Taverner John Miller

Taverner John Miller (1804-1867) MP for Colchester and for Maldon, and owner of a whaling business based in Westminster, London.

Biography

He lived at 1 Millbank, London and was a "ship-owner and sperm-oil refiner and merchant"cite web|url=http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=oQj3WHhDjYYC&pg=PA375&lpg=PA375&dq=mr+taverner+miller&source=web&ots=Y-x6BTvsbV&sig=2fLMA2Pozer8hs4w1c2hKmnVoGY&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=5&ct=result#PPA375,M1 |title=Benjamin Disraeli Letters|accessdate=2008-09-17] . He ran a 'Sperm Oil merchants and Spermaceti refiners' business called 'Messr T J Miller & Son' from Dorset Wharf, on the site of the current Victoria Tower Gardens by the Houses of Parliament.

He was elected as MP for Maldon in the 1852 general election, however an investigation into corrupt practices in the borough (in which he was not implicated) led to a by election in 1853. [cite web|url=http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1853/apr/19/maldon-election|title=Maldon Election|publisher=Hansard|accessdate=2008-09-13] . He was re-elected as an MP for Colchester serving from 1857 until 1867.

He married Marian Cheyne in 1838 and was a Church Warden of St Johns Westminster in 1855cite web|url=http://nq.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/issue_pdf/frontmatter_pdf/s10-V/117.pdf|title=Westminster changes in 1905|publisher=Oxford Journals|dateaccessed=27-12-30] .

His father, Charles Taverner Miller (1773-1830) was a wax chandler from Middlesex who has a patent (5896) in his name for an improved method of making candles in 1830 [cite book|title=The London Journal of Arts and Sciences page 341|publisher=Sherwood, Neely, and Jones|date=1931] and exhibited at the 1951 Great Exhibition [cite web|url=http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=HhILAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA191&lpg=PA191&dq=dorset+wharf+whales&source=web&ots=zgxafVHOHR&sig=9BIFS0c6nwSGTg7wfgnZAwRyUH0&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=1&ct=result| title=Official Descriptive and Illustrated Catalogue|publisher=Great Britain Commissioners for the Exhibition of 1851|accessdate=2008-09-21] . His brother, George Alexander Miller, was an "oilman and wax chandler" with premises at 179 Piccadilly [cite web|url=http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=40571|title=Piccadilly, South Side|publisher=British History on-line|accessdate=2008-09-17] .

The whaling business was continued by his son, George Taverner Miller (1839-1917) until Dorset Wharf was compulsorily purchased for £68,000 in 1906 by London County Council to extend Victoria Tower Gardens [cite web|url=http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/A2A/records.aspx?cat=075-col_15-2&cid=-1&Gsm=2008-06-18|title=Corporation of London|publisher=The National Archive|accessdate=2008-09-14] Miller family records] .

In 1831 he appeared as primary prosecution witness at the trial of a 19 year old George Fox at the Old Bailey where Fox was convicted for stealing Miller's silk handkerchief and was sentenced to be transported for 14 years [cite web|url=http://www.hrionline.ac.uk/oldbailey/html_sessions/T18311201.html|title=The Proceedings of the Old Bailey, London 1674-1834|accessdate=2007-12-30] .

References