John Millan (1701?–1784)

MILLAN, JOHN. He died on Feb. 2, 1784, and was, according to Nichols, a bookseller at Charing Cross for more than fifty years; he must, therefore, have commenced in trade before 1734. His early history is obscure, but during the mid forties he was publishing in partnership with M. Cooper, and in the General Advertiser for Jan. 15, 1746, there appears a list of their conjoint publications. A contemporary gives the following account of a visit to Millan's shop:

Last night I penetrated the utmost recesses of Millan's shop, which, if I may borrow an idea from natural history, is encrusted with Literature and Curiosities like so many stalactitical exudations. Through a narrow alley, between piles of books, I reached a cell, whose sides were so completely cased with the same supellex, that the fireplace was literally enchassée dans la muraille. In this cell sat the deity of the place, at the head of a whist party, which was interrupted by my inquiry after Dillenius in sheets. The answer was, "he had none in sheets or blankets." ... I emerged from this shop, which I consider as a future Herculaneum, where we shall hereafter root out many scarce things now rotting on the floor, considerably sunk below the level of the new pavement.

—Frederick T. Wood, 19 September 1931

MILLAN, JOHN. Some light can be thrown on the early history of this bookseller. It is said that James Thomson, the poet, lodged with Milan during 1725 at "a house numbered 30, Charing Cross." (See 'D.N.B.'). 'Winter' was published under Millan's auspices in 1726. 1 have a note of the imprint of the first edition of 'Summer ...' "Printed for J. Milan. at Locke's-Head in New Street, near the upper end of the Haymarket," 1727. This would be New Street, Spring Gardens. Another poem of Thomson's entitled ' Britannia ' was advertised in 1729 as "Printed for J. Milian, lately remov'd from the Blue Anchor in Pall Mall to Mr. Redin's, a Pewterer, in German Street and sold by 'him at his Shop near the Horse Guards ..." This advertisement was reprinted s.v. 'Two Hundred Years Ago' at clvi. 292. In the same year, John Milian published another piece for Thomson—'A Poem sacred to the Memory of Isaac Newton' but in the following year (1728) the poet changed his publisher and it was Andrew Miller (q.v.) who issued 'Spring.' 'The Seasons' came out in 1730 ; this volume included 'Autumn,' which had not appeared separately.

—Ambrose Heal, 14 November 1931