Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Milman, Robert
MILMAN, ROBERT (1816–1876), bishop of Calcutta, third son of Sir William George Milman, bart., of Levaton in Devonshire, by his wife Elizabeth Hurry, daughter of Robert Alderson, recorder of Norwich, and nephew of Henry Hart Milman [q. v.], dean of St. Paul's, was born at Easton in Gordano, Somerset, on 25 Jan. 1816. He was sent when young as a day-scholar to Westminster School, where in 1833 he obtained one of the Ireland prizes (Welch, pp. 520, 541). In the May of that year he matriculated at Exeter College, Oxford, where he obtained a scholarship n 1834, and having taken a second class in 1837, graduated B.A. in 1838, and proceeded M.A. in 1867, in which year he was created D.D. (Foster, Alumni Oxonienses, iii. 960). He was a good linguist, and found the acquisition of languages easy. In 1839 he was ordained to the curacy of Winwick, Northamptonshire, and in 1840 was presented to the vicarage of Chaddleworth, Berkshire, by the dean and chapter of Westminster, on the nomination of his uncle, then canon of Westminster. There he had daily service, and, while working conscientiously as a clergyman, found time for much study, and wrote a ‘Life of Tasso’ and some smaller books. In 1851 he exchanged Chaddleworth for the larger living of Lambourn, also in Berkshire, at that time a wild and neglected place (Memoir, p. 4). He worked hard there, building a church and schools in the hamlet of Eastbury, and restoring the chancel of Lambourn church, chiefly out of his own pocket, holding daily service and weekly celebrations, and doing all in his power for the welfare of his parishioners. In 1858 his sister, Maria Frances Milman, went to live with him, and remained his companion during the rest of his life. At the request of the Bishop of Oxford (Wilberforce), who esteemed him highly, he accepted in 1862 the living of Great Marlow, Buckinghamshire, though the change was in every respect an act of self-sacrifice. While there he lectured frequently at Cuddesdon Theological College, being well versed in patristic learning and the history of the primitive church, and also conducted several clerical ‘retreats.’ His preaching was eloquent and his sermons full of matter.
Being appointed bishop of Calcutta in January 1867, he was consecrated at Canterbury on 2 Feb., and landed at Calcutta with his sister on 31 March. His diocese, which at that date included the Central Provinces, the Punjaub on the west, and British Burmah on the east, extended over nearly a million square miles. Milman performed the duties of his office with extraordinary energy, and during a large part of every year was travelling on visitation tours, visiting in the year of his arrival Burmah and the North-west Provinces. A dispute among the Lutheran missionaries in Chota Nagpore having led the Kôl converts to desire to join the English church, Milman received them in 1869, ordaining three German pastors and a catechist, and administering the sacrament to 650 persons at Ranchi. In matters of order he desired that the church at Ranchi should retain all its former customs and observances that were not inconsistent with the English prayer-book. Though his conduct was not universally approved, the Chota Nagpore Church grew and flourished; he took great delight in it, and visited the district seven times during his episcopate (ib. pp. 95-104, 322). In 1870 he again visited Burmah, where the king was patronising a school at Mandalay under missionary superintendence, but he declined an interview with the king because he could not be received except with formalities that would have implied an inferiority to a Buddhist religious teacher. Thence he proceeded on a metropolitical visitation to Madras, Ceylon, and Bombay. He was anxious for an extension of the episcopate in India, and in 1872 vainly pressed the government to found a bishopric of Lahore, but was not pleased at hearing, in 1873, that the Archbishop of Canterbury had sanctioned a proposal for ordaining bishops to be sent out from England to act as commissary-bishops in India; the Bishop of Madras nominated two for Tinnivelly. The two great English church missionary societies proposed that each of them should have its own missionary bishop, which Milman saw would be highly objectionable. Having refused his consent to the archbishop's proposal and taken counsel with the viceroy and others, he held a meeting with the Bishops of Bombay and Madras in November, and the Bishop of Madras was induced to withdraw his nomination. Milman did not cease to urge a legal and canonical division of the Indian dioceses, but failing that, would have welcomed the appointment of suffragan bishops (ib. pp. 263-73, 375). He established a lay-diaconate and sub-diaconate in his diocese, and was anxious to see brotherhoods and sisterhoods formed in India. While desirous of unity between Christians, he would sanction nothing that might impair the position of his own church, insisting on a formal act of renunciation and profession from converts from Roman Catholicism, and refusing to allow his clergy to minister in dissenting chapels. Though he refused in 1872 to join in a memorial against ritualistic practices, holding that it was vague and likely to engender disputes, he warned his clergy against practices that might offend others, and disapproved of the use of eucharistic vestments and incense. He did much for the benefit of the English artisans in his diocese, and for the soldiers of the British army. With the natives of all classes he was extremely popular, and the extraordinary facility with which, though landing in India after his fiftieth year, he learnt to speak in Bengali, Hindustani, Hindi, and various cognate dialects, increased his influence over them. Holding that the bishops in India should be ‘a link between Europeans and natives’ (ib. p, 299), he gave parties to which both were invited, and tried in every way to make the natives feel at ease in European society. While travelling on his duty from Calcutta to Peshawur in February 1876 he took a chill, was laid up at the house of Sir Richard Pollock at Peshawur, but getting better on 7 March was moved to Rawul Pindi, where he died on the 15th. He was buried the next day. The viceroy, Lord Northbrook, immediately published a ‘Gazette’ containing a warm acknowledgment of the excellence of his character and work, and the government of India erected a monument to him in the cathedral at Calcutta. He was at once zealous and wise, an indefatigable worker and a consistent churchman. While staunch in his principles he was conciliatory in his conduct, and large-hearted and liberal both in his acts and sympathies. He was never married.
Milman published: ‘Meditations on Confirmation,’ 12mo, and some other small books or tracts in 1849 and 1850; ‘Life of Torquato Tasso,’ 2 vols. 1850, a careful biography, but lacking references, exhibiting no great acquaintance with literary history, and avoiding any attempt at criticism; it is in places too rhetorical, in others rather slovenly in expression; the versified translations from poems of biographical interest are literal but not particularly graceful; ‘Love of the Atonement,’ 1853, 8vo; ‘Mitslav, or the Conversion of Pomerania,’ 1854, 8vo, also in ‘Home Library,’ 1882, 8vo; ‘Inkermann,’ a poem, 1855, 12mo; ‘Convalescence,’ 1865, 8vo; some sermons and an article in the ‘Calcutta Review,’ reprinted in the ‘Memoir’ (see below).
[Memoir, 1879, by the Bishop's sister and companion, Frances Maria; Welch's Alumni Westmon.pp. 520, 541; Burke's Peerage and Baronetage, art. ‘Milman;’ Foster's Alumni Oxon. iii. 960; Honours Reg. of Oxford, 1883, p. 229; Times, 20 March 1876, p. 5; Guardian, 22 March 1876, p. 369; for reviews of Life of Tasso, Edinb. Rev. 1850, xcii. 533 sq., and Athenæum, 1850, 26 Jan. p. 95 sq.]