2. JUSTINA MILLIGAN.

Justina was the second child and daughter born to Robert Milligan and Jean Dunbar. She was born in 1786, and baptised on April 6, 1786, at St. Andrews, Holborn, in London.
Justina, like her younger sister Mary, never married, and lived a very active life divided between homes in London and their family residence in Gloucestershire named ‘Cotswold House’.
As mentioned previously, writer Joanna Baillie mentioned the Milligan sisters in her correspondence, and was particularly fond of Justina. She wrote of the sisters “The good these ladies do in that neighbourhood, by helping and teaching the poor to help themselves and giving work to the men at reasonable wages is scarcely to be imagined but by those who are on the spot-it gave us great satisfaction to witness it.”

When Justina died in 1840, Joanna Baillie wrote:
“ Some time ago we had a cloud cast over us by the death of our very dear friend Miss Milligan; her character was beautiful and excellent, and though she died of an illness that had lasted many months, we could not divest ourselves of hope until almost the end.
Perhaps you may remember her, she once lived at Roslin in our neighbourhood and was frequently among us. She was the sister of Mr. Milligan who married my niece.”

On the following page is a poem written by Joanna Baillie in memory of her friend Justina Milligan. It was published in 1842 in Joanna’s collection of writings called ‘Fugitive Verses’, and is entitled “On the Death of a Very Dear Friend”.

Justina Milligan died on August 31, 1840, at Leamington,Warwickshire, aged 54 years.