# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Millington, Gilbert

​MILLINGTON, GILBERT (d. 1666), regicide, was eldest son of Anthony Millington of Felley Abbey, Nottinghamshire, by Prudence, daughter of William Gilbert, proctor of the arches, of Colchester (Visitation of Essex, Harl. Soc., xiii. 405). On 19 Oct. 1614 he was admitted a member of Lincoln's Inn (Register). By 1635 he was acting as J.P. for Nottinghamshire, in which county he possessed considerable influence (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1635–6, p. 137). He was a man of some talent, fond of public business, but weak and shifty. In May 1639 George, viscount Chaworth, asked leave, on account of bad health, to nominate Millington as his deputy in the sheriffdom of Nottinghamshire (ib. 1639, p. 151). In the Long parliament and subsequently Millington represented Nottingham, and took an active part against the king. On 1 July 1642 he was appointed deputy-lieutenant for Nottingham (Commons' Journal, ii. 647), and on all occasions appears to have acted as attorney for the town. He was, in fact, the principal agent of communication between Colonel John Hutchinson (1615–1664) [q. v.], the governor, and the parliament. On 25 Dec. 1643 he was ordered to write to Hutchinson a letter of thanks for his fidelity to religion and the parliament, and to see that the garrison at Nottingham was supplied with all necessaries (ib. iii. 352–3). In reply to an urgent appeal from Hutchinson on behalf of the ‘poor neglected garrison,’ the house ordered, on 15 Jan. 1644, a thousand pounds to be sent to its relief. Through Millington's ‘negligent prosecution of the business,’ says Mrs. Hutchinson, the money was lost (Life of Colonel Hutchinson, ed. Firth, i. 305, ​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.