Family and Education

b. c.1635, 1st s. of Mark Miller, clothier, of Chichester by 1st w. Mary, da. of John Comber of Chichester and coh. to her bro. John Comber of Donnington, Suss. m. by 1665, Hannah Edwards (d. Jan. 1707), 2s. 3da. suc. fa. 1672; kntd. 23 Dec. 1689; cr. Bt.19 Oct. 1705.1

Offices Held

Alderman, Chichester by 1668-June 1688, Oct. 1688-d., mayor 1668-9, 1678-9, commr. for assessment, Suss. 1689-90, j.p. by 1701-d.2

Biography

Miller came of a substantial family of clothiers and maltsters that had been prominent in the municipal life of Chichester since the mid 16th century, though they avoided commitment in the Civil War. He inherited a large fortune ‘covetously heaped together’ by his maternal uncle. On a complaint from Richard May, the recorder, in 1678, he was formally rebuked for admitting six citizens to the common council on his sole authority as mayor. One of them was his son-in-law John Farrington of the country party; but Miller himself must have been an Anglican and a court supporter. He was continued as alderman under the new charter of 1685, but removed in June 1688. He was returned to the Convention, presumably as a moderate Tory, but did not vote to agree with the Lords that the throne was not vacant. An inactive Member, his only committees were on the bills for establishing a ‘court of conscience’ for small claims in Newcastle-upon-Tyne and for restoring corporations. He attended the dinner held in Chichester on 4 Nov. 1689 to celebrate the anniversary of the Revolution, and was knighted in the following month. Re-elected in 1690 he was listed as a Tory. He was created a baronet a few weeks before his death on 2 Dec. 1705, aged 70, and was buried in the family vault in Chichester cathedral. His son sat for Chichester as a Tory from 1698 to 1705, except in the 1701 Parliament when he represented the county, and his grandson from 1715 to 1727.3

Ref Volumes: 1660-1690

Authors: B. M. Crook / Basil Duke Henning

Notes

• 1. N. and Q. (ser. 12), ix. 92, 173, 217, 255, 296; cxlix. 48; Mar. Lic. (Suss. Rec. Soc. xii), 55, 95; Vis. Suss. (Harl. Soc. lxxix), 29-30.
• 2. A. Hay, Chichester , 388, 571, 589.
• 3. CSP Dom. 1678, pp. 404-5; PCC 169 Hare; Le Neve’s Knights (Harl. Soc. viii), 431-2; Hay, 589; PC2/72/678; Suss. Arch. Colls. xxiv. 137; VCH Suss. iii. 125.