Sir Thomas Millington FRS (1628 in Newbury – 5 January 1703/04 in

Gosfield Gosfield is a village in the Braintree district of Essex, England. It is located around two miles west of the town of Halstead. Places of note include the following: * Gosfield Hall: a country house and Grade I listed building, dating back to 1 ...

), the son of Thomas Millington, was an English physician. Greatly respected in his day, he was eulogised by

Samuel Garth Sir Samuel Garth FRS (1661 – 18 January 1719) was an English physician and poet. Life Garth was born in Bolam in County Durham and matriculated at Peterhouse, Cambridge in 1676, graduating B.A. in 1679 and M.A. in 1684. He took his M.D. an ...

under the name of ''Machaon'' in his poem "The Dispensary", and

Thomas Sydenham Thomas Sydenham (10 September 1624 – 29 December 1689) was an English physician. He was the author of ''Observationes Medicae'' which became a standard textbook of medicine for two centuries so that he became known as 'The English Hippocrate ...

held him in high regard.

Life

Thomas Millington received his education at

Richard Busby Richard Busby (; 22 September 1606 – 6 April 1695) was an English Anglican priest who served as head master of Westminster School for more than fifty-five years. Among the more illustrious of his pupils were Christopher Wren, Robert Hooke, Robe ...

Westminster School (God Gives the Increase) , established = Earliest records date from the 14th century, refounded in 1560 , type = Public school Independent day and boarding school , religion = Church of England , head_label = Hea ...

, and then in 1645, at

Trinity College, Cambridge Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by Henry VIII, King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any college at either Cambridge ...

under

James Duport James Duport (; 1606, Cambridge17 July 1679, Peterborough) was an English classical scholar. Life His father, John Duport, who was descended from an old Norman family (the Du Ports of Caen, who settled in Leicestershire during the reign of Henr ...

. From here he graduated AB in 1649, and moved on to

Oxford University Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

, obtaining his AM. He was elected a fellow of

All Souls College All Souls College (official name: College of the Souls of All the Faithful Departed) is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. Unique to All Souls, all of its members automatically become fellows (i.e., full members of t ...

and became a doctor of medicine at Oxford on 9 July 1659. Appointed to the chair of

Sedleian Professor of Natural Philosophy The Sedleian Professor of Natural Philosophy is the name of a chair at the Mathematical Institute of the University of Oxford. Overview The Sedleian Chair was founded by Sir William Sedley who, by his will dated 20 October 1618, left the sum o ...

in 1675, a position he held for life. Admitted as a candidate for the College of Physicians in 1659, he became a Fellow of the

Royal College of Physicians The Royal College of Physicians (RCP) is a British professional membership body dedicated to improving the practice of medicine, chiefly through the accreditation of physicians by examination. Founded by royal charter from King Henry VIII in 1 ...

in 1672. He was in turn Censor,

Harveian Orator The Harveian Oration is a yearly lecture held at the Royal College of Physicians of London. It was instituted in 1656 by William Harvey, discoverer of the systemic circulation. Harvey made financial provision for the college to hold an annual feas ...

, Treasurer, Consiliarius and President, and was present at the deathbed of Charles II. After his admittance to the College of Physicians, he was said to be "the delight of it; affable in his conversation, firm in his friendships, diligent and happy in his practice, candid and open in consultations, eloquent to an extraordinary degree in his public speeches; being chosen President, his behaviour was grave, tempered with courtesy, steady without obstinacy, continually intent on the good of the College." He was appointed physician in ordinary to

William III William III or William the Third may refer to: Kings * William III of Sicily (c. 1186–c. 1198) * William III of England and Ireland or William III of Orange or William II of Scotland (1650–1702) * William III of the Netherlands and Luxembourg ...

and

Mary II Mary II (30 April 166228 December 1694) was Queen of England, Scotland, and Ireland, co-reigning with her husband, William III & II, from 1689 until her death in 1694. Mary was the eldest daughter of James, Duke of York, and his first wife ...

, and later to Queen Anne. Millington was knighted in 1679. He was one of the physicians to dissect William III's body. Millington had ventured in a conversation with

Nehemiah Grew Nehemiah Grew (26 September 164125 March 1712) was an English plant anatomist and physiologist, known as the "Father of Plant Anatomy". Biography Grew was the only son of Obadiah Grew (1607–1688), Nonconformist divine and vicar of St Micha ...

that the stamen ("attire") serves as the male organ for the production of the seed. Grew at once "replied that he was of the same opinion, gave some reasons for thinking so, and answered some objections which might be made to it." Grew further explored this idea and found that

stamens The stamen (plural ''stamina'' or ''stamens'') is the pollen-producing reproductive organ of a flower. Collectively the stamens form the androecium., p. 10 Morphology and terminology A stamen typically consists of a stalk called the filame ...

with their

theca In biology, a theca (plural thecae) is a sheath or a covering. Botany In botany, the theca is related to plant's flower anatomy. The theca of an angiosperm consists of a pair of microsporangia that are adjacent to each other and share a commo ...

e are male sex organs while

pistils Gynoecium (; ) is most commonly used as a collective term for the parts of a flower that produce ovules and ultimately develop into the fruit and seeds. The gynoecium is the innermost whorl of a flower; it consists of (one or more) ''pistils'' ...

represent the female organs. These ideas were published by Grew in the ''Anatomy of Plants'' in 1682, which is today regarded as a major milepost in the development of botanical science. In 1691 he was living at

Gosfield Hall Gosfield Hall is a country house in Gosfield, near Braintree in Essex, England. It is a Grade I listed building. The house was built in 1545 by Sir John Wentworth, a member of Cardinal Wolsey’s household, and hosted royal visits by Queen Eliz ...

and was responsible for a great deal of reconstruction. His family

coat of arms A coat of arms is a heraldry, heraldic communication design, visual design on an escutcheon (heraldry), escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the latter two being outer garments). The coat of arms on an escutcheon forms the central ele ...

is displayed in the hall and consists of the "blazon of a silver shield, thereon a black eagle displayed with two heads, the crest being a bull's head erased", and the motto ''Virtutis proemium honor'' ("Honour the reward of virtue"). He married Hannah King, the widow of Henry King, on 23 February 1680. The union produced a son, Thomas (notorious as a rake), and two daughters, Anne and Mary. According to unsubstantiated family stories, a certain "Lady Anne" followed her lover, a British army officer, to America, but eventually married Gershom Lockwood of Greenwich. The story of this woman's aristocratic roots is supported by her receipt of an ornate chest in the 1660s filled with "half a bushel of guineas and many fine silk dresses". These sources however fail to substantiate a paternal link between this woman and Sir Thomas. Indeed, Parliamentary probate records successfully demonstrate Anne Millington, daughter of Sir Thomas Millington as having died intestate, unmarried and childless. Thomas Millington was laid to rest on 28 January 1703–4 in the Wentworth Chapel of

church. A monument of

Purbeck marble Purbeck Marble is a fossiliferous limestone found in the Isle of Purbeck, a peninsula in south-east Dorset, England. It is a variety of Purbeck stone that has been quarried since at least Roman times as a decorative building stone. Geology Strat ...

to his memory was destroyed some sixty years on by looters who tore up the brasswork. There is a good portrait of Millington at the College.

Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (; 23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after his ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné Blunt (2004), p. 171. (), was a Swedish botanist, zoologist, taxonomist, and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the ...

named the genus '' Millingtonia'' in the

Bignoniaceae Bignoniaceae is a family of flowering plants in the order Lamiales commonly known as the bignonias or trumpetvines.Vernon H. Heywood, Richard K. Brummitt, Ole Seberg, and Alastair Culham. ''Flowering Plant Families of the World''. Firefly Books: ...

in his honour.Millington, Thomas – Dictionary definition of Millington, Thomas , Encyclopedia.com: FREE online dictionary
Encyclopedia.com. Retrieved on 2012-05-22.

References

External links

''Old and New London: Volume 1'' – Walter Thornbury (1878)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Millington, Sir Thomas 17th-century English medical doctors 1628 births 1704 deaths Physicians-in-Ordinary People educated at Westminster School, London Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge Fellows of All Souls College, Oxford Sedleian Professors of Natural Philosophy