Thomas Millington (physician)

Greatly respected in his day, he was eulogised by Samuel Garth under the name of Machaon in his poem "The Dispensary", and Thomas Sydenham held him in high regard.

[1] Thomas Millington received his education at Richard Busby's Westminster School, and then in 1645, at Trinity College, Cambridge under James Duport.

After his admittance to the College of Physicians, he was said to be "the delight of it; affable in his conversation, firm in his friendships, diligent and happy in his practice, candid and open in consultations, eloquent to an extraordinary degree in his public speeches; being chosen President, his behaviour was grave, tempered with courtesy, steady without obstinacy, continually intent on the good of the College."

Millington had ventured in a conversation with Nehemiah Grew that the stamen ("attire") serves as the male organ for the production of the seed.

According to unsubstantiated family stories, a certain "Lady Anne" followed her lover, a British army officer, to America, but eventually married Gershom Lockwood of Greenwich.

The story of this woman's aristocratic roots is supported by her receipt of an ornate chest in the 1660s filled with "half a bushel of guineas and many fine silk dresses".