Joseph Miller Esq.

Descendants

Died before Mar 1799 in Bart-Colerain Twps. line area, Lancaster County, PA

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Biography

He was a leader in the founding of the Associate/Seceder dissenting Presbyterian congregation near Quarryville, Lancaster County, PA. That formative group met on his farm before it had its own church structures (first log, then brick).

He was listed in Colerain Township by 1751, in the Klein History of Lancaster County. But it is yet unclear when he got there. It also is unclear whether he was an immigrant, or where from (other than it would have been somewhere in today's United Kingdom).

In 1756, he and apparent neighbor Robert Loughead (who might have been the father of Joseph's two sons-in-law as two of Joseph's daughters, Sarah and Hannah, married Lougheads) were named co-executors of the will of Alexander Steele. So, he had to have already been significantly of age and stature at that time, rather than being a very young man. (Will reference in sources.) Lougheads were Covenanter/Reform wing dissenting Presbyterians, the opposite of Miller's Associate/Seceder wing, but evidently able to see past that.

Joseph was a tanner by trade, as referenced by his inventory and other court allusions.

In 1766, the Pennsylvania Gazette listed him as a shopkeeper near Oxford at "Fog Manor" which is where his Creswell parents-in-law are buried today. That account listed neighbors:

SUCH Persons as intend to subscribe for the Book, intituled, DE JURE REGNI: Or, THE DUE RIGHT OF GOVERNMENT. By Way of Dialogue, between GEORGE BUCHANAN, and THOMAS MAITLAND, by the said George Buchanan; and translated out the Original Latin into Englis by PHILALETHES, are desired to be speedy as it will be published in two Weeks from the Date hereof. Subscriptions are taken in by Andrew Steuart, and Patrick Wilson, in Philadelphia; William McElvane, John and James Kincaid, in Brandywine; William Red, d John McGowan, in Pequea; John Boyd, and Hugh Fergus, in the Drylands; John Black, in New London; Robert Baily, Joseph Walker, Hugh Russell, and John Carr, in Octarara; James McNaught, and Joseph Miller, Store keepers, in FogManor; James Wilson, and Jo Glasgow, &c. near Oxford; William Steel, Moses Irwin, Robert Reed, Thomas, Job and John Ireland, &c. in Chestnut Level; David Reed, George Reed, and John Allison, in Mount Nebo; John Reed, William Nicholl, and William Allinson in York County, near Sasq hannah; James Allison, Esq; in Donegall; William Cairns, and William McCane, near Mount Joy; David Allison, in Little Connowago; William Brown, and Andrew Barryhill, Store keepers, in Paxton; William Robinson, Tanner, in Connegocheague; John Murdoch, St e keeper, in Carlisle; John Scouller, in Yellow Breeches; Josiah Karr, and Archibald Tate, Teacher of Mathematicks, in Marsh Creek; Francis Armstrong, Store keeper, in Little Britain. May 22, 1766. N.B. The Price will be Two Shillings and Four pence to such as are not Subscribers.

Joseph was a justice of the peace who signed the wills of many, but he died intestate in 1799 at a yet-undetermined age, but definitely after his children were all in adulthood (An 1805 Lancaster County Orphan Court papers about his estate references the children as adults, including married names for the daughters, in what might be their birth order. That case also includes a James Miller, apart from the children, but that relationship is unclear yet.).

Joseph signed Hugh Barclay's will and the Miller and Barclay families seem to have had many ties, including sharing the dissenter Associate-Seceder sub-brand of Presbyterian faith. Hugh's sister-in-law (wife of Hugh's brother William Jr.) Esther Miller might have been this Joseph's sister. (Research to confirm/refute is still under way.)

The "colonel" rank for Joseph comes from a genealogy by the Fulton family, into which Joseph's daughter Margaret married, and which contains a chapter on the Joseph Millers. Another genealogical account, by his granddaughter Harriet Miller Walker (daughter of son Stewart Miller), called him a "general" in the Revolution. That seems unlikely but might be right about some sort of militia service, possibly pre-Revolution. No specific military records, however, have been found so far to clearly refer to him or a rank for him owing to direct military service. There are several vague early "militia" references, including the Klein report citing his arrival into the township, but even in those it is hard to confirm that any references are only to him rather than one of many other Joseph Millers. The nature of the Fulton book, that contains a chapter on this exact Miller, is, for now, the more credible working theory that he was involved, in some way, in local protective affairs, at some level of leadership rank. From other sources, he clearly was a fervent member of the Patriot cause, but his specific formal service -- or even certainty about which war -- is yet unclear.

In accounts from the Boehm family or other Mennonites, Joseph was noted for having been especially vigorous in his combined Justice of the Peace and Presbyterian church leader roles in jailing Lancaster County Mennonites and Methodists for being, by perceived definition, automatically prone to being Tory.

Joseph also was instrumental in the 1782 merger of the Associate/Seceder and Covenanter/Reform dissenting wings of Presbyterians overall, and was present at the Philadelphia PA meeting that accomplished that. His sons-in-law, the Rev. John Banks and lay leader James Fulton, however, resisted that merger and remained in the Associate sub-denomination. Banks was at the Associate seminary.

On Joseph's family side, based on naming pattern conjectures but frequencies, it is POSSIBLE that his father was a James or possibly Hugh, although some without sources claim Alexander. His mother or a grandmother seems likely to have been a Harriet. (His daughter Jane Miller Thompson had two grandchildren named Harriet; his son Stewart had a daughter Harriet and several grandchildren named Harriet; his daughter Sarah Miller Anderson also had a granddaughter Harriet. Scots-Irish commonly named after grandparents. And none of the various in-law families to these Millers, except the extended Steele-Bailey side of the Thompsons, seemed to have had a Harriet pattern on their own. And maybe the Harriet pattern with the Barclays is a clue to common ancestral ties, given, for instance, that Joseph was executor for a very early Steele will. He might not have been justice of the peace that early, so the tie might have been family more than his political role.

Joseph was married to Rachel Creswell (relatives also called Criswell), according to the helpfully explicit wills of her parents, Robert and Mary Stewart Creswell of Fagg's Manor (Manor Presbyterian) just over the line in Chester County. Robert Creswell's will names Joseph. Mary Creswell's will, the same year Joseph and his wife died, mentions daughter Rachel's Miller children Robert and Stewart, and in configuration that fits Rachel to her other Creswell relatives.

In the 1805 Lancaster County, PA, Orphan court record about his disputed intestate estate, his children were listed as: (some additional descriptors added by author)

Robert, his eldest son and co-executor of the estate; Margaret, married to James Fulton, the other co-executor; Jane married to Nathan Thompson William, who disputed Robert's wish to convert his father's raw hides into finished leather products to sell for the estate; Hannah , who married __ Loughead; Stewart Miller; Rachael married to William Loughead Mary married to the Rev. John Banks; Joseph, who received one of the estate properties; Sarah, married to Hugh Anderson

Additionally, a James Miller of yet-unclear relationship appeared in the same Lancaster court records with this Joseph's children, but not included within the list of children, after the 1799 death of Joseph, regarding Joseph's estate allocations. He is not likely the father of Joseph, who likely had died by then, and Joseph did not have a son James, who also would have been listed with his children. He might have been a brother or nephew, but he could not have been the already deceased James Miller 1719-1789 in Middle Octorara Cemetery, Lancaster County, PA, who seems more the right age to have possibly been his Joseph's brother. It also is not clear that that deceased James did, in fact, also have a son James Jr. The few records that exist about him or Joseph Esq. do not explicitly say so.

An account by his granddaughter (by Stewart), Harriet Miller Walker, said her grandfather Joseph had had a total of 14 children. Presumably the four omitted from the 1805 court record had died in childhood -- unless one, in fact, was the above James in Middle Octorora? Harriet, who had removed from Lancaster County to Philadelphia and New York as a child and then moved to Ohio as an adult, had awareness only of those aunts and uncles and siblings still living at her time, which implies that the others had all died.

Very little is known about Joseph and Rachel's children Robert (other than that he was a will beneficiary and died in Lancaster County 1822, a date cited by his brother-in-law James Fulton who cited that death as cause for his own withdrawal in Chester County from the Lancaster estate court case), William, Hannah Miller Loughead, Rachel Miller Loughead, and Joseph Jr. Neither Y nor autosomal DNA has yet turned up descendants from them, so it is yet unclear whether there were any.

Joseph's children Jane (Thompson) and Stewart Miller clearly had many children remained in Lancaster County, at least until adulthood, but burial details are unknown for both. Daughter Mary "Polly" (Banks) is buried in Montgomery County, N.Y., and was foster mother to Stewart's orphaned daughter Harriet (while Mary's sister Margaret Miller Fulton took in Stewart's orphaned children John Joseph "Joe" and Mary Jane, later Pickel. It is unclear who took in Stewart's orphaned children Rebecca, later married Pickel, Augustus, William and Rachel, but all were still in Lancaster County. The likeliest foster parent candidates seem to be Jane Miller Thompson and Rebecca Baird Baughman/Bachman, sister of Stewart's wife, Martha/Patience Baird). Joseph's daughter Sarah (Anderson) is buried in Ashland County, Ohio, and seems unlikely to have taken any of the children in, as she left the county before the children were orphaned.

Joseph's burial location is unconfirmed but is understood to be within Lancaster County, possibly the same Middle Octorara cemetery where some of his grandchildren are. Or he might be buried on his Colerain farm, or even potentially in the "Shrine" Presbyterian cemetery adjacent to Middle Octorara, as the Associate Presbyterians met there early on along with Covenanters there. Neither cemetery seems to have a record of him or his wife, both of whom died in 1799. They also are not listed in the Fagg's Manor Cemetery of his Creswell in-laws.

A number of pertinent records, such as church burial records, have apparently been destroyed, complicating such confirmations. Clearly, his grave, and that of his wife Rachel, wherever it is, is unmarked.

Sources

• Arrival in Colerain Township: Vol. 1, page 96, of History of Lancaster County by H.N.J. Klein, 1926, at Chester County PA Historical Society.

• His signature appears on page 62 of "History of Scottish Dissenting Presbyterianism in Lancaster County, PA" by the Rev. Reid W. Stewart. There also is a map that includes his farm relative to other landmarks, and other references to his activity.

• Alexander Steele will for which he was co-executor (scroll well into the list to see): [ http://freepages.misc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~aaronmarshall/MarshallNotes/Steele%20wills%20in%20Lancaster%20PA,%20also%20cemetery%20listings.htm ]

• Joseph's descent charts from a Fulton family genealogy (Joseph's daughter Margaret married James Fulton). The descent chart for him on Page 191 omits several of his children: [ http://www.archive.org/stream/genealogyoffulto00fult#page/n7/mode/2up ]

• List of the children in apparent birth order: Lancaster Co, PA (Orphan Court records) Miscellaneous Book 1803-1805, pages 143-144: Inquest Awarded; Lancaster Co., PA Archives, 150 North Queen St, Lancaster, PA.

• May 29, 1766 The Pennsylvania Gazette: [ http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~paslchs/newsabstracts.html ]

• Account of jailing suspected Tories in his Justice of the Peace role: [ [ https://books.google.com/books?id=bzEUAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA27&dq=joseph+miller+lancaster+pa+genealogy&hl=en&ei=3cIwTcvYMIOBlAees6j8CQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CCoQ6AEwATgy#v=onepage&q&f=false ]

• "History of Scottish Dissenting Presbyterianism in Lancaster County, PA" (2003) by the Rev. Reid W. Stewart (within self-published multi-volume series on dissenting Presbyterianism in various locations); referenced this Joseph Miller, Esq., several times, including a map of his area and reproduction of Joseph's signature.

• Fulton surname study group posts and e-mails about Miller and Fulton, especially from researchers Roberta Fulton Hirth and Patrice Fulton Stark. (Joseph Miller's daughter Margaret from Lancaster County married James Fulton from adjacent Chester County. James Fulton was co-executor of his father-in-law Joseph Miller's estate with Margaret's brother Robert in Lancaster County.)

• History of the Reformed Presbyterian Church in America, by William Melancthon Glasgow (1888), listing this Joseph Miller as Seceder/Associate Elder approving 1782 merger of the Seceder/Associate and Covenanter/Reform dissenting denominations of Presbyterians in America: [ https://archive.org/details/historyofrefor00glas/page/74/mode/2up?q=miller ]