File 3 - Letters and correspondence

Identity area

Reference code

CA WCA 2023-03-13/13-5-3

Title

Letters and correspondence

Date(s)

  • 1927 - 1995 (Accumulation)

Level of description

File

Extent and medium

16 cm of textual materials

Context area

Name of creator

(1905 - 1966)

Biographical history

Thomas Reagh Millman was born in Kensington, Prince Edward Island on June 14, 1905. He was educated at Prince of Wales College, Charlottetown, University College, Toronto (B.A. 1931, M.A. 1933), Wycliffe College (L.Th. 1933, B.D. 1938) and McGill University where he received his doctorate in 1943, which was published with the University of Toronto Press (1947).
He was ordained deacon in 1933 and ordained priest in 1934. From 1935 until 1941 Dr. Millman was lecturer and dean of residence at the Montreal Diocesan Theological College. From 1950-1954 he was professor of church history at Huron College, London, Ontario, and from 1954 until he retired in 1974 he was professor of church history at Wycliffe College. He was also associated with the Toronto School of Theology. He was awarded the degree of D.D. by the University of Western Ontario in 1953, by Wycliffe College in 1974 and Trinity College in 1977 and the degree of D.C.L. by the University of King’s College, Halifax in 1974.
As a parish priest Dr. Millman served first at Grafton in the Diocese of Toronto, then from 1941 to 1949 he was rector of Dunham and Frelighsberg (St. Armand East) in the Diocese of Montreal and finally at Alvinston with Inwood in the Diocese of Huron. He was made a Canon of St. James Cathedral, Toronto in 1969 and was an honorary assistant for over 40 years at St. Timothy’s Church, Toronto.
Dr. Millman was the first archivist of the General Synod of the Anglican Church of Canada, serving from 1955 until 1974, as well as a founder of the Canadian Church Historical Society. While in the Diocese of Montreal he was one of the founders of the Montreal Diocesan Archives, along with the Reverends S.B. Lindsay and R.K. Naylor and Professor J.I. Cooper.
Dr. Millman was a church historian who published many works. His first two books were biographies, Jacob Mountain, First Lord Bishop of Quebec (1947) and The Life of the Right Reverend, the Honourable Charles Stewart, Second Anglican Bishop of Quebec (1953). In 1983 he published Atlantic Canada to 1900: A History of the Anglican Church, which was started by Canon A.R. Kelly; Dr. Millman completed the book after the death of Canon Kelly in 1961. Dr. Millman was also a contributor to the Dictionary of Canadian Biography and was also published in the Journal of the Canadian Church Historical Society.
Dr. Millman married Margaret McLeod of Lennoxville, Quebec in 1944. She died in 1991.
Dr. Millman died on November 22, 1996 in Toronto. His funeral took place on November 25, 1996 at St. Timothy’s Church, Toronto. He is buried at St. Stephens, Irishtown, Prince Edward Island.

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Scope and content

File contains personal letters received and sent by Dr. Millman. There is a large collection of letters written by Dr. Millman to his mother during his time in Europe while conducting research at the Archives. He sailed to Scotland from Quebec on May 27, 1938 on the Duchess and returned September 10 1938 on the Empress of Australia; he served as the ship chaplain on both trips. The letters contain descriptions of the conditions aboard the ship and the journey. In the first letter of the group he advised his mother to “keep these jottings by you. I shall enjoy looking over them when I get home.” The subsequent letters talk a good deal of the sights and tours he went on from Scotland down to London. Along the way he visited Glasgow, Edinburgh, Durham, Leeds, Lincoln, Ely, Cambridge, arriving in London at the start of July to start his research on Bishop Stewart at the SPG Archives. There is another collection of letters from Dr. Millman to his mother during his second research trip to London in 1949. At this time he was married and his wife Margaret was travelling with him.

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      Photographs related to this file can be found in Series 6, File 2

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