William Van Mildert 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 of an Amsterdam merchant who migrated to London around 1670, Martha the daughter of William Hill of Vauxhall, Surrey, merchant and financier. William van Mildert was educated at St
Johannes van Mildert to the fact that he was born and raised in Königsberg, which was then part of Germany. He was married to Elisabeth Waeyens and his son Cornelis van Mildert was also a sculptor and draughtsman. His daughter Elizabeth married the sculptor Gerard van Opstal. His son Cornelis and his son-in-law Gerard van Opstal completed some of the works left unfinished at the time of his death. From about 1617 onwards van Mildert received multiple large commissions as a sculptor-architect and maker of small-scale architectural stone church furniture. He thus became the main competitor of the workshop of the brothers Hans