Isaac Milner

1750-1820. Evangelical clergyman. After his father's death when he was ten, he became a weaver but managed to teach himself Latin, Greek, and mathematics. When he was eighteen his brother Joseph* became headmaster of Hull Grammar School and appointed Isaac to the staff. Joseph then paid for him to go to Queens' College, Cambridge. He was ordained in 1775 and the next year became a fellow of his college. In 1784 he went to France with William Wilberforce* and their reading of the NT together led to the latter's conversion. In 1788 he was appointed president of Queens', and his ambitious and forceful personality was asserted in spreading Evangelical influence in Cambridge. In 1791 he was made dean of Carlisle, but never spent more than three or four months a year in residence there. Learned in many fields of science, mathematics, and philosophy, he was a large and jovial man and has been described as “an Evangelical Dr. Johnson.” He wrote a number of books, including a life of his brother.