 obtained for him a grant from the Royal Literary Fund. Ten years afterwards he became assistant at a savings bank, and was thus able to devote more of his time to literary pursuits. His friends Thomas Wakefield, Colonel Gardiner, and Mrs. Howitt Watts, daughter of William and Mary Howitt, were of great assistance in his later years, and among those who helped him in his last illness was Ebenezer Elliott. He died on 13 April 1839, and was buried on the eastern side of the Nottingham cemetery, some lines being inscribed on the tomb a few years later by his friend Dr. Spencer T. Hall
