A Cyclopaedia of Female Biography/Milner, Mary
MILNER, MARY,
Is an English female writer, who has done good service to the cause of religion, by striving to infuse into the current periodical and other literature of the day, a spirit of true christian piety. A brief glance at the various writings of this lady will show that her efforts in this direction have neither been few nor unsuccessful. To the numerous readers of these works, as well as to the religious public generally, the following few particulars of her life will not be uninteresting.
She is the eldest daughter of Thomas Wilberforce Compton, Esq., a relative of that great man who so materially contributed to the success of the Anti-Slavery movement in. this country. Mary Compton was born November 12th., 1797, and resided from infancy with her great-uncle the late Very Rev. Isaac Milner, Dean of Carlisle, and President of Queen's College, Cambridge, where he was also professor of mathematics. She was married, February 15th., 1820, to the Rev. Joseph Milner, Vicar of Appleby, Westmorland, where she still resides.
Besides her contributions to periodicals, which are numerous, she has written "The Christian Mother," published in 1838; "The Life of Dean Milner," 1842; an abridgment of the same work in 1844; "Sketches illustrative of Important Periods in the History of the World, with Observations on the Moral and Religious uses of History," 1843; a second series of these sketches came out a year or two after. In 1849, Mrs. Milner edited a revised and enlarged edition of "Mrs. Trimmer's History of England," for Messrs. Grant and Griffith; and, in 1850, appeared under her editorship the "People's Gallery of Engravings," in four superb quarto volumes; also "The Juvenile Scrap-Book." "The Garden, the Grove, and the Field," a beautifully written volume on the natural, poetical, and religious aspects of the months and seasons, appeared in 1852; and this we believe is her latest work. We must not omit to mention the "Englishwoman's," or, as it is now called, the "Christian Lady's Magazine," a monthly periodical of high literary merit and decided religious tendency, which has now been in existence, and conducted by Mrs. Milner, upwards of twelve years.