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MILFORD—MILITARY FRONTIER
  

24 knives and 12 small mirrors. A “church-state” was immediately organized after the model of that of New Haven, but two or three years later the town bestowed suffrage on six of its inhabitants who were not church members. These citizens were an obstacle to the town’s admission to the New Haven Jurisdiction, which was formed in 1643, but in the following year a compromise was effected and Milford was admitted on condition that, in the future, suffrage should be granted only to church members and that none of the objectionable six should be elected to any office of the Jurisdiction. In 1664 Milford, with the other members of the jurisdiction, was absorbed by Connecticut; this caused considerable dissatisfaction and some of the inhabitants under the lead of Robert Treat removed to New Jersey and assisted in the founding of Newark. The regicides Whalley and Goffe were concealed in Milford from 1661 to 1664.

See M. Louise Greene, “Early Milford,” in the Connecticut Magazine, vol. v. (Hartford, 1899).


MILFORD, a township of Worcester county, Massachusetts, U.S.A., about 16 m. S.E. of Worcester. Pop. (1890), 8780; (1900) 11,376, of whom 3342 were foreign-born; (1910 census) 13,055. Within its area of about 15 sq. m. are a large rural population and the village of Milford, on the Charles river, about 33 m. S.W. of Boston, served by the Boston & Albany, the New York, New Haven & Hartford and the Grafton & Upton railways (the last named having its passenger department operated by electricity and its freight by steam, and connecting Milford with North Grafton), and by inter-urban electric lines. The village has a memorial hall, housing the public library, and in the township there is an excellent hospital, the gift of Eben. S. Draper. The village is a shipping point for an agricultural and manufacturing district. In 1905 the value of the township’s factory products was $3,390,504 (32·8% more than in 1900). The most important manufactures are boots and shoes; the industry was established in 1795, and for many years the special product was brogans for Southern negroes. In 1908 there were 12 large granite quarries in the township (north and north-east of the village). Milford granite is the typical stone of an area reaching into Rhode Island south of the southern boundary of Providence county; it is a biotite granite of post-Cambrian age, is generally pinkish-gray in colour (owing to the large proportion of feldspar among its constituents), and is widely used for building purposes. The township was the east precinct of Mendon until 1780, when it was incorporated; in 1835 parts of Holliston and Hopkinton were annexed; in 1886 a part was separated as Hopedale.

See Adin Ballou, History of Milford (Boston, 1882); and T. Nelson Dale, The Chief Commercial Granites of Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Rhode Island (Washington, 1908), Bulletin 354 of the U.S. Geological Survey.


MILFORD HAVEN, a market town, seaport, urban district and contributory parliamentary borough of Pembrokeshire, Wales, situated on the north shore of the celebrated harbour of the same name. Pop. (1901), 5102, including the adjacent village of Hakin. Milford Haven is the terminus of a branch-line of the South Wales section of the Great Western railway. The town possesses a pier and important dock accommodation, including a graving-dock 600 ft. long, and is the centre of a valuable and increasing fishing industry. The promenade of Hamilton Terrace commands a fine view of the broad expanse of the Haven with its various towns and forts.

The present town of Milford Haven, originally a hamlet in the parish of Steynton, is of modern growth, and was first called into existence by the exertions of the Hon. R. F. Greville, nephew of Sir William Hamilton, who in 1790 laid out a town on this spot, the advantages of which as a convenient port for the Irish traffic he clearly recognized. In the opening years of the 19th century a royal dockyard was established here, but in 1814 dockyard and arsenal were removed to Paterchurch near Pembroke. The growth of the town was further checked twenty years later by the development of Neyland, or New Milford, further east on the Haven, whither the Irish packet service was transferred; but towards the close of the 19th century the town recovered much of its former prosperity. The importance of the place is wholly due to its excellent situation on the splendid land-locked harbour, which is here 2 m. broad.

Milford Haven itself, designated by the Welsh Aberdaugleddau, as the estuary of the united East and West Cleddy rivers, has played an important part on several occasions in the course of history. Throughout Plantagenet times it formed the chief point of embarcation for Ireland. It was from Milford Haven that Henry II. set sail for the conquest of Ireland in 1172, and to this harbour he made his return journey. In 1399 Richard II. landed at Milford Haven from Ireland, shortly before his surrender to Henry of Lancaster, afterwards Henry IV., in whose reign a French fleet with 12,000 men on board sailed to the Haven and disembarked with the object of assisting the rebellion of Owen Glendower. In 1485 Henry, earl of Richmond, disembarked here on his return from France, and was welcomed on landing by Sir Rhys ap Thomas and much of the chivalry of Wales. In 1588 the leading persons of Pembrokeshire, with Bishop Anthony Rudd of St David’s at their head, petitioned Queen Elizabeth to fortify the Haven against the projected Spanish invasion, upon which the block-houses of Dale and Nangle at either side of the mouth of the harbour were accordingly erected. During the 19th century numerous forts have been constructed for the protection of the Haven and of the royal dockyard at Pembroke Dock.


MILICZ, or Militsch (d. 1374), Bohemian divine, was the most influential among those preachers and writers in Moravia and Bohemia who, during the 14th century, in a certain sense paved the way for the reforming activity of Huss. The date of his birth is not known, but he was in holy orders in 1350, in 1360 was attached to the court of the emperor Charles IV., whom he accompanied into Germany in that year, and about the same time also held a canonry in the cathedral of Prague along with the dignity of archdeacon. About 1363 he resigned all his appointments that he might become a preacher pure and simple; he addressed scholars in Latin, and (an innovation) the laity in their native Czech, or in German, which he learnt for the purpose. He was conspicuous for his apostolic poverty and soon roused the enmity of the mendicant friars. The success of his labours made itself apparent in the way in which he transformed the notorious “Benatki” street of Prague into a benevolent institution, “Jerusalem.” As he viewed the evils inside and outside the church in the light of Scripture, the conviction grew in his mind that the “abomination of desolation” was now seen in the temple of God, and that Antichrist had come, and in 1367 he went to Rome (where Urban V. was expected from Avignon) to expound these views. He affixed to the gate of St Peter’s a placard announcing his sermon, but before he could deliver it was thrown into prison by the Inquisition. Urban, however, on his arrival, ordered his release, whereupon he returned to Prague, and from 1369 to 1372 preached daily in the Teyn Church there. In the latter year the clergy of the diocese complained, of him in twelve articles to the papal court at Avignon, whither he was summoned in Lent 1374, and where he died in the same year, not long after being declared innocent and authorized to preach before the assembly of cardinals. He was the author of a Libellus de Antichristo, written in prison at Rome, a series of Postillae and Lectiones quadragesimales in Latin, and a similar series of Postils (devotional tracts) in Czech.

See Count Lützow, Life and Times of Master John Hus (1909), pp. 27–38.


MILITARY FRONTIER (Ger. Militärgrenze, Slav. Granitza), a narrow strip of Austrian-Hungarian territory stretching along the borders of Turkey, which had for centuries a peculiar military organization, and from 1849 to 1873 constituted a crown-land. As a separate division of the monarchy it owed its existence to the necessity of maintaining during the 16th and 17th centuries a strong line of defence against the invasions of the Turks, and may be said to have had its origin with the establishment of the captaincy of Zengg (a coast town about 35 m. south-east of Fiume) by Matthias Corvinus and the introduction of Uskoks (q.v.) into Croatia. By the close of the 17th century there were three frontier “generalates”—Carlstadt, Warasdin and Petrinia