Welcome
to
Long
Island
Genealogy
|
|
Please Consider a Donation
- Asking for donations is never easy, sadly it's a fact our presence
doesn't come without cost. Because of that we are asking you to become
a contributing member of "Long Island Genealogy" by making a donation
to support it's work. Without your support we can't continue.
Donations
can be made by clicking on the Donate Button to the left or sending a
check. For directions on sending a check please follow this link.
|
The Miller family
of Long Island
Files available for viewing:
The Millers of Miller's
Place, Long Island
This information originally
appeared in "History of Miller's Place," by Margaret Davis Gass
Copyright Spring 1971 revised Fall 1987
Andew Miller
There
are two almost identical deeds of sale from John Thomas to Andrew
Miller,
one dated January 21, 1679 and a second dated August 10, 1682, both
being
for the same house, fencing and thirty acres of land.
Considerably
more is known about Andrew Miller than about John Thomas, but even so
there
is much that remains a mystery, thoroughly muddled by conflicting
evidence and tradition. According to his own statement, he was
born about 1632, but whether in Maidstone, Kent, England, or Craig
Millerk Scotland is now known. His father was probably John
Miller who emigrated to Lynn
and Salem Massachusetts about 1643, and then on to Southampton and East
Hampton, where he was living in 1651. The first record of Andrew
is
when he, John and george Miller "are added to our Combination" in East
Hampton
in 1656. He was a cooper by trade and in the beginning days of
the
whale oil industry there was ample demand for his skill in making
casks.
He lived between Hook Pond and James Lane in East Hampton until
December
2, 1664 when he sold his house and land to Jeremiah Conkling, reserving
to
himself "that pane of glass that is in my house." In the same
year the
Town granted him eight acres of woodland next to his brother John,
provided he would make casks for the use of the Town for three years,
title being only provisionally until the end of that time.
It is now known when Andrew Miller can to Brookhaven Town, but he first
appears in records here in 1670, when on November 15 he bought a ten
acre
lot from William Poole, paying one cow "fair with calf or calf by her
side next May". The following year he bought a house and home lot
from William Poole, on October 16, subject to a mortgage to Mr.
Briant.
On September 30, 1672 he bought a house, garden and orchard from John
Bud
of Southold, who he paid 30 pounds for it six years before. But
when
Miller sold it to William Jayne in 1680 it was described as 13 acres,
including
a bit of swamp which he added to the property, and a "hotel".
Just
where it was is not clear, but somewhere in the eastern part of the
Town
of Brookhaven. From there he moved to Old Mans. In 1682 he
mortgaged his house there to John Inion and Andrew Gibb (who seem to
have
been more or less professional money-lenders of the day) for thirty-one
pounds six shillings, and was one of six men among whom was divided the
west meadow at the Old Mans (Cedar Beach and Mt. Sinai Harbor).
Part
of Strong's Neck is still referred to among old timers as "Andy
Miller's
Hill." He appears to have been the loser in a quarrel with his
next
neighbor in Setauket, for in 1673 he made an agreement with Samuel
Dayton
that they would not quarrel further and he would settle the affair by
paying
25 shillings to Ebenezer Hook. He was active in public life as
well
as in real estate. In 1675 he was one of four men who promised to
provide the Indians with adequate place to hunt and plant, and in 1697
one
of thirty-one men who signed the paper calling Rev. George Phillips to
be
minister in Setauket. He was overseer in 1672 and Constable in
1675,
as well as packer, guager and taxer. He served the Town in
various
other capacities, as arbitrator of quarrels and surveyor, and in 1679
he
moved a house all the way across the Island for Benjamin Gould, no
small
task when roads were scarce and poor.
Of his family, few details are known. He had a wife Hannah who
probably died sometime between 1690 and 1705, and five children that
are
known. A daughter Hannah died young, about 1690, and was buried
in back of the family homestead opposite the Pond. Mrs. Miller
was
buried there too, and it is recorded in the Town Records on June 13,
1716
that "the last will and desire of Andrew Miller deceased that there
shall
be a decent burial place reserved in the orchard where his mother was
buried,
for him and for all the posterity of the house of Millers
forever."
This request, made by Andrew Miller, Jr., was not observed, however,
for
when the School District bought the land in 1937 the still extant
gravestones and graves were simply bulldozed over and bones and stones
alike were tossed aside. Andrew Miller Sr. is also buried there, but
his stone had been moved to SeaView Cemetery in Mt Sinai, where one can
still find it recorded that he died December 24, 1717. His son
Andrew had died early in June, 1716. On April 13, 1706 the senior
Andrew had deeded his homestead to his sons John
and Samuel, with the understanding that if they paid all the redemption
money
and the necessary rents, the house would become theirs at his
death. At the time he refers to himself as "late of Brookhaven",
but whether he moved briefly to New Jersey about this time or where he
was living is not known, for he reserved to himself the house, barn,
barn close and garden and all rents of cleared lands. The land is
described as the land laid to John Bud and Thomas Thorp and 20 acres on
the east side. A deed
to the same place 36 years later describes it as eighty acres.
John
Miller was drowned at the age of twenty-eight, the first of three men
in
the family of that name to be drowned at that age. Samuel moved
to
New Jersey where his uncle William had already gone, so the property
passed out of the Miller family early in the 1700's. Two other sons,
Andrew and Richard,
were left to preserve the family name in the area to be called after
them
for many centuries.
Andew Miller jr.
On
August 4, 1689 Andrew miller Jr. bought thirty acres from Richard
and Margaret Floyd, "adjoining Zacchary Hawkins upland on the east
side" and being north of the swamp and highway. He built his home
there soon after, but the house was torn down in 1869. The barn,
however, has survived, being converted into a home in the 1930's and
40's by Jean M.
Brown, a descendant of Andrew Jr. and whose family still live
there. This is probably the oldest surviving building in the
village. The new building was apparently built on the foundation
of the old.
Richard Miller
On August 20, 1705 Andrew Miller
Sr. sold for five pounds to his son Richard a vast assortment of land,
including a tract on the west side of the
swamp on the south side of the highway, a piece he had accumulated by
buying various lots in the East Division from 1680 on. How much
land there was is not clear, but older records indicate at least 31
acres,
to which Richard added by his own purchase. The place remained in
the possession of the Millers until after the Revolution, but whether
the
large house which now stands just west of the Pond is original or only
the small house in back (authenticated as 1690 to 1700) is not now
known.
Additional articles of Interest by James A. Titmas