Henry Hart Milman

10 February 1791—24 September 1868

The REV. DR. MILMAN occupied a conspicuous place among the ripe scholars and distinguished authors of the nineteenth century. Known at first as a poet and dramatist, with an ambitious and somewhat pompous yet vigorous style, he came to be regarded as one of the best ecclesiastical historians of the age. Dean Milman was the youngest son of Sir Francis Milman, Bart., M.D., F.R.S., President of the College of Physicians, and Physician to the Royal household, the son of a Devonshire clergyman, and a graduate of Exeter College, Oxford. His mother, Frances Hart, was the only child of William Hart, of Stapleton, Gloucestershire. He was born February 10, 1791, in the parish of St. James, Westminster, London. He was trained successively at the Academy in Greenwich, of which the Rev. Charles Burney, D.D., LL.D., one of the most distinguished Greek scholars of the day, was the Principal; at Eton College; and at Brazenose College, Oxford, entering the latter in 1810 and graduating B.A. in 1813, and M.A. in 1816. He wrote in 1812 an English poem on “The Belvedere Apollo,” for which he received the Newdegate prize; and the year following, won the prize for the best Latin verse. In 1815, he was chosen a Fellow of his College and published “Fazio: a Tragedy.” In 1816, he took the prize for the best English and Latin Essay. The high promise of his youth was fully confirmed in later years.

In 1816, he was ordained a deacon by Dr. Howley, the Bishop of London, and priest in 1817 by Dr. Legge, the Bishop of Oxford. He obtained the Vicarage of St. Mary’s, Reading, Berkshire, in 1818, and during his incumbency entered upon his career of authorship. “Samor, Lord of the Bright City, an Heroic Poem,” begun at Eton, was published in 1818, and “The Fall of Jerusalem, a Dramatic Poem,” in 1820. In December of the same year, Reginald Heber, then Rector of Hodnet, asked his “assistance and contribution to the Collection” of hymns which he was then preparing. “I know,” he wrote, “with what facility you write poetry, and all the world knows with what success you write religious poetry.”[1] In cheerful response to this request, Milman contributed the following year (1821) the twelve hymns which are attributed to him in the Collection published by Mrs. Heber in 1827. Under date of December 28, 1821, Heber wrote: “You have indeed sent me a most powerful reinforcement to my projected hymn-book. A few more such hymns and I shall neither need nor wait for the aid of Scott and Southey.”[2] To his friendship for Heber, therefore, the Christian world is indebted for Milman’s hymns, some of which are admirable productions.

He was chosen (1821) Professor of Poetry for ten years in Oxford University, as the successor of the Rev. John J. Conybeare. The same year, he published The Belvedere Apollo; Fazio, a Tragedy; and other Poems. He produced in 1822, “The Martyr of Antioch,” and “Belshazzar,” both of them Dramatic Poems. In 1826, he published “Anne Boleyn,” also a Dramatic Poem. He was appointed to deliver the Bampton Lectures at Oxford in 1827, and chose for his theme, “The Character and Conduct of the Apostles considered as an Evidence of Christianity.” His first contribution to History was made in 1829—The History of the Jews, in three volumes. To this succeeded, in 1835, the last year of his residence at Reading, Nala and Damayanti, and other Poems, translated from the Sanscrit.

He was now (1835) transferred to the Rectory of St. Margaret’s, Westminster, directly under the shadow of Westminster Abbey, and at the same time made a Prebendary of St. Peter at Westminster. In 1837, he published A Selection of Psalms and Hymns for the Use of St. Margaret’s, Westminster. He also edited, for Murray, Gibbon’s Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, which was published in four volumes (1838), with a “Preface,” a “Sketch of the Author’s Life,” and copious and corrective “Notes” by Milman. This was followed in 1839 by The Life of Edward Gibbon, with Selections from his Correspondence. The work on which he had been for years expending his energies next appeared (1840) as The History of Christianity, from the Birth of Christ to the Abolition of Paganism in the Roman Empire. Though written before he had access to Strauss’ work, Das Leben Jesu, it contains, in an Appendix to Chap. II., a confutation of the German Philosopher; and Milman claimed that his History was “a complete, though of course undesigned, refutation of his hypothesis.” His leading object, in this very able History, was “to trace the effect of Christianity on the individual and social happiness of man, its influence on the Polity, the Laws and Institutions, the opinions, the manners, even on the Arts and the Literature of the Christian world”—“to exhibit the reciprocal influence of civilization on Christianity, of Christianity on civilization.”

He was appointed, in 1849, Dean of St. Paul’s, London, and received from Oxford University the degree of D.D. The same year, he published an illustrated edition of The Works of Quintus Horatius Flaccus, with “A Life”—“a truly classical biography.” Several years were now given to the production of his last great work, The History of Latin Christianity, including that of the Popes to the Pontificate of Nicholas V, which was published, three volumes in 1854, and three volumes in 1856. His Poetic Works were published (1839) complete in three volumes. He wrote also a Life of Keats, and a Memoir of Thos. Babington Macaulay (1858). He was, moreover, a frequent contributor to the London Quarterly Review, Fraser’s Magazine, and others. In 1865, he published a translation of Æschylus and Euripides, also of The Lyric and Later Poets of Greece. He left at his death, The Annals of St. Paul’s Cathedral, which came out the same year (1868).

After a life of great literary labor and of incessant activity as an author, he was at length overtaken with paralysis and died September 24, 1868, at Sunningfield, near Ascot, in the seventy-eighth year of his age.

As a preacher he was less known than as a writer. His sermons were elegant and classical, but passionless—well read, but destitute of energy. He was decidedly liberal in theological opinions and ecclesiastical matters—being classed with the Broad Church Party. He was tall and of a graceful figure, with an aquiline nose, small mouth, black eyes with bushy eyebrows, and abundant hair overshadowing a high forehead. He was altogether a man of distinguished presence, as he was, in fact, “a prince and a great man in Israel.” As a prose writer and a historian, he occupied a position of great eminence. His poetry, also, is of a high order, some of it extremely beautiful. Of one of his books, the Quarterly Review says: “Every page exhibits some beautiful expression, some pathetic turn, some original thought, or some striking image.”

by Edwin Hatfield
The Poets of the Church (1884)

1. Amelia Heber, The Life of Reginald Heber, vol. 2 (London: John Murray, 1830), pp. 32–33: Archive.org

2. Referring to Walter Scott (1771–1832) and Robert Southey (1774–1843); Life of Reginald Heber, vol. 2, pp. 49–50: Archive.org

Featured Hymns:

Ride on! Ride on in majesty!

Publications of Hymns:

Hymns Written and Adapted (with R. Heber, 1827): Archive.org

A Selection of Psalms and Hymns

words only (1837): PDF
with tunes, ed. J.B. Sale (1837): WorldCat

Manuscripts:

Hymns for the Christian Year (Heber), 2 vols., British Library, Add MS 25704: https://www.bl.uk/

For a detailed list of additional manuscripts, see the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.

Related Resources:

“The Late Dean of St. Paul’s,” Macmillan’s Magazine, vol. 19 (Jan. 1869), pp. 177–187: HathiTrust

Edwin Hatfield, “Henry Hart Milman,” The Poets of the Church (NY, A.D.F. Randolph & Co., 1884), pp. 425–429: Archive.org

H. Leigh Bennett, “Henry Hart Milman,” A Dictionary of Hymnology (London: J. Murray, 1892), pp. 736–737: Google Books

Arthur Milman, Henry Hart Milman, D.D., Dean of St. Paul’s (London: John Murray, 1900): Archive.org

W.E.H. Lecky, “Henry Hart Milman, D.D., Dean of St. Paul’s,” Historical and Political Essays (London: Longmans, Green & Co., 1908), pp. 249–274: Archive.org

Charles H.E. Smyth, Dean Milman, 1791-1868, the first Rector of St Margaret’s Westminster, afterwards Dean of St Paul’s (London: SPCK, 1949): WorldCat

H.C.G. Matthew, “Henry Hart Milman,” Oxford Dictionary of National Biography:
https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/18778

J.R. Watson, “Henry Hart Milman,” Canterbury Dictionary of Hymnology:
http://www.hymnology.co.uk/h/henry-hart-milman

Henry Hart Milman, Hymnary.org:
https://hymnary.org/person/Milman_HH