1761 p. 124, 1770 pp. 154, 176, 1771 p. 124; Cassell's Old and New Edinburgh, i. 251–2; Thoroton's Nottinghamshire, iii. 383 n., 406; Lysons's Environs, i. 4; Wheatley's London, ii. 604; Wheatley's Round about Piccadilly, pp. 197, 383; Wright's Hexham, p. 208; Brayley's Surrey, iv. 27; Gateshead Observer, 20 Oct. 1860, p. 6; London Mag. 1760 p. 164, 1766 p. 549; Clutterbuck's Hertfordshire, ii. 234; Scots Mag. 1769 pp. 461–9, 1770 p. 518, 1790 p. 154; Prin. Probate Reg. Crickett, p. 297; Nichols's Lit. Anecd. viii. 610; Lyon's Lodge of Edinburgh, pp. 94–5; Maitland's London (cont. by Entick), 1775, i. 34; Cat. of King's Prints and Drawings; Benn's Belfast, i. 608–9; Nash's Worcestershire, ii. Suppl. p. 8; inscriptions on tomb at Great Amwell, given in Cussans's Hertfordshire, ii. 126–7; Lords' Journals, 1770, pp. 411 b, 412 a, 414 b, 436 b; Cleland's Annals of Glasgow, i. 71; Kincaid's Edinburgh, pp. 128–134; Picture of Dublin, 1835, p. 177.]
MYLNE or MILN, WALTER (d. 1558), the last Scottish protestant martyr, in his early years visited Germany, where he imbibed the doctrines of the Reformation, and afterwards became priest in the church of Lunan in Angus. During the time of Cardinal Beaton information was laid against him as a heretic, whereupon he fled the country, and was condemned to be burnt wherever he might be found. Long after the cardinal's death he was at the instance of John Hamilton, bishop of St. Andrews, apprehended in April 1558 in the town of Dysart, Fifeshire, where, according to Pitscottie, he ‘was warmand him in ane poor wyfes hous, and was teaching her the commandments of God’ (Chronicles, p. 517). After being for some time confined in the castle of St. Andrews, he was brought for trial before an assemblage of bishops, abbots, and doctors in the cathedral church. He was then over eighty years of age, and so weak and infirm that he could scarce climb up to the pulpit where he had to answer before them. Yet, says Foxe, ‘when he began to speak he made the church to ring and sound again with so great courage and stoutness that the Christians which were present were no less rejoiced than the adversaries were confounded and ashamed.’ So far from pretending to deny the accusations against him, he made use of the opportunity boldly to denounce what he regarded as the special errors of the Romish church; his trial was soon over, and he was condemned to be burnt as a heretic on 28 April 1558. According to George Buchanan, the commonalty of St. Andrews were so offended at the sentence that they shut up their shops in order that they might sell no materials for his execution; and after his death they heaped up in his memory a great pile of stones on the place where he was burned. Mylne was married, and his widow was alive in 1573, when she received 6l. 13s. 4d. out of the thirds of the benefices.
[Histories of Lindsay of Pitscottie, Buchanan Knox, and Calderwood; Foxe's Book of Martyrs.]
MYLNE, WILLIAM CHADWELL (1781–1863), engineer and architect, born on 5 or 6 April 1781, was the second son of Robert Mylne (1734–1811) [q. v.] In 1797 he was already assisting his father to stake out the lands for the Eau Brink Cut, and he also worked on the Gloucester and Berkeley Ship Canal. In 1804 he was appointed assistant engineer to the New River Company, succeeding in 1811 to the sole control of the works. This appointment he held for fifty years. In 1810 he was employed on the Colchester water works; in 1811 and 1813 he made surveys of the Thames; in 1813 he surveyed Portsmouth harbour for the lords of the admiralty, and was engaged in engineering works in Paris and the surrounding country in the autumn of 1816. In 1821 he designed and executed water works for the city of Lichfield, and in 1836 those for Stamford in Lincolnshire. As surveyor to the New River Company he laid out fifty acres of land for building purposes near Islington, and designed St. Mark's Church, Myddelton Square, 1826–8. The property has since become a large source of income to the company. He converted also, for the New River Company, Sir Hugh Myddelton's old wooden mains and service pipes between Charing Cross and Bishopsgate Street into cast-iron. In 1828 he constructed many settling reservoirs at Stoke Newington, for the better supply of the outlying districts of the north of London. Although undertaking architectural work, and making additions and alterations to many private residences, the bulk of his practice consisted of engineering projects in connection with water-supply and drainage.
In 1837 he designed Garrard's Hostel Bridge at Cambridge (plate in Hann and Hosking, Bridges). In the fen country he was much occupied. He effected improvements in the river Ouse between Littleport and Ely in 1826, in the river Cam in 1829, and in the drainage of the district of Burnt Fen. He constructed the intercepting drain at Bristol, thus removing the sewage from the floating harbour. The Metropolis Waterworks Act of 1852 necessitated extensive alterations and improvements in the works of the New River Company, which Mylne
