Rev. Alexander Miller, Sr., of Cooks Creek

Rev. Alexander Miller

• Birth: 1720 in Macosquin, Coleraine, County Londonderry, Ireland
• Death: 1785 in Dayton, Rockingham, VA
• Burial: Cooks Creek Cemetery, Dayton, Rockingham, VA

biography

From Find A Grave Memorial# 102823746

"Rev. Alexander Miller, son of John and Mary McDonnell Miller, was born about 1720, and was from Antrim, Ireland. The exact date of his death is unknown, but he died before August 23, 1785 at Cooks Creek, Rockingham County, VA. This is the date (August 23, 1785) when his son John Miller sold 195 acres of his inherited land to his brother Samuel Miller. About 1748 Alexander married Jane Evans. The child of David and Jane Norton Evans, Jane was born about 1724 and was from Glasgow, Scotland, died after 1793 at Cooks Creek, Rockingham Co., VA. (Jane's name is spelled four different ways in old documents: Jane, Jain, Janet, and Jenat, but "Jane"" is the most common spelling and will be used in this book)."
"Rev. Miller was a minister of the Presbyterian Church and a farmer. He was a large land owner. He was one of the first Presbyterian ministers in the upper Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, having come to the area before August 21, 1754 when he was a trustee for a New Providence Presbyterian Meeting House in Augusta Co., VA."
"There are more documented references about Rev. Miller than about most early settlers, but many facts about Rev. Miller are still not known. Even his death date is not certain. The 1784 Rockingham Co. land tax records indicate that he was still living. By January 4, 1786 Rev. Miller was dead because his wife Jane was a widow when she gave permission for their daughter Margaret to marry."
"Rev. Miller and Jane had four children who have been verified:
* John, born Jan. 10, 1749, married Margaret Hicklin;

• Samuel, born 1753, married Anna "Ann" Braford;
• Isaac, born 1755, married Polly Ann Riggs; and
• Margaret Miller, born 1761, married Josiah Harrison."

"Alexander Miller's Early Life".

"In 1996, Robert H. Bonar, Asst. Sec. for the Presbyterian Historical Society of Ireland, in Belfast, Ireland, sent information about Rev. Alexander Miller from the Presbyterian archives. The entry for Rev. Miller in 'The American Festi', (a listing of Irish Presbyterian ministers who went to America), says that Rev. Alexander Miller was born near Macosquin, which is about 4 miles south of Coleraine and is in Co. Londonderry. He was educated at Edinburgh University where he received his Master of Arts degree on March 31, 1740. He was licensed as a minister in 1744."

Excerpts taken from 'Descendants of Rev. Alexander Miller, Pioneer of the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia' by Shirley Cullers Miller. This information has been used with Shirley Miller's permission. This book is still available from the author for about $50 plus postage.

notes

Comment: please be cautious in evaluating the notes & ancestry given below. There's some hooey in the story.

(Presbyterian Orangeman; deposed from ministry for misconduct in Londonderry (and later Virginia); fled to France then emigrated to Virginia ca 1750; loyalist during Revolution; Wm. Givens was a witness during the Virginia misconduct proceedings)

Note: It is doubtful that Alexander and Jane had any children before their marriage in 1748. His Scotch-Irish parishioners in Virginia might have accepted it. Many of these tough, practical, fertile people who rode point on the frontier from the Susquehanna to the Sacramento already had a "bun in the oven" when they said "I do" and meant "I did." But the proper Presbyterians of 18th Century Glasgow and Ulster, especially those who decided which candidates for the ministry got ordained, would have been scandalized.

Alexander Miller was a well-educated minister, a large Shenandoah Valley landowner, and grandson of the 3rd Earl of Antrim. [SIC: no he wasnt] He was descended from Scottish, Irish, and English nobility. Alexander appears to have had more resources than the average immigrant preacher/farmer. He may have been receiving remittance money from his well-to-do family who put him through the University of Edinburgh, or he may have received a lump sum upon emigrating from Ireland, or it may be Jane Evans' family that had the money.

After earning a Master of Arts (Theology and Dialectic) from the University of Edinburgh in Scotland in 1740, Alexander Miller returned to his native northern Ireland where he was later licensed (1744) and ordained (1746) as a Presbyterian minister. While serving the parish of Ardstraw, County Tyrone, he married Jane Evans and became a father. The family sailed for Philadelphia in the summer of 1749 and temporarily settled in Pennsylvania near the northern end of the same great geologic fold that created the Shenandoah Valley 250 miles to the southwest.

Reverend Miller was preaching in Ireland in June 1749 and buying land in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, in November 1749. Some stories say the county was Berks, not Bucks. But Berks was way out on the thin frontier line at Reading and did not exist as a county with its own land records until 1752. Bucks County was close to the Philadelphia Synod headquarters where Alexander could learn of any openings for pastors.

After earning a Master of Arts (Theology and Dialectic) from Edinburgh University in Scotland in 1740, Alexander Miller returned to his native northern Ireland where he was later licensed (1744) and ordained (1746) as a Presbyterian minister. While serving the parish of Ardstraw, County Tyrone, he married Jane Evans and became a father. The family sailed for Philadelphia in the summer of 1749 and temporarily settled in Pennsylvania near the northern end of the same great geologic fold that created the Shenandoah Valley 250 miles to the southwest. Reverend Miller was preaching in Ireland in June 1749 and buying land in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, in November 1749. Some stories say the county was Berks, not Bucks. But Berks was way out on the thin frontier line at Reading and did not exist as a county with its own land records until 1752. Bucks County was close to the Philadelphia Synod headquarters where Alexander could learn of any openings for pastors.

At this time there was a dispute among Presbyterians on the proper forms of worship. This may be why Reverend Miller was not called to a congregation immediately after his arrival in America. (Presumably, he had other sources of income to support his young family.) This internal church dispute may have been the reason for leaving Ireland in the first place. As someone with the volatile mixture of O'Neill, Loftus, MacDonnell, and Campbell blood who had been trained in dialectic debate at one of the best universities in the world, Alexander Miller was not a man to sit on the sidelines during an argument.

Land records indicate that by 1754 Reverend Miller and his family were living in the Shenandoah Valley where he later served as pastor of both Cooks Creek (near modern Dayton, Virginia) and Peaked Mountain Presbyterian Churches for several years. He continued with church duties in Virginia and North Carolina up to 1774. Alexander must have been proud of his Master of Arts degree. He added the initials M.A. to his signature on letters and church records. This may have been the normal practice then when few people had formal educations. Today, it could appear pretentious. But "Alex. Miller M.A." may not have been concerned about being liked by everyone he met. Like his great great grandfather [SIC: no he wasnt] the Irish rebel Hugh O'Neill (2nd Earl of Tyrone, Baron Dungannon), Alexander Miller had strong convictions and acted on them. In September of 1757, according to the minute books at nearby Linville Creek Baptist Church, Reverend Miller and some of his "rude" followers interrupted a service, insulted the preacher by calling him a papist, took over the pulpit, and lectured the congregation on the merits of infant baptism. The insulted preacher was Reverend John Alderson Sr., father of Reverend John Alderson Jr., the Baptist minister who married Brice Miller and Elizabeth Bradshaw in 1781. (What Alexander Miller thought about his son being married by the son of his old nemesis is unknown.) One week after this incident Linville Creek, Virginia, was attacked by Indians. Between the Shawnees, the Cherokees, and the Presbyterians, Baptists on the frontier had it rough.

In 1785 Alexander Miller died without a will. Two of his children were there to help settle his estate. Brice Miller was not one of them. The great grandson of His Lordship, Alexander MacDonnell, 3rd Earl of Antrim, had gone west over the mountains to start a new family in the wilderness. If you are one of Alexander Miller's descendants, you may recognize someone you know. But judge not. Compared to some of his ancestors, Reverend Miller was a Sunday school teacher, literally.

• Sources/ 1-"Descendants of Alexander Miller" Family Past, 2003. 2-"The Reverend Alexander Miller and Some of His Descendants" by Milo Custer, 1910. 3- "Shenandoah Families - The Millers" Geocities, 2003. 4-"Almanac of American History" Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., 1993. 5-"The Reverend John Alderson, Sr., 1699- 1780" by David Fridley. 6-"Chronicles of the Scotch-Irish in Virginia" by Lyman Chalkley.
• Contemporary lives: Samuel Adams (1722-1803), American patriot; "Gentleman" Johnny Burgoyne (1722-1792), British general during Revolutionary War; Chief Pontiac (1712-1769), son of an Ottawa father and an Ojibway mother, who led several tribes in well-coordinated attacks against British North American colonies in Pontiac's Rebellion (1763-1766).
• Current events: Shawnees, Cherokees, and other tribes launch series of raids against southern colonies' frontier regions (1757-1766); George Washington, a 25-year-old lieutenant colonel in the Virginia militia, convinces southern colonial assemblies to construct a string of frontier forts from Potomac River, southward up Shenandoah Valley, across headwaters of James and Roanoke Rivers to Fort Chiswell, North Carolina, then to Fort Prince George in South Carolina, and on to Fort Augusta, Georgia (1757). 'Awakening' generation, born 1701-1723.

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