Taverner John Miller

Miller lived at 1 Millbank, London and was a "ship-owner and sperm-oil refiner and merchant".[3] He ran a 'Sperm Oil merchants and Spermaceti refiners' business called 'Messr T J Miller & Son' from Dorset Wharf, on the site of the current Victoria Tower Gardens by the Houses of Parliament[4] and exhibited at the Great Exhibition of 1851.[5]

Miller was elected as MP for Maldon in the 1852 general election.[6] However an election petition and an investigation into corrupt practices in the borough (in which he was not implicated) led to the election being declared void on 18 March 1853;[1][7] the writ was suspended[1] and the by-election was not held until August 1854.[8] In February 1857 he stood unsuccessfully at a by-election in Colchester, but won the seat at the general election in March 1857[9] and held it until his resignation on 5 February 1867 by taking the post of Steward of the Manor of Northstead.[3][10] He married Marian Cheyne in 1838 and was a Church Warden of St Johns Westminster in 1855.[4] In 1831 he appeared as primary prosecution witness at the trial of a 19-year-old George Fox at the Old Bailey where Fox was convicted for pickpocketing Miller's silk handkerchief and was sentenced to be transported for fourteen years.[11]

His brother, George Alexander Miller, an "oilman and wax chandler" founded Miller and Sons which had premises at 179 Piccadilly.[12] Their father, Charles Taverner Miller (1773–1830) was a wax chandler from Middlesex who has a patent (5896) in his name for an improved method of making candles in 1830[13] His whaling business was continued by his son, George Taverner Miller (1839–1917) until Dorset Wharf was compulsorily purchased for £68,000 (£7.37 million as of 2021[14]) in 1906 by London County Council to extend Victoria Tower Gardens.[15][16]

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Taverner Miller