John Miller (1604 - 1663)

Born 21 Oct 1604 in Ashford, Kent, England

Ancestors

Husband of Lydia (Unknown) Miller — married 1630 (to 7 Aug 1658) in Bishops Stortford, Hertfordshire, England

Husband of Mary (Ward) Miller — married before May 1662 (to 12 Jun 1663) in Massachusetts Bay Colony

Descendants

Died 12 Jun 1663 at age 58 in Groton, Middlesex, Massachusetts Bay

Problems/Questions Profile managers: Clayton Martinez [send private message], Bobbie Hall [send private message], and Puritan Great Migration Project WikiTree [send private message]

John Miller migrated to New England during the Puritan Great Migration (1621-1640). (See The Directory, by R. C. Anderson, p. 228) Join: Puritan Great Migration Project Discuss: pgm

Biography

John Miller was baptized on 21 October 1604 in Ashford, Kent, England, the son of a weaver, Martin Miller, and his wife Susan Hicks.^{[1] [2]}

At age 18, he matriculated at Caius College, Cambridge University in 1624, receiving financial help from the college, and earning a B.A. in 1627-8.^[2]

John emigrated to New England by 1634 with his wife and son John. He was Elder in the church at Roxbury, 1634, and made freeman in 1639. He preached in Rowley 1639-41. He was a proprietor and had a grant of land in Sandwich, 1641, and in Newbury, 1642. In 1642 he was asked to go as a missionary to Virginia, but declined "because of bodily weakness." He preached in Yarmouth, 1646 to 1662. "Lydia, wife of Mr. John Miller of Yarmouth," died in Boston, Aug. 7, 1658. In 1662 or 1663 he was called to Groton and preached there until his death: Mr. Jno. Miller, minister of Gods holy word died. June 12th 1663. He was succeeded there by Samuel Willard (son of Simon), who was the seventh president of Harvard College. It was said of him, "He was a man of low stature but high literary attainments." He was one of the few University graduates among the early settlers.^[3][4]

The earliest documents relating to any inhabitant of Groton, found among the files of the Middlesex County Probate Office, are those belonging to the estate of the Reverend John Miller, the first minister of the town. Power of administration was granted to his son John Miller, on July 3, 1663; and his library was appraised at £6 5s 7d.^[5][4]

Additional information about Rev. Miller's pastoral role in several early Massachusetts towns is found in Eleanor (Davis) Crosby's work, One line of descendants from Dolar Davis and Richard Everett ... (1911),^[6]

Rev. John Miller came to New England, 1634, with wife Lydia and son John; grad. Gains Coll., Cambridge, A.B. 1627; included in Mather's Magnalia in his "first classis"; was an elder in the Roxbury church, with Rev. John Eliot, who labored in converting the Indians and translated the Bible into the Indian language. Mr. Miller was an assistant from 1639 to 1641 to the Rev. Ezekiel Rogers at Rowley, Mass., and was also town clerk in this place. In 1641 he received and declined a call to become the minister at Woburn. In 1646 he was called to Yarmouth to succeed the "famous Marmaduke Mathews". His wife Lydia died in Boston, "at the home of Thomas Bumstead, Aug. 7, 1658". (Boston Records.)

After the death of his wife he was settled in Groton, whither he seems to have gone with the first settlers. "A vote passed in Groton March 18, 1662-3, requested Rev. John Miller to continue with them, if he was moved to do so." Land was granted to him in this same year. He died in Groton, June 12, 1663, and was succeeded by Rev. Samuel Willard [son of Major Simon] who was ordained July 13, 1664.

John Miller's son, John Miller, was assigned as administrator of his estate. The inventory includes a list of possessions that "mistress Miller hath that shee sayeth is hers," linen, furniture and household goods valued at £24.^[5]

Family

John married first Lydia ____, in England about 1630 (first child baptised March 1631). Lydia's birth and parentage are not known.

Rev. John Miller married secondly, Mary (Ward) Cutting,^[7] widow of John Cutting, before 27 May 1662 when, as Mary Miller, she granted to her daughter Sarah Browne 'the freehold that my husband Cutting had' and the share in Plum Island that belongs to it. This was done with the consent of her husband John Miller who signed the deed with her.^[8]

Children by first wife Lydia,

1. John, b. 02 Mar 1631, England^[9]
2. Mehitable, b. 12 Jul 1638, Roxbury, Suffolk, Mass. Bay Colony (Rowley VR 1:245).^[10][11]
3. Lydia, b. 02 Feb 1640/1, Rowley, Essex, Mass. Bay Colony (Rowley VR 1:138).^[10]
4. Hannah, b. ca. 1642 (based on birth of last child in 1687), named as daughter of Rev. John Miller, wife of Joseph Frost^[12][13]
5. Faith, b. ca. 1645 (d. 1729 in her 85th year)^[14]
6. Susanna, b. 24 Aug 1647, Roxbury, Suffolk; d. Charlestown 14 Oct 1669, unmarried (Rowley VR 1:245).^[10][14]
7. Elizabeth, b. 13 Oct 1649, Yarmouth, Barnstable, Plymouth Colony.^[15]
8. Mary, b. ca. 1653 (d. 28 Aug 1731, "aged about 78"), probably born in Yarmouth where her father was located that year.^[16][17]

Mary Isabella Preston (1930, Bassett-Preston) presented a slightly different child list.^[18]

Research Notes

Distinguish John Miller 1635 Dorchester

Unlikely John Miller 1635 Dorchester. Robert Charles Anderson profiled a John Miller in his Great Migration series.^[19] He was an immigrant to Dorchester who was granted 2 acres of meadow on 18 Feb 1635/6 [DTR 15] and then 2 acres and 20 rods in the Neck on 18 March 1637/8 [DTR 31]. On 26 Aug 1639, William Read sold Dorchester properties including those "which were anciently John Miller's," 3 acres at the six-acre lots, and "all the commons which belong to John Miller's lots being 6 acres and 46 rods of both in every division and two acres of meadow in the second fresh marsh." Some have taken the disappearance of this John Miller from Dorchester and the simultaneous appearance of Rev. John Miller in Rowley as evidence they were the same man.

Anderson concludes that there are "serious doubts" this John Miller was identical with Rev. John Miller of Roxbury, Rowley and Yarmouth. Anderson discusses the evidence, noting that the man at Dorchester was never "accorded the title of respect, 'Mr,' that the minister receives immediately upon his appearance at Roxbury and at all later residences" Also, if the minister were at Dorchester, we would expect that he would have joined the church there and that he would also have been admitted to freemanship at Dorchester. In addition, another man named John Miller took the oath of fidelity in 1639 at Yarmouth [PCR 8:185] and was granted one acre at Sandwich on 16 Apr 1640 [PCR 1:150]. He may have been the Dorchester man or a third man. "Curiously, these records are in Yarmouth and vicinity, where the minister did reside many years later."^[19]

John Miller's Dorchester record is confounded with the Rev. John Miller by Pope and others [Pope 314]. Savage 3:209 included the Dorchester records, but was not convinced they were the same man [Savage 3:209]. Others who covered the Rev John Miller do not include the Dorchester records at all [Wyman 673 and Rowley Families 242].^[19]

Disputed Origins

Father is Martin, not Nicholas. Arabella L.G. Morton in Descendants of John Gamage of Ipswich, Mass. assumes that Nicholas Miller, Sheriff of Kent, was Rev. John Miller's father (without evidence).^[20][21]

Great Migration Newsletter includes an article by Patricia Law Hatcher titled "Focus on Rowley and Ezekiel Rogers' Company." John Miller is briefly covered among the early settlers of Rowley. He was the son of Martin Miller, baptized on 21 October 1604 at Ashford, Kent, and he received his BA from Calais College in 1627/8.^[22] John Miller and his wife, Lydia (Lidea), joined the Roxbury church in early 1638 (members #180 and 181), and on 22 May 1639, John Miller was made a freeman at Roxbury. He then removed to Rowley where he was town clerk and recorded the town's first birth on 28, 8 mo. [October], 1639.^[23]

Disputed Children

A previous version of this profile reported, without further reference, an earlier daughter Hannah, said born Roxbury, about 1636; died about 1644, 8 years

A prior version of the profile attached John Miller as his child. While this John Miller did have a son John, as indicated in his profile he was born in March 1631/2. As noted in the profile for the detached John, that John's gravestone indicates he was born in 1624.

Unknown Origins of Spouse

Further identity of first wife, Lydia. Who was the wife of Rev. John Miller? The parents and birth date and birth location of Lydia, the wife of Rev. John Miller are not known.

Sources

1. ↑ Kent Archaeological Society, Ashford, Kent, Index of all known births, marriages and burials c. 1570-late 1800s
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1} Alumni Cantabrigienses: A Biographical List of All Known Students, Graduates and Holders of Office at the University of Cambridge, from the Earliest Times to 1900, Part 1, Issue 3, published 1924. Reference page 189
3. ↑ Belle Preston, Bassett-Preston ancestors; a history of the ancestors in America of Marion Bassett Luitweiler, Howard Murray Bassett, Preston Rogers Bassett, Isabel Bassett Wasson, and Helen Bassett Hauser, children of Edward M. and Annie (Preston) Bassett (New Haven, CT: Tuttle, Morehouse & Taylor Co., 1930) p. 189, citing "History of Cape Cod," Frederick Freeman, 1860; "Pope's Pioneers," 1900; Colonial Dames, Mass., 1927; NEHGR 31:69.
4. ↑ ^{4.0 4.1} Samuel Abbott Green, Early Church Records of Groton, Massachusetts, 1761-1830..., (Groton, 1896), Archive.org p. 186
5. ↑ ^{5.0 5.1} Middlesex County, MA: Probate File Papers, 1648-1871, case #15194, John Miller 1663
6. ↑ Eleanor (Davis) Crosby, One line of descendants from Dolar Davis and Richard Everett ... (Boston: Press of George H. Ellis Co., 1911), 55; digital image, Hathi Trust.
7. ↑ Mahler, Leslie. The English Origin of Nathaniel Ward of Hartford, Connecticut and of Hadley, Massachusetts, Mary (Ward) Cutting of Newbury, Massachusetts, Rebecca (Ward) Allen of Newbury and Their Nephew William Markham of Hadley. in: The American Genealogist, Volume 83, New Haven, Connecticut, 2008-9 p. 13- 18
8. ↑ "Massachusetts Land Records, 1620-1986," images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-L9ZZ-BP9J?cc=2106411&wc=MCBG-9NP%3A361613201%2C361849601 : 22 May 2014), Essex > Deeds 1673-1681 vol 4-5 > image 194 of 711; county courthouses and offices, Massachusetts. Essex Deeds 4:158
9. ↑ William R. Librarian of the Woburn Public Library Cutter, "Miller, Cook, Clark, Hall, Crosby & Smith," NEHGR Vol. 51 (Jan. 1897), p. 33-34.
10. ↑ ^{10.0 10.1 10.2} Essex Institute, compiler, Vital Records of Roxbury, Massachusetts to the End of the Year 1849 (Salem, MA: Essex Institute, 1926) Vol. 1, pages 138, 245.
11. ↑ Preston, Mary Isabella, Bassett-Preston ancestors : a history of the ancestors in America of Marion Bassett Luitweiler, Howard Murray Bassett, Preston Rogers Bassett, Isabel Bassett Wasson, and Helen Bassett Hauser, children of Edward M. and Annie (Preston) Bassett, published 1930. Reference page 189
12. ↑ Records of the First church in Charlestown, Massachusetts, 1632-1789 (D. Clapp & Son, Boston, 1880), p. 15.
13. ↑ "John Foster Williams," The New England Historical and Genealogical Register, 2 (1848):98-102; digital images, Hathi Trust.
14. ↑ ^{14.0 14.1} James Savage, compiler, A Genealogical Dictionary of The First Settlers of New England, Showing Three Generations of Those Who Came Before May, 1692, on the Basis of Farmer's Register (Little, Brown & Co., Boston, 1861) Vol. 3:209.
15. ↑ George Ernest Bowman, "Yarmouth, MA, Vital Records," Mayflower Descendant Vol. 16:122.
16. ↑ Historical Society. Watertown Mass., Vital Records of Watertown, 1630-1825 (Boston, MA: Online database: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2007).
17. ↑ "Massachusetts, Town Clerk, Vital and Town Records, 1626-2001." FamilySearch, Middlesex > Watertown > Births, marriages, deaths 1630-1851 > image 255 of 336; town clerk offices, Massachusetts.
18. ↑ Preston, Mary Isabella, Bassett-Preston ancestors : a history of the ancestors in America of Marion Bassett Luitweiler, Howard Murray Bassett, Preston Rogers Bassett, Isabel Bassett Wasson, and Helen Bassett Hauser, children of Edward M. and Annie (Preston) Bassett, published 1930. Reference page 189
19. ↑ ^{19.0 19.1 19.2} Anderson, Robert Charles. "John Miller," Featured name. Great Migration 1634-1635, M-P, Vol V. (NEHGS, 1995) AmericanAncestors.org Vol 5, Pages 117-19.
20. ↑ Morton, Arabella L.G. Descendants of John Gamage of Ipswich, Mass. (Worcester, MA: Press of C.R. Stobbs, 1906) Archive.org Page 49.
21. ↑ entered by Bobbie Hall, based on another researcher's findings: "Nicholas Miller of Wrotham was Sheriff of Kent in 1631, died 1640. He made a will the year he died naming only his son Nicolas. His son Nicolas died in 1658. grandson Humphrey died in 1709. His great grandson Borlase died in 1714. Could not find Rev John Miller or John's father Martin in any of the documents."
22. ↑ Hatcher citing Venn 3:189
23. ↑ Hatcher, Patricia Law. "Focus on Rowley and Ezekiel Rogers' Company." Great Migration Newsletter, V.1-20. AmericanAncestors.org (NEHGS, 2018.) Vol. 18:21, citing GMN 6:25, Venn 3:189.

See also--

• Hatcher, Patricia Law. "Members of the First Church of Roxbury." Great Migration Newsletter, V.6. (NEHGS, 1997) AmericanAncestors.org Vol 6, Page 25.
• Seward, Josiah. A History of the Town of Sullivan, New Hampshire, 1777-1917, Vol II. (the author, Keene, NH, 1921) Archive.org Vol. 2, Page 983.
• Thwing, Walter Eliot. History of the First Church in Roxbury, Massachusetts, 1630-1904. (W.A. Butterfield, Boston, 1908) Archive.org Page 42.
• Pane-Joyce Genealogy (no parentage, limited info on John or Lydia); Pane-Joyce Genealogy (no parentage, limited info on John or Lydia)
• NE Marriages Prior, Torrey, Clarence A. , pg 508. (Does not name parents, nor spouse) :"MILLER, John & _____ _____; by 1647; Yarmouth {MD 15:26}"
• Pioneers of MA, Pope, Charles Henry, pg 314. (Does not name parents)
• U.S., New England Marriages Prior to 1700-states marriage to Lydia
• Kent, England, Tyler Index to Parish Registers, 1538-1874
• New England, The Great Migration and The Great Migration Begins, 1620-1635
• Early church records of Groton, Massachusetts, 1761-1830
• Massachusetts, U.S., Wills and Probate Records, 1635-1991 for John Miller, Middlesex, Probate Papers, No 15163-15263
• Cambridge University Alumni, 1261-1900
• Middlesex County, Massachusetts Probate Index, 1648-1870
• Findagrave:https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/71719333/john-miller