Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 37.djvu/455

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379–81). According to the same authority, Millington frequently abused his position for his personal advantage. He would appear, however, to have retained the confidence of the town and corporation, as well as the garrison. Several sums of money, accompanied by votes of thanks, are recorded in the hall books of the borough about this time as having been paid to him for his services as burgess in parliament (Bailey, Annals of Nottinghamshire, ii. 708–9). In July 1644 he was sent by the committee of both kingdoms to Nottingham, with the view of composing the differences between the garrisons of the castle and town and between members of the committees there. He was made at the same time a member of the Nottingham committees and a member of the committee of both kingdoms at the leaguer before York (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1644, pp. 350, 368). Mrs. Hutchinson unsparingly denounces Millington's conduct at Nottingham. Colonel Hutchinson, it seems, was unpopular with a ‘faction,’ and to this faction Millington lent his countenance, professing all the while to be the colonel's staunch friend. The discontented committee-men ‘hired him with a subscription for losses, for which they gave him public credit double to what he really had lost,’ and they offered him a share of the governor's spoils if he would help to ‘make him a prey’ (Mrs. Hutchinson, ii. 9–76). Walker declares that Millington received in this manner, in March 1647–8, 2,000l. (Hist. of Independency, ed. 1661, pt. i. p. 81). Parliament showed appreciation of his services by voting him an allowance of 4l. a week from 3 June 1645 until 20 Aug. 1646 (Commons' Journals, iv. 161, 649). By November 1645 he was acting, without, it was said, much sense of justice, as clerk of the committee for plundered ministers (Cal. of Comm. for Compounding, passim; cf. Mystery of the Good Old Cause; Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1649–50 p. 373, 1654 p. 358). In July 1646 he was appointed one of the English commissioners for preserving the peace between England and Scotland (Thurloe, State Papers, i. 79). On the ensuing 5 Dec. he petitioned parliament to award him compensation for losses incurred during the civil war (Commons' Journals, v. 1). He was chosen one of the king's judges, attended every day of the trial, and signed the death-warrant (Nalson, Trial of Charles I, ed. 1684). During 1649 he acted as clerk to the parliamentary committee for the appointment of ministers (Addit. MS. 25302, f. 145). On 8 May 1651 parliament ordered that 1,700l. be allowed him; he was also offered the preemption of Ansley Woodhouse and Kirkby Woodhouse, Nottinghamshire, part of the lands of the Earl of Newcastle (Commons' Journals, vi. 565, 567, 571).

At the Restoration Millington was excepted out of the bill as to pains and penalties. When arraigned, on 16 Oct. 1660, he abjectly ‘confessed himself guilty every way.’ He excused his signing the warrant because ‘he was awed by the power then in being’ (Trials of the Regicides, p. 246). Sentence of death was pronounced on the following day, but it was commuted into imprisonment for life, his name having been inserted in the clause for suspending execution in case of attainder (Commons' Journals, viii. 61, 139). Millington died at Jersey in September or October 1666, and was buried ‘in common ground’ (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1666–67, p. 192). His property was seized by the crown. Some letters from Millington are among the Tanner MSS. in the Bodleian Library.

In 1644 immediately after burying his first wife, ‘a religious, matronly gentlewoman,’ at Greasley, he married a ‘flirtish girl of sixteen’ from an alehouse (Mrs. Hutchinson, ii. 46). The scandal brought him into temporary disfavour.

[Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1623–9 (letters from his brother John); Hist. MSS. Comm. 7th Rep. pp. ix, 157; Brown's Worthies of Nottinghamshire; Bailey's Annals of Nottinghamshire, iii. 882–3; Coxe's Cat. Cod. MSS. Bibl. Bodl. pt. iv. p. 1026.]

G. G.

MILLINGTON, JAMES HEATH (d. 1873), painter, was born at Cork, though not of Irish parentage. In 1826 he entered the schools of the Royal Academy in London, and gained many prizes there, though he was not successful in winning the gold medal for painting. He first exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1831, sending ‘A Portrait of J. C. Bishop, esq.,’ and ‘Vulcan's Cave.’ He continued to be a frequent exhibitor of subject pictures, portraits, and miniatures there and also at the British Institution and Suffolk Street Galleries up to 1870. Millington, who was for a short time curator of the School of Painting at the Royal Academy, died in 1873.

[Redgrave's Dict. of Artists; Graves's Dict. of Artists, 1760–1880; Royal Academy Catalogues.]

L. C.

MILLINGTON, JOHN (1779–1868), engineer, scientific writer, and lecturer, was born in London on 11 May 1779, and is said to have studied medicine and to have gained the degree of M.D. He commenced lecturing at the Royal Institution, London, in 1815, and was appointed professor of mechanics there 7 July 1817. He gave annual courses