third son of the second wife, he can scarcely have been much above eighteen at the time. On 20 April 1744 he was promoted to be lieutenant of the Anglesea, and in December was appointed to the Royal Sovereign. On 13 Sept. 1746 he was promoted to the command of the Serpent sloop, and on 21 May 1748 was posted to the Inverness frigate. It was for rank only, and during the peace he was on half-pay.
In 1755 he commanded the Romney, and in July 1756 was appointed to the Guernsey of 50 guns, in which in 1758 he went out to the Mediterranean. In the summer of 1759 he was sent on a mission to the emperor of Morocco, the Guernsey being left under the command of the first lieutenant. He was thus absent from his ship in the action off Lagos on 20 Aug. He continued in the Guernsey till the peace in 1763, and then went on half-pay. In 1775–6 he commanded the Barfleur, guard-ship at Portsmouth; in 1777–8 the Princess Royal, and afterwards the Namur, till his promotion to the rank of rear-admiral of the white on 19 March 1779; one of his last important duties as captain was to sit on the court-martial on Admiral Keppel. During the following years he occasionally acted as commander-in-chief at Plymouth, in the room of Lord Shuldham (Charnock, v. 508, vi. 82; Barrow, Life of Earl Howe, p. 139). On 26 Sept. 1780 he was advanced to be vice-admiral of the blue, and in the spring of 1782 was appointed to a command in the grand fleet under Lord Howe, with whom he took part in the demonstration in the North Sea, and afterwards in the relief of Gibraltar, and the rencounter off Cape Spartel [see Howe, Richard, Earl]. From 1783 to 1786 he was port-admiral at Plymouth, and during the years 1790–1–2 was commander-in-chief at Newfoundland. On 1 Feb. 1793 he was promoted to the rank of admiral, but had no active command during the war. From 14 Sept. 1799 to 24 March 1803 he was commander-in-chief at Portsmouth. He died on 10 June 1805. He married Miss Mary Webber, and by her had a son Ralph, a captain in the navy, who retired from the active list in 1804, and died 21 Nov. 1823, and two daughters, of whom the youngest married William Huskisson [q. v.]
[Charnock's Biog. Nav. vi. 81; official letters and other documents in the Public Record Office.]
MILBOURN, JOHN (fl. 1773–1790), portrait-painter, was a pupil of Francis Cotes, R.A. He was awarded a small premium by the Society of Arts in 1764, and exhibited crayon portraits at the Royal Academy in 1772, 1773, and 1774. Two fancy subjects, ‘Courtship’ and ‘Matrimony,’ engraved by T. Gaugain from pictures by Milbourn, were published in 1789.
[Redgrave's Dict. of Artists; Royal Academy Catalogues; Premiums offered by the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, &c., 1764.]
MILBOURNE, LUKE (1622–1668), ejected nonconformist divine, was born at Loughborough, Leicestershire, and baptised on St. Luke's day, 18 Oct. 1622. He was educated at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, and graduated M.A. in 1646. He was ordained by Matthew Wren, bishop of Ely, and first settled at King's Lynn, either as curate or schoolmaster. Thence he removed to the perpetual curacy of Honiley, Warwickshire. Being a royalist, he was exposed to much molestation from Cromwell's troops, but found a retreat at Kenilworth Castle, held (1645–60) by Cromwell's officers. His plain speaking on the subject of the execution of Charles I nearly cost him imprisonment. He kept, for the rest of his life, an annual fast on 30 Jan. On the resignation of Ephraim Hewet, or Huit, who went to America, he succeeded him, apparently in 1650, in the donative of Wroxhall (then a hamlet in the parish of Honiley). It was in the gift of the Burgoyne family and worth 6l. 13s. 4d. per annum, but made up to 40l. As he could not subscribe the engagement recognising a non-monarchical government (to be taken by 23 March 1650), he expected to have to leave his place, but ‘was overlooked.’ He had taken the covenant, and his name occurs as Myllbourne in a list of members of the Kenilworth presbyterian classis in 1658. On the passing of the Uniformity Act (1662), he was ejected for nonconformity. He retired to Coventry, and tried to support himself by a school, and by taking boarders for the grammar school, but the authorities interfered with him. He was compelled to leave Coventry, being a corporate town, by the operation of the Five Miles Act, which came into force on 25 March 1666. He removed to Newington Green, where his wife kept a school. He died in 1668, and was buried in the churchyard of St. Michael's, Coventry; the vicar, Samuel Feake, offering interment in the chancel. He had twenty children, of whom four, including Luke Milbourne [q. v.], survived him.
