Taverner John Miller

Taverner John Miller (1804 – 27 March 1867)[1][2] was an English businessman and Conservative Party politician. He was the owner of a whaling business based in Westminster, London and held a seat in the House of Commons from 1852 to 1853, and from 1857 to 1867.

Biography

Miller lived at 1 Millbank, London and was a "ship-owner and sperm-oil refiner and merchant".[3] 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[4] and exhibited at the Great Exhibition of 1851.[5]

Miller was elected as MP for Maldon in the 1852 general election.[6] However an election petition and an investigation into corrupt practices in the borough (in which he was not implicated) led to the election being declared void on 18 March 1853;[1][7] the writ was suspended[1] and the by-election was not held until August 1854.[8] In February 1857 he stood unsuccessfully at a by-election in Colchester, but won the seat at the general election in March 1857[9] and held it until his resignation on 5 February 1867 by taking the post of Steward of the Manor of Northstead.[3][10] He married Marian Cheyne in 1838 and was a Church Warden of St Johns Westminster in 1855.[4] 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 pickpocketing Miller's silk handkerchief and was sentenced to be transported for fourteen years.[11]

His brother, George Alexander Miller, an "oilman and wax chandler" founded Miller and Sons which had premises at 179 Piccadilly.[12] Their 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[13] His whaling business was continued by his son, George Taverner Miller (1839–1917) until Dorset Wharf was compulsorily purchased for £68,000 (£6.6 million as of 2016[14]) in 1906 by London County Council to extend Victoria Tower Gardens.[15][16]

References

  1. 1 2 3 Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "M" (part 3)
  2. ↑ Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "C" (part 5)
  3. 1 2 Benjamin Disraeli Letters. Retrieved 2008-09-17.
  4. 1 2 "Westminster changes in 1905" (PDF). Oxford Journals. Retrieved 2009-12-30.
  5. ↑ Official Catalogue of the Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations (1851). Miller T.J. Dorset Wharf Spermacetti oil from the South Seas
  6. ↑ The London Gazette: no. 21342. p. 2037. 23 July 1852. Retrieved 26 November 2010.
  7. ↑ "Maldon Election". Hansard. Retrieved 2008-09-13.
  8. ↑ Craig, F. W. S. (1989) [1977]. British parliamentary election results 1832–1885 (2nd ed.). Chichester: Parliamentary Research Services. p. 201. ISBN 0-900178-26-4.
  9. ↑ The London Gazette: no. 21983. p. 1182. 31 March 1857. Retrieved 26 November 2010.
  10. ↑ Department of Information Services (14 January 2010). "Appointments to the Chiltern Hundreds and Manor of Northstead Stewardships since 1850" (PDF). House of Commons Library. Retrieved 13 August 2010.
  11. ↑ "GEORGE FOX, Theft > pocketpicking, 1 December 1831". Old Bailey. Retrieved 2009-10-24.
  12. ↑ "Piccadilly, South Side". British History on-line. Retrieved 2008-09-17.
  13. ↑ The London Journal of Arts and Sciences page 341. Sherwood, Neely, and Jones. 1931.
  14. ↑ UK CPI inflation numbers based on data available from Gregory Clark (2016), "The Annual RPI and Average Earnings for Britain, 1209 to Present (New Series)" MeasuringWorth.
  15. ↑ "Corporation of London". The National Archive. Retrieved 2008-09-14.
  16. ↑ Miller family records

External links

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by
David Waddington
Thomas Barrett Lennard		 Member of Parliament for Maldon
1852 – 1853
With: Charles du Cane		 Succeeded by
George Peacocke
John Bramley-Moore
Preceded by
William Warwick Hawkins
John Gurdon Rebow		 Member of Parliament for Colchester
1857 – 1867
With: John Gurdon Rebow to 1859
Philip Papillon 1859–65
John Gurdon Rebow from 1865		 Succeeded by
Edward Karslake
John Gurdon Rebow
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