MILLER, Thomas (?1688-1733), of Lavant, nr. Chichester, Suss.

Miller belonged to one of the leading families of Chichester. Both his grandfather and his father, the 1st and 2nd Bts., were mayors of Chichester, which they represented in Parliament under William III and Anne. His mother also belonged to a prominent local family, and after her death his father married the daughter and heiress of another leading townsman, William Elson, M.P. Chichester 1713-15. Classed as a Whig who would often vote with the Tories, he was returned for Chichester after a contest in 1715, voting against the Government except in the division on the septennial bill, when he was absent. After his re-election unopposed in 1722, Newcastle wrote of him as one who ‘though inclined to be a Tory, may, I believe, by good management, be brought off’.Newcastle to Sunderland, 31 Mar. 1722, Sunderland (Blenheim) mss. He and his family duly became Newcastle’s staunch supporters in Sussex. On his death, 6 Nov. 1733, his youngest son wrote to Newcastle: ‘He to the last expressed the same value as he always had for your Grace, and desired us all to promote your interest as far as lay in our power’.Thos. Miller to Newcastle, 15 Nov. 1733. Add. 32689, f. 30.