of its contents. Mills was a warm advocate of small farms. In 1766 he was elected a F.R.S., and he was the first foreign associate of the French Agricultural Society, on whose list his name, with London as his residence, appears from 1767 to 1784, in which year he probably died. One John Mills died at Glanton, Northumberland, 8 Nov. 1786 (Gent. Mag. 1786, pt. ii. p. 1002).
[J. Donaldson's Agricultural Biography, 1854, p. 51 *; Mémoires Secrets de la République de Lettres, v. 340; Brit. Mus. Cat.]
MILLS, JOHN (1812–1873), author and Calvinistic methodist minister, born 19 Dec. 1812 at Llanidloes, Montgomeryshire, was son of Edward Mills, by his wife Mary. Devoting himself to music, he travelled through the country, establishing musical societies in various places, and thus greatly extended musical culture in Wales. In 1846 he went to London to act as a missionary to the Jews on behalf of the Welsh Calvinistic methodists. In 1855 and 1859 he visited the Holy Land in order to better equip himself for this work. He was a member of many learned societies connected with biblical and oriental studies. He died in London, 28 July 1873.
His chief works are: 1. ‘Grammadeg Cerddoriaeth,’ a grammar of music (Llanidloes, 1838), the first complete musical handbook published in the Welsh language. 2. ‘British Jews,’ London, 1853. 3. ‘Palestina,’ in Welsh only, Llanidloes, 1858. 4. ‘Three Months' Residence in Nablûs, and an Account of the Modern Samaritans,’ London, 1864.
[Biography of the Rev. John Mills, by Mr. Richard Mills and the Rev. N. C. Jones, D.D. (in Welsh), Aberdare, 1881.]
MILLS, RICHARD (1809–1844), Welsh musician, was the son of Henry Mills, and was born at Ty Newydd, Llanidloes, in March 1809. He showed musical talent at an early age, and competed successfully at eisteddfodau upon musical and literary subjects. In 1838 he published some of his literary compositions; better known, however, are his musical publications, ‘Caniadau Seion’ (1840), a collection of congregational tunes, and ‘Yr Arweinydd Cerddorol,’ published in three parts (1840–5), and consisting chiefly of musical instruction. Richard Mills and his nephews, John and Richard, who carried on his work, did much to improve the character of Welsh ecclesiastical music, and to popularise musical knowledge in Wales. They were the pioneers of the modern musical movement in that country. Mills died on 24 Dec. 1844. His brother James (d. 1844) was also a musician of talent.
[Montgomeryshire Worthies in Montgomeryshire Collections, xv. 49.]
MILLWARD. [See Milward.]
MILLYNG, THOMAS (d. 1492), bishop of Hereford, became about 1447, when quite a youth, a monk at Westminster, and thence proceeded to the Benedictine College, Gloucester Hall (now Worcester College), Oxford, where he remained till he graduated D.D. He then returned to Westminster, and in 1465 succeeded the chronicler John Flete [q. v.] as prior. The abbot George Norwych had wasted the revenues and incurred large debts, and he was now forced to retire to another Benedictine house, with an annual pension of a hundred marks. Although he retained the nominal title of abbot, Millyng, aided by two senior monks, one of whom, John Esteney, was afterwards (1474) abbot, governed the house, and on Norwych's death in 1469 was ‘unanimously’ elected in his place. The wars of the roses were then raging, and when in October 1470 Edward IV fled abroad, his queen, Elizabeth Woodville [q. v.], took sanctuary at Westminster. The abbot received her in his lodgings, where her elder son, afterwards Edward V [q. v.], was born on 2 or 3 Nov., and christened without pomp by the sub-prior on 4 Nov., the abbot and prior (Esteney) standing godfathers. The royal family remained in sanctuary, receiving ‘half a loafe and two muttons daily’ from the abbot till Edward's return in April 1471. The king rewarded Millyng by making him a privy councillor, and three years later advanced him to the bishopric of Hereford, to which see he was consecrated in the lady chapel at Westminster 21 Aug. 1474. The temporalities were restored on 15 Aug. Millyng died at Hereford before 11 March 1492, and was buried in the centre of St. John the Baptist's Chapel; the stone coffin, with the Hereford badge (a cross fleury), resting on Fascet's tomb, is most probably his. It was removed to make room in the vaults for other interments in the seventeenth century. Millyng was noted for his learning, especially for his knowledge of Greek, a rare accomplishment for monks in those days. He was also a good preacher. Leland (De Script. Brit. p. 483) speaks of his works, but had never seen any, and none are known to be extant.
[Godwin's Catalogue of Bishops, p. 380; Pits, de Rebus Angl. p. 916; Fabyan and Holinshed's Chronicles; Camden's Reges … in Eccles. … West. p. 60; Keepe's Monumenta Westm. p. 122; Syllabus of Rymer's Fœdera, ii. 705, 725–7; Dart, Widmore, Neale, and Brayley's Histories of the Abbey; Stanley's Memorials, pp. 221, 357.]
