THE FAMILY OF JOHN LUCAS MILLER, b 1811, MY GREAT-GREAT-GRANDFATHER

 

In the 1980s, a cousin of my father, Mary “Maisie” Miller shared with me this list of the family of John Miller b 1811.

 

Since then I have been able to do a little research, mostly using www.scotlandspeople.com.au which is a pay-per-view site. 

In the records, the name Millar is often used interchangeably with Miller. I will use Miller in all cases. 

 

This is what I know of the family to the present time.

    JOHN LUCAS MILLER b 1811

 

Most of the records for John give only his first name and surname.  However in the 1881 Census his name is recorded as John Lucas Miller. 

 

The birth of a John Miller is recorded in the parish of St Cuthbert’s Church of Scotland in Edinburgh, on 14th January 1811.  His father William was described as a joiner and John’s mother named as Katherine Jack.  In the 1841 census, a William Miller, aged 72, occupation given as Wright, was living in Lady Lawson’s Wynd (now Street) in St Cuthbert’s Parish.  It is possible that this was John’s father. From the baptism records at St Cuthbert's I have found now, it appears that John was the fourth child of eight born between 1805 and 1822 to parents, William Miller and Katherine Jack. I haven't yet proved that connection but on John's death record in 

 

John married Mary Jean McDougal on 10th January 1831 after having been “three times proclaimed” in the Parish Church of St Cuthbert’s. 

 

 

John was baptised and married in St Cuthbert’s (a Church of Scotland Presbyterian) Church, and according to Maisie, John became an Elder of that church.  However, John and Mary Jean later converted to Catholicism.  In 1843 their six living children were baptised in St Mary’s Cathedral. Their younger children were baptised in the Cathedral within a few weeks of their births over the next few years. 

 

John and his family are found in the Scottish census records in 1841, 1851, 1861, 1871, 1881 and 1891. On each of those dates the family lived as tenants in different addresses in Edinburgh.  In those Census records, John was described as an Engraver (1841), Figure and Landscape Engraver (1851), Bookseller (1861), Printer, Master, Employing 4 Men, 7 Boys & 8 Girls (1871), Retired Engraver and Printer (1881). 

 

In 1875, Valuation Rolls for Edinburgh City showed that John owned a Shop at 61 High Street, a Hall and a Laundry at 55 High Street, and was a Tenant Occupier of a House and Wareroom at No 14 George Bridge.  So business in the 1870s appears to have been going well. 

 

Unfortunately in early 1880 there were reports in the Edinburgh Evening News of the bankruptcy proceedings against “John Miller & Sons, late printers, …  as a company, and John Miller, Alexander Miller, and Andrew Carruthers Miller, all printers ... “.  The article stated that “The trustee expressed himself satisfied with the explanations contained in a written statement by the bankrupts  … (that) represented the bankruptcy as having been caused by the Edinburgh Improvement Trust operations, and by forced realization of property through the calling up of bonds.” 

 

In the census records the family often had a young woman servant living with them and in 1881, after the bankruptcy, they had a young male boarder living with them.  Mary Jean’s sister, Grace, had come to live with them at that time also.

 

John died on 4 February 1891 at 17 Union Place, Edinburgh. On the death certificate, John’s father is noted as William Miller, corn dealer. The informant was his youngest son, Andrew Carruthers Miller. 

 

 

    MARY JEAN MCDOUGAL, JOHN'S WIFE

 

In John and Mary Jean’s marriage record of 1831, her father is named as John McDougal, labourer, who at that time lived in Lochrin, an area of Edinburgh in the south-west of the city centre. 

 

According to all of the census records Mary Jean was born in England. The 1851 census record additionally notes that she was born in Sussex.  In the 1881 Census, a younger sister, Grace, was living with John and Mary Jean’s family.  Grace’s place of birth was given as Ireland. In checking on the whereabouts of Grace prior to the 1881 census, I discovered that Grace had lived with another unmarried sister, Elizabeth, at the time of the 1861 census.  Grace’s birthplace in that census was shown as Dublin, Ireland, and Elizabeth was born in Waterford, Ireland.  On Grace’s death certificate in 1896, the girls’ father is shown to have been a Sergeant Major in the R.A. (Royal Artillery?), which would explain the different birthplaces of his daughters. 

 

All of John and Mary Jean’s children were born in the county of Midlothian according to the census records and it is likely that all were born in Edinburgh.

 

In a number of documents Mary Jean is recorded as Jean Miller so perhaps Jean was the name by which she was known.

 

Mary Jean was with the family at the time of the 1881 census but not in the 1891 census.  Perhaps she died in that decade but I have not yet found the record. 

 

            THEIR CHILDREN

 

 

Child 1 – John b. 1831.

 

Nine-year-old John appears in the 1841 census.  In September 1843 he was baptised along with his younger sister Catherine at St Mary’s Cathedral in Broughton Street.  The baptism record confirms that John’s date of birth was 3 December 1831.  John does not appear in the 1851 census when he would have been nineteen. 

 

 

Child 2 – Mary born 1833.

 

Mary is shown as the second child in the list from Maisie, above.  There was a Scottish tradition of naming the first girl after her mother, hence her name. However in 1836 another Mary, Mary Jane, was born. So it would seem that this Mary died in the first year or two of her life.  This Mary does not appear in the 1841 census. 

 

 

Child 3 - Catherine b 1834.

 

Catherine is shown as a six year old in the 1841 census. Along with John she was baptised into the Catholic faith in the Cathedral in September 1843 just a few days after her younger siblings.  Those records confirm her date of birth as 6 October 1834.  Catherine then appears with the family in the 1851 census as a sixteen year old and is recorded as a Pupil Teacher. So far I have not found any more information.

 

 

Child 4 – Mary Jane b 1836.

 

Mary Jane is shown as five years old in the 1841 census. Mary Jane was baptised on 2nd July 1843 in the St Mary’s Cathedral along with Alexander, Wilhelmina Elizabeth and Jemima Grace.  This was a few days before the older two children were baptised.

 

She is still with the family as a fourteen-year-old scholar in the 1851 census.  Nothing more is known of her. It is possible that she may have become a nun with Wilhelmina as a family story says that two of this generation of Miller girls became nuns. 

 

 

Child 5 – Alexander b 1839 - my great-grandfather.

 

Alexander was a two year old at the time of the 1841 census. On 2 July 1843 Alexander was baptised in St Mary’s Catholic Cathedral along with 3 of his sisters.  In 1851 twelve-year-old Alexander was a scholar. By the time of the 1861 census Alexander is a printer still living with the family. In 1871 he is still living with the family, aged thirty-two and described as a compositor. His older brother, John, nor any of his older sisters are shown with the family. In early 1877 Alexander married Catherine MacDonald in St Mary’s Catholic Cathedral.  Alexander and Catherine had five children by the time of the 1891 census and they all lived into their adulthood.  Alexander died from stomach cancer in early 1901. More about Alexander and Catherine in their own family story.

 

 

Child 6 – Wilhelmina b 1840.

 

I am using a bit of speculation about Wilhelmina’s story. 

 

On 2 July 1843 four of the Miller children were baptised in St Mary’s Catholic Cathedral.  Alexander is the first listed before Mary Jane. The next was a child whose name is difficult to decipher. The indexer of these records for Scotland’s People wrote the name Melmenny Elizabeth as their interpretation of the name. If you look carefully at the baptism record it could be that the first letter of the name might be a W. The end of the name looks a bit like “minny”. Maisie told me at one time that Wilhelmina was called “Minny” by the family.  Perhaps the person recording the name misunderstood her name or was unfamiliar with the spelling of it. The fourth child baptised that day was Jemima Grace who was two years younger than Wilhelmina.  

 

The birth date given to “Melmenny” was recorded in the baptism record as15 September 1841.  Maisie gave the date 16 September 1840 as Wilhelmina’s date of birth. It is possible that the baptism record is incorrect as to the exact day and year of her birth or the writing of the year has been misinterpreted. 

 

Wilhelmina was about 8 months old at the time of the 1841 census and is duly recorded in those records. In 1851 Wilhelmina is a ten-year-old scholar living with the family.  There is no nine-year-old child recorded at that time as the “Melmenny” child of the baptismal record would have been. Wilhelmina definitely existed and was born in 1840. So I am speculating that “Melmenny” born in 1841 didn’t exist while Wilhelmina born in 1840 did. 

 

By the time of the 1861 census Wilhelmina is no longer with the family.  Maisie understood that two of this generation of Miller girls became nuns; Wilhelmina, or Minnie, being one of those. Which of the other girls might have become a nun is unknown but perhaps it was Mary Jane who disappears from the family census records by 1861 and who would have been in her mid teens by then.

 

 

Child 7 – Jemima Grace b. 1842.

 

Again, a little speculation here.

 

In the baptism records of St Mary’s Catholic Cathedral this child’s name is recorded as Jammima Grace.  This is a very unusual spelling and I can find no other references to a girls’ name spelled that way.  I am speculating that her name was likely to be Jemima and I will use that.  Whoever recorded the name in the baptisms book may have been unfamiliar with the spelling of the name.  In Maisie’s list, above, this child is listed as Grace so it is probable she was known by her second name. Grace was less than one year old at the time of her baptism. She does not appear in the 1851 census with the rest of the family.  

Child 8 – Margaret Constable b. 1844.

 

Margaret was baptised in St Mary’s Catholic Cathedral at one month old. 

 

In 1851 she is recorded as a six-year-old scholar. Ten years later she was a sixteen-year-old scholar. By the time of the 1871 census she had become a bookkeeper.  

 

Margaret remained with the family as a bookkeeper until the 1891 census. In 1891 she and Andrew were living at 17 Union Place where their father had died earlier in the year.  They also had their aunt, Grace McDougal, living with them and a visitor, Christina Anderson who later that year married Andrew.  In the Valuations Rolls of 1895 Margaret is recorded as the tenant occupier at 17 Union Place while Andrew had moved out of this home. In 1905 she is a tenant occupier at 86 Lauriston Place.  Margaret died of stomach cancer in 1929 at St Margaret’s Convent, Whitehouse Loan, Edinburgh, aged 84. Is it possible that this was the same convent that two of her sisters had joined years before? 

 

 

Child 9 – Elizabeth/Eliza b 1846.

 

Elizabeth is recorded as having been baptised in May 1846. In the scan of the records the year of birth is difficult to read but given the details of Maisie’s list it was likely her birth date was 8 April 1846.  As Maisie’s list shows this child as Eliza it is possible she was known as Eliza. She also does not appear in the 1851 census with the rest of the family.

 

 

Child 10 – Mariam or Maria or Mary b 1848.

 

In the baptism records of St Mary’s Cathedral, Mariam appears to have been baptised sometime in April 1848 soon after her birth on 10 April, the actually date of baptism being obscured in the record scan.  In the 1851 census record she is called Maria and is two years old. At the next census 1861, she is called Mary and is a twelve-year-old scholar.  In 1871 at twenty-two years old she is recorded as Maria again and has become an assistant bookkeeper. Maria doesn’t appear in the family census records in 1881 or later.   

 

 

Child 11 – Andrew Carruthers b 1851

 

Andrew was baptised in St Mary’s Catholic Cathedral in June 1851 within a few weeks of his birth.  Again it is difficult to decipher the actual day of the baptism or birth.  

 

In the1861 census he appears as a 9-year-old scholar. At nineteen years old in 1871 he is recorded as a compositor like his older brother Alexander. In 1871 and 1881 Andrew’s occupation is recorded as printer-compositor and he is still unmarried, living with his parents, sister Margaret and aunt, Grace McDougal his mother’s sister.  At the time of the 1891 census Andrew and Margaret were still living at 17 Union place where their father had died just a couple of months earlier.  Also living with them was his aunt Grace McDougal (who died in 1896 at 17 Union place) and a visitor, Christina Anderson.  

 

On the last day of 1892, Andrew married Christina at St Mary’s Catholic Cathedral.  Christina’s parents were David and Margaret Anderson (nee Pearson).  In the 1891 census record Christina’s birthplace is given as what looks like “Fife B Tisland”.  After scanning maps and articles relating to Fife, I have made a supposition that this could be Burntisland, a royal burgh and parish on the northern shore of the Firth of Forth. The groom, Andrew, was thirty-nine years old and Christina, the bride, twenty-seven. Andrew was still living at 17 Union Place at the time and Christina at 46 Brunswick St Edinburgh.

 

 

In 1895 Valuation Rolls, Andrew is recorded as a Tenant/Occupier of a house at 181 Dalkeith Rd, Edinburgh. He is the informant on his aunt’s death certificate in 1896 and was still at the house in Dalkeith Rd. 

 

I have found no more records of Andrew and Christina. 

 

There is a family story that Andrew had a daughter or grand-daughter called Louise Miller who worked in the film industry. The only Louise Miller I have found who may fit this story is a Mary Louise Miller was born on January 15, 1924, in Los Angeles. From the age of 8 months to 4 years of age, Mary Louise was a featured player in sixteen silent films. Baby Mary Louise's parents owned a cleaning shop in Hollywood. She performed with such stars as Mary Pickford, Rin Tin Tin, Clara Bow, Theda Bara, Colleen Moore, Delores Costello, Corrine Griffith, Jason Robards, and Gary Cooper.  See more on the IMDb.com website. This is mere speculation but makes for an interesting family story. 

 

 

 

The family of my great-great-grandfather, John Lucas Miller b 1811

Anne Mackay, September 2017