Judge Elijah Miller

Judge Elijah Miller

Find A Grave Memorial ID # 20855819

Judge Elijah Miller, 79, was notably the father-in-law and early law partner of celebrated American statesman William Henry Seward. A distinguished local jurist and widower of the former Hannah Foote, Judge Miller gave Seward permission to marry their daughter, Frances Adeline, on the condition that the couple reside with him at his residence in Auburn, New York, now known as the national landmark Seward House, on the city's South Street. Impressed by the beauty of newly opened Fort Hill Cemetery in 1851, the Judge purchased a family plot here and was the first Seward relative to be buried in it, his death having occurred later that year. In time he was joined here by his daughters Frances Seward and Lazette Worden, his son-in-law William Seward, several grandchildren, and many of his descendants.

NOTE: William Henry Seward was the 12th Governor of New York, US Senator for New York, and the US Secretary of State under Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson.

Judge Elijah Miller was born on April 11, 1772 in Bedford, NY to Josiah Miller and Paulina Miller (née Titus). He was the second eldest of ten children. His siblings were Robert Miller, Anner Schooley (née Miller), Martha Miller, Elisha Miller, Sarah Miller, Elizabeth Miller, Lewis Titus Miller, Ezra Miller, and Clarinda McClallen (née Miller).

Judge Elijah Miller

Elijah attended Williamstown Academy (later renamed Williams College). After his graduation in 1796, Elijah studied law under Daniel Shephard in Romulus, NY. In 1798, he was admitted to practice law in the New York Supreme Court.

Elijah married Hannah Foote on January 1, 1800 and the couple had two children, Lazette Miller and Frances Miller. In 1808, the family moved to Auburn, NY where Elijah opened a law practice. His wife died three years later in 1811 and Elijah never remarried.

On March 13, 1817, Elijah was appointed to First Judge of the Court of Common Pleas of Cayuga County, a position he kept until his retirement. Outside of law, Elijah was involved with multiple construction projects such as the first cotton mill in Auburn, St. Peter’s Church, and multiple canals and railroads.

In 1823, Elijah employed recent law graduate William Henry Seward, who later married his daughter Frances. Elijah died on November 13, 1851 at the age of 79 years old. He is buried in Fort Hill Cemetery in Auburn.

NOTE: In 1803, Judge Elijah Miller, one of the founding lawyers of Cravath, Swaine & Moore, LLP, defended one of the first Native Americans tried for the murder of a white man in the State of New York. Despite heavy public disapproval, Judge Miller provided the defendant with free legal representation.

Early in his legal career, another Cravath lawyer, William Henry Seward (later Secretary of State under President Lincoln), represented a recently released ex‑convict accused of stealing six cents worth of fabric, and twenty years later, again on a pro bono basis, took on two cases that established the nation’s insanity defense, despite intense public outcry against the defendants, one of whom was an African‑American man who had killed a farmer and his family. In that case, although Seward lost the trial and the jury rendered a death sentence, Seward obtained a reversal from the Court of Appeals, through what legal historian Charles Warren describes as Seward’s “brilliant defense.”