Thomas Millington (fl. 1591–1603) was aLondon publisher of theElizabethan era, who published first editions of threeShakespearean plays. He has been called a "stationer of dubious reputation"^[1] who was connected with some of the "bad quartos" and questionable texts of Shakespearean bibliography.^[2]

He was the son of a William Millington, a "husbandman" ofHamptongay,Oxfordshire, and was apprenticed to a Henry Carre for a period of eight years, beginning onSt. Bartholomew's Day (24 August) in 1583. Thomas Millington became a "freeman" (full member) of theStationers Company on 8 November 1591. For a time he was in partnership with fellow guild memberEdward White; their shop was located, and their title pages specify, "at the little north door ofPaul's at the sign of the Gun."

Millington's business was at the lower end of the publishing scale in Elizabethan England; he printed manyballads, including some byThomas Deloney. In 1595 he publishedThe Norfolk Tragedy, a ballad based on the story ofBabes in the Wood. During the mid-1590s Millington was fined three times by his guild, for issuing ballads to which he did not own the rights and similar small offenses.^[3]

He also published playbooks — most notably, of four of Shakespeare's plays:

• The title page of the Q1 ofTitus Andronicus of 1594, entered toJohn Danter in the Stationers' Register on February 6 1594, indicates the book would be sold at Millington and White's shop in St. Paul's Churchyard. In a later Stationers' Register entry of 19 April 1602, after Danter's death, Millington transferred his claim to Titus toThomas Pavier (who had gained the rights toHenry V two years earlier), along with his rights to the two Henry VI plays. White, however, published further Quartos of Titus in 1600 and 1611, so Millington and White seem both to have made a claim to own the tragedy.
• On 12 March 1594, Millington entered into theStationers' Register the early alternative version of Shakespeare'sHenry VI, Part 2, short-titledThe First Part of the Contention Betwixt the Two Famous Houses of York and Lancaster (the full title is much longer). He published the play inquarto later that year. The printing was done byThomas Creede. He published a second quarto of the play in 1600.
• In1595, with no Register entry, Millington published the early alternative version ofHenry VI, Part 3, calledThe True Tragedy of Richard Duke of York. The printing was by "P. S." (i.e. Peter Short). The play should not be confused withThe True Tragedy of Richard III, a separate work. Millington published a second quarto of the play, along with the one ofHenry VI, Part 2 in 1600.
• In1600, in partnership with stationer John Busby, Millington published thefirst quarto ofHenry V, again printed by Creede. Neither Millington nor Busby had the play entered into the Stationers' Register, though an entry dated 4 August 1600 may cite the play and note it is "to be stayed" -- or the entry may refer rather toHenry IV, Part 2 (the meaning of the 'staying' entry has been much disputed). Another Register entry dated ten days later, on 14 August, transfers the rights to the play to stationerThomas Pavier, but does not indicate from whom the rights are being transferred.^[4][5]
• Millington publishedsecond quartos of bothThe First Part of the Contention andThe True Tragedy in 1600. And he had a link to one other Shakespearean play: the title page of theQ1 ofTitus Andronicus of 1594, printed by John Danter, indicates the book would be sold at Millington and White's shop in St. Paul's Churchyard, suggesting they were the publishers. In a Stationers' Register entry of 19 April1602, Millington transferred his rights to the twoHenry VI plays andTitus to Pavier, the same man who gained the rights toHenry V two years earlier.

Thomas Millington publishedHenry Chettle'sEngland's Mourning Garment in 1603, but then disappears from the historical record — as did fellow publisherAndrew Wise in the same year. The major outbreak ofbubonic plague in London in 1603 might not have been coincidental; printerPeter Short died in 1603, while publisherWilliam Ponsonby passed on in 1604.

• Publishers (people) from London

• Articles with short description
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