Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Millington, William
MILLINGTON, WILLIAM, D.D. (d. 1466?), the first provost of King's College, Cambridge, was a native of Pocklington, Yorkshire. He was probably educated at Clare Hall, Cambridge. He was ordained deacon and priest in Lent 1420, receiving his title from the priory of Ellerton in the county of his birth (Baker MSS. xxxi. 238). He rose to eminence in his university. Capgrave from personal knowledge speaks of him as ‘surpassing many of his predecessors in scholastic questions, literary depth, and ripeness of character’ (De Illustr. Henricis, p. 133), and Harrison, in his ‘Chronographia,’ describes him as ‘laudabilis et famosus Theologiæ doctor.’ His learning and general worth led to his selection by Henry VI to preside over his new foundation at Cambridge. In the charter of the original foundation, 12 Feb. 1440, he appears under the title of ‘rector,’ which on the enlargement of the scheme in 1443 was exchanged for that of ‘provost.’ He seems to have had no hand in framing the statutes of King's College. During his tenure of the provostship he was one of the contracting parties in the ‘Amicabilis Concordia,’ with the provost of Eton and the wardens of New College and Winchester, in which they bound themselves to render each other mutual support in maintaining the common interests of their foundations. In 1446 he refused to acquiesce in the sweeping changes proposed in the constitution of the college, by which it was to be made altogether independent not only of the bishop of the diocese, but also of the university authorities, and its benefits limited to scholars from Eton. He regarded compliance as ‘involving perjury,’ since he had already sworn to the observance of the original code. Alnwick, bishop of Lincoln, vainly endeavoured to induce him to resign, and finally sentence of deprivation was reluctantly passed on him by royal commissioners. In a curious correspondence with Bishop Beckington of Bath and Wells [q. v.] (the letters bear no date, but internal evidence places them after 1452) he attacked the bishop in violent and unscrupulous language for the part he had taken as one of the royal commissioners in his deprivation, and threatens him with vengeance. The statement of Fuller and others that he was deprived for a ‘factious endeavour to prefer his countrymen of Yorkshire’ to the scholarships of his college may be safely rejected.
On his deprivation he retired to Clare Hall, and appears in the college records as a benefactor to that house and a donor of books and vestments. John Millington became master there in 1455, and William has been at times confused with him. In 1448 William was appointed with others to draw up the statutes for Queens' College, founded by Henry's consort, Margaret of Anjou, an appointment twice renewed, and according to Parker (Hist. Univ. Cambr. p. 85) he was vice-chancellor of the university in 1457. He was also one of the most distinguished of the antagonists of Bishop Reginald Pecock [q. v.], ‘Egregie determinans contra R. Pecock’ (Gascoigne MSS. 524, 542, quoted by Williams, p. 302), replying to his famous sermon preached at Paul's Cross in 1447 from the same place, and declaring that ‘England would never suffer those who patronised Pecock to prosper’ (Babington's preface to Pecock's Repressor, p. xvii; Lewis, Life of R. Pecock, p. 142, ed. 1820; Wood, Hist. et Antiq. Univ. Oxon. bk. i. p. 221 a). Millington probably died about 1466. He was buried in St. Edward's Church, the south chancel aisle of which was used as a chapel by Clare Hall.
[Mullinger's Hist. of Univ. of Cambridge, i. 295, 306, 309; Fuller's Hist. of Cambridge, pp. 85, 152; the Rev. G. Williams's Notices of William Millington, first provost of King's College, published in communications to the Cambr. Antiq. Soc. i. 287–328.]