Thomas Millidge (c. 1735 – September 8, 1816) was a surveyor, judge, soldier and politician in

Nova Scotia Nova Scotia ( ; ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. Nova Scotia is Latin for "New Scotland". Most of the population are native Eng ...

. He represented Digby Township from 1785 to 1793 and

Annapolis County Annapolis County is a county in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia located in the western part of the province located on the Bay of Fundy. The county seat is Annapolis Royal. History Established August 17, 1759, by Order in Council, Annapoli ...

from 1793 to 1806 in the Nova Scotia House of Assembly.

Life

He was born in Hanover Township,

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

, the son of John Millidge. In 1758, he married Mercy Berker. He was named deputy surveyor for Morris,

Sussex Sussex (), from the Old English (), is a historic county in South East England that was formerly an independent medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom. It is bounded to the west by Hampshire, north by Surrey, northeast by Kent, south by the English ...

Bergen Bergen (), historically Bjørgvin, is a city and municipality in Vestland county on the west coast of Norway. , its population is roughly 285,900. Bergen is the second-largest city in Norway. The municipality covers and is on the peninsula of ...

, and

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...

counties in 1765. In 1775, he was named

justice of the peace A justice of the peace (JP) is a judicial officer of a lower or ''puisne'' court, elected or appointed by means of a commission ( letters patent) to keep the peace. In past centuries the term commissioner of the peace was often used with the sa ...

for Morris County. In the lead up to the outbreak of the

American War of Independence The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of t ...

, Millidge had been an advocate for non-violent and legal solutions to the grievances of the Thirteen Colonies. He joined the

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...

at the end of 1776, being commissioned a major in the New Jersey Volunteers on 11 December 1776. In August 1778 his property in New Jersey was seized and sold at auction; he was later paid some compensation for his losses. At the end of the war, he was granted land in the Annapolis Valley area of Nova Scotia. He settled first at

Digby Digby may refer to: Places Australia * Digby, Victoria, a town Canada * Digby (electoral district), a former federal electoral district in Nova Scotia (1867–1914) * Digby (provincial electoral district), a provincial electoral district i ...

and then later at Granville where he amassed 900 acres of land in Wilmot and Digby townships. In 1785 he was elected to the Nova Scotia House of Assembly as the first representative for Digby Township, a seat he held until 1793. He then served for Annapolis County from 1793 to 1806. In 1806, Millidge was defeated in a bid for re-election to represent Granville Township in the provincial assembly by

Isaiah Shaw Isaiah ( or ; he, , ''Yəšaʿyāhū'', " God is Salvation"), also known as Isaias, was the 8th-century BC Israelite prophet after whom the Book of Isaiah is named. Within the text of the Book of Isaiah, Isaiah himself is referred to as "th ...

. He also served as a justice of the peace, judge in the Inferior Court of Common Pleas and colonel in the local militia. Millidge died in Granville on 8 September 1816. His son

Thomas Thomas may refer to: People * List of people with given name Thomas * Thomas (name) * Thomas (surname) * Saint Thomas (disambiguation) * Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) Italian Dominican friar, philosopher, and Doctor of the Church * Thomas the Ap ...

served in the

Legislative Assembly of New Brunswick A legislature is an deliberative assembly, assembly with the authority to make laws for a Polity, political entity such as a Sovereign state, country or city. They are often contrasted with the Executive (government), executive and Judiciary, ...

References

Biography at the ''Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Millidge, Thomas 1730s births 1816 deaths Nova Scotia pre-Confederation MLAs People from Hanover Township, New Jersey Year of birth uncertain Year of birth unknown Loyalist military personnel of the American Revolutionary War Colony of Nova Scotia judges Loyalists in the American Revolution from New Jersey