William Van Mildert Green, between the Castle and the Cathedral. These are currently in use by various departments of the university (principally law, music and a small portion of the University Library). William Van Mildert William Van Mildert (6 November 1765 – 21 February 1836) was the last palatine Bishop of Durham (1826–1836), and one of the founders of the University of Durham. His name survives in Van Mildert College, founded in 1965 and the Van Mildert Professor of Divinity. He was the son of Cornelius van Mildert, a gin distiller, and his wife Martha née Hill. Cornelius Van Mildert was the great-grandson
Johannes van Mildert and Robert Colyns the Nole that had dominated the Antwerp market from the beginning of the seventeenth century. He initially worked in a mannerist style. The monumental alabaster mantelpiece which he made in 1618 for the wedding hall of the Antwerp City Hall followed the Mannerist style of Cornelis Floris de Vriendt and may have been based on a drawing of Floris. Around this time van Mildert started working in the Baroque style of his friend Rubens. In 1618 he executed a black and white marble altar made for the Chapel Church in Brussels based on a design by Rubens.