John Millan (1701?–1784)

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John Millan (1701–1782)^[1] was a printer and bookseller at Charing Cross, London.^[2] After his death, his business was taken over by Thomas Egerton and his brother John Egerton.^[2]

From: The Booksellers, Henry Dell, 1766.^[3]

MILLAN deserving of the warmest praise,
As full of worth and virtue as of days;
Brave, open, gen'rous, 'tis in him we find,
A solid judgment, and a taste refined.
Nature's most choice productions are his care,
And them t'obtain no cost or pains does spare,
A character so amiable and bright,
Inspires the Muse with rapture and delight:

The Gentleman and Tradesman both in him unite.

On 5 March 1772, antiquarian Richard Gough visited Millan's shop. He wrote, "On my return from Westminster last night, I penetrated the utmost recesses of Millan's shop". He found Millan "at the head of a Whist party".^[4]

A newspaper death notice of 23 March 1782 reads, "Yesterday died, at his house at Charing-cross, aged 81, Mr Millan, military bookseller, supposed to have been the strongest man in the kingdom."^[5]

• Millan's Lists of the Parliament. Containing The Lords with their Posts, ... Counties, Cities, etc., their members, etc, 1748
• Arms of the English Nobility: With Supporters, Crests, Motto's: and Tables of Dates to Family Honours, Viz. Origin, Knights, Baronets, Garters, Peerage &c., 1749
• Millan's Universal Register: Correct and Complete for 1750.

John Millan and his wife, Mary, had a daughter, Charity, born 16 January 1728, St. James, Westminster.^[6] Charity Millan married Edward Egerton on 29 July 1762 in St Martins in the Fields, Middlesex.^[7]

Edward and Charity Egerton had a daughter, Mary, born on 19 April 1764 and baptised 26 April 1764 at St Martins in the Fields.^[8] She was an author who published several books.^[9] She was the second wife of Thomas Scott,^[9] and, after his death, the first wife of astronomer William Rutter Dawes.^[9] She is mentioned on Dawes' grave as Mrs Thomas Scott. She died in 1840.^[9]

Their son, Millan Egerton, was born 8 October 1765, baptised at St John the Evangelist, Smith Square, Westminster, 3 November 1765.^[8] Millan Egerton became a First Lieutenant in the Royal Regiment of Artillery in May 1790.^[10] He died on 3 October 1790.^[11]

• Willis, George, Willis's Current Notes: A Series of Articles on Antiquities, Biography, Heraldry, History, Language, Literature, Natural History, Topography, &c., 1856, p 47 Note: gives date of death as 15 February 1784, which is wrong.
• Portraits of John Millan, and his grandson and granddaughter, 1780, British Museum, Prints and Drawings
• Millan's Lists of the Parliament. Containing The Lords with their Posts, ... Counties, Cities, etc., their members, etc, 1748
• Millan, John, Arms of the English Nobility: With Supporters, Crests, Motto's: and Tables of Dates to Family Honours, Viz. Origin, Knights, Baronets, Garters, Peerage &c., 1749
• Millan's Universal Register: Correct and Complete for 1750.
• Nichols, John, Literary Anecdotes of the Eighteenth Century, Volume 8, 1814. p 462 Description of Millan's shop in 1772 by Richard Gough.
• Roberts, William, The book-hunter in London, 1895: Charing Cross and Neighbourhood, p 235 Note: gives wrong date of 1784 for John Millan's death.