Daniel Miller of Montgomery County, Virginia (1747-1840)
The information on this family was part of the Michael Browder website which is no longer available.
Daniel Miller is the earliest known ancestor of our Miller family. He came to Montgomery County in 1780 after being discharged from the Continental army in New York the year before.
Daniel and his wife, whose name is given as Mary, Ann and Anna in various court records, were apparently married about 1780 judging from the birthdates of their children. They originally lived in the part of Montgomery that became Wythe County in 1790. Daniel's name appears on the Montgomery County tax lists from 1787 to 1790. He was on the Wythe tax lists thereafter, and bought land on Reed Creek in 1793. By 1806 he had moved back into Montgomery. He appears on the Montgomery County tax lists from that year forward. In 1812 he bought land on Peak Creek, near Newbern, in present Pulaski County.
Daniel was apparently a rather robust individual. His last child was born when he was sixty years of age, and he lived to see several of her children born. When he was about eighty, he sold land to his grandson, allowing ten years for the balance to be paid off. He died on 28 Feb 1840, near Newbern, at the age of 92.
At this time, there is no firm indication where Daniel was born, and no indication of who his parents were. He enlisted in the 12th Virginia regiment in Augusta County, near Staunton, in 1776 at age 29. In youngest daughter Rhoda Miller Godby's 1880 census listing, her father's birthplace was given as England. If this is correct, Daniel may also be the immigrant ancestor of our Miller line.
According to his Revolutionary War pension applications filed in Montgomery County, Daniel was in the battles of Brandywine (11 Sept 1777) and Germantown (4 Oct 1777), both in Pennsylvania, and the battle of Monmouth (28 June 1778) in New Jersey. He was also at the seige of Fort Mifflin, or, "the storming of Mud Island" as he referred to it. Fort Mifflin was still under construction on Mud Island in the Delaware River when the British, commanded by Lord Admiral Howe, attacked on 23 Oct 1777. It was the key to the defensive screen the Americans had set up on the Delaware to protect the city of Philadelphia. On Nov 10, the British began a round-the-clock bombardment, at times firing as many as one thousand cannon balls in twenty minutes. On November 15, after a three week seige, the Americans decided it was time to abandon the fort. Although over half of the 450 defenders of the fort were lost, they had held out long enough for General Washington to regroup his army and wait out the long winter.
Daniel's pension file includes the following affidavits attesting to his RW service:
Letter from John McDowell, Fayette County, KY to Daniel Miller:
Mr. Daniel Miller
Newbern Post Office
Montgomery County, Virginia
Fayette County February 10, 1824
Dear Sir:
Inclosed you will find a Certificate as far as I know of your being entitled to a pention in the service of your country. It is with pleasure I send you this Certificate if you can obtain your right to a pention as well as your fellow soldiers who are poor. I hope you are preparing your self for the event of death as well as trying to get a pention while you remain in this world. We are both growing old. I am between sixty and seventy, you are older than me as I was but nineteen when entering the armey. From your old friend and servant.
John McDowell
Affidavit of John McDowell, Fayette County, KY:
''I do hereby certify that Daniel Miller was enlisted in Captain Michael Bowyer's Company in which I was a Lieutenant in the summer of the year 1776 and joined the 12th Virginia Regt. in the spring of the year 1777 which was commanded by Colonel James Wood, he served two or three years as a good soldier in the army commanded by General George Washington and was discharged as well as I remember at West Point on the Hudson River at the time of building that Fort in the year 1778 or 1779 - Given under my hand this 10th day of February 1824.''
John McDowell Sr of the 12th Virginia Regt.
Affidavit of Henry Bowyer, Botetourt County, VA:
This day came Henry Bowyer before me a Justice of peace in and for the county aforesaid who being duly sworn says that he was a Lieutenant Adjutant in the 12th Virginia Regt. commanded by Colonel James Wood on Continental establishment in the army of the revolution, that he knew Daniel Miller a soldier in said Regt. in Capt. Michael Bowyer's Company, that said Miller having served as aforesaid upwards of two years was discharged at Robertson's farm opposite West Point in the state of New York by Colonel William Russell then commandant of General Scott's Brigade in the absence of that General. This applicant further states that he hath reason to believe said Daniel Miller was in the several actions of Brandywine, Germantown and Monmouth against the common enemy.
24 October 1825
H. Bowyer
All info on this page concerning Daniel Miller, his wife and his children comes from census records, tax lists, and court records at the Montgomery, Pulaski and Wythe County courthouses. It does not rely on secondhand info from other websites or gedcoms. Some of the info on other families (spouses and families of Daniel's children), comes from other people's research.
