# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Miller, Patrick

1904 Errata appended.
​MILLER, PATRICK (1731–1815), projector of steam navigation, third son of William Miller of Glenlee, and Janet (née Hamilton) his wife, was born at Glasgow in 1731. He was brother to Sir Thomas Miller [q. v.], lord president of the court of session, Edinburgh. Anderson (Scottish Nation, iii. 729) states that he began life ‘without a sixpence,’ as he often used to boast, and that his early years were spent at sea. His son Patrick says: ‘My father was not of any profession, either military or naval. His proper business was that of a banker, by means of which he had accumulated considerable wealth’ (Edinb. Phil. Journ. 1825, xiii. 83). He was in business in Edinburgh as a merchant in November 1760, as appears from the books of the Bank of Scotland. In one of his letters Miller refers to his partner, Mr. Ramsay of Barnton, and the Edinburgh ‘Directory’ for ​1773–4 contains the entry ‘Millar Patrick, Banker, James's Court.’ In 1767 he was elected a director of the Bank of Scotland, and in 1790 he became deputy-governor, which office he held until his death. He is said to have rendered valuable service by organising a new system of exchanges on London. He seems to have been a man of active mind, much given to experimenting.
According to James Nasmyth (Autobiography, p. 27), Miller was one of the largest shareholders in the Carron Iron Company, and he seems to have taken part in the experiments made there for improving the construction of ordnance. It is frequently stated that he was the inventor of the carronade, so called from the Carron foundry, where they were first cast. But Miller himself never made any claim to the invention, which seems to have been due to General Robert Melville [q. v.] Anderson (op. cit.) states that Miller was so much interested in the matter that he fitted out a privateer, the Spitfire, armed with sixteen 18-pounder carronades, but there is no evidence of this, though he may have had a share in the ship. The Spitfire was captured by the Surveillante, and taken into L'Orient 19 April 1779 (see Edinburgh Advertiser, May 1779, pp. 313, 317, 340). It is probable that in this engagement carronades were first used in actual warfare [see Melville, Robert, 1723–1809]; the admiralty minute recommending their use in the royal navy was not issued until 16 July 1779.
In 1785 Miller purchased the estate of Dalswinton, Dumfriesshire, in ancient times the seat of the Comyns. He gives an account of the estate, which was in a very bad condition, in Singer's ‘Agriculture of Dumfriesshire,’ 1812, pp. 549–54. He seems to have gradually retired from active business in Edinburgh, and to have made Dalswinton his home, devoting himself mainly to schemes of agricultural improvement.
He spent much time and money in shipbuilding experiments, his main idea being the construction of ships with two or three hulls, propelled by paddle-wheels placed between the hulls and worked by men from capstans on deck. In January 1786 the Edinburgh, a triple ship upon this plan, was commenced at Leith, and was launched in October of the same year. He published a description of this vessel at Edinburgh in February 1787 in a folio tract entitled ‘The Elevation, Section, Plan, and Views of a Triple Vessel with Wheels, with Explanations of the Figures in the Engravings, and a Short Account of the Properties and Advantages of the Invention,’ copies of which were sent to all the foreign governments and to the principal public libraries. The Leith Trinity House conferred upon him the freedom of the corporation for this publication in June 1787 (Scots Mag. xlix. 309). It has now become rare, but it is reprinted in full in Woodcroft's ‘Steam Navigation,’ 1848, pp. 21, &c. The drawings were made by Alexander Nasmyth the artist, who was an intimate friend of Miller. On 2 June 1787 he made some experiments on the Firth of Forth with a double vessel, sixty feet long and fourteen and a half feet broad. Another boat of the same kind, said to have cost 3,000l., was launched at Leith in the following year (Scots. Mag. August 1788, p. 412). The ‘Gentleman's Magazine’ for December 1788, pt. ii. p. 1069, contains an engraving of the boat from a sketch taken while it was lying in Leith harbour, and Woodcroft (op. cit. p. 32) reproduces a drawing made for Miller by Alexander Nasmyth. A model of a double boat made under Miller's directions is preserved in the machinery and inventions department at South Kensington Museum. It appears from Macpherson's ‘Annals of Commerce,’ iv. 178, that one of these double ships was sent to St. Petersburg, but the frame was so much strained during the voyage that no one cared to venture home in her, and she was accordingly left in Russia.
In his description of his ‘triple vessel,’ published in 1787, Miller wrote: ‘I have reason to believe that the power of the steam engine may be applied to work the wheels. … In the course of this summer I intend to make the experiment, and the result, if favourable, shall be communicated to the public.’ Accordingly the application of the steam engine as a means of propelling boats subsequently engaged his attention, and on 14 Oct. 1788 he made his celebrated experiment on the lake at Dalswinton House with a double boat, twenty-five feet long and seven feet broad, fitted with a steam engine made by Symington. An extraordinary amount of interest has centred round this trip, which demonstrated for the first time the practicability of steam navigation. James Nasmyth (Autobiography, p. 29) says that the boat was made of tinned iron plates. He also states that Robert Burns the poet, then a tenant of Miller's, formed one of the party on board, and that the experiment was witnessed from the shore by Henry Brougham, afterwards Lord Brougham, who was on a visit to Dalswinton House. The presence of Burns has been questioned, and Brougham, in a letter printed in ‘Notes and Queries’ (5th ser. v. 247), states that he did not visit Dalswinton until many years afterwards. ​The experiment is briefly recorded in the ‘Scots Magazine’ for November 1788, p. 566. At the conclusion of the trials the engine was placed in the library at Dalswinton House, and it is now in the South Kensington Museum. A drawing of the boat from a sketch by Alexander Nasmyth, who formed one of the party, is given in Woodcroft's book (p. 36). Miller made further experiments with a larger boat, for which Symington built another engine, in November and December 1789, in the Forth and Clyde canal.
On 14 April 1790 Miller's friend Robert Cullen (afterwards Lord Cullen), who was acquainted with James Watt, wrote in Miller's behalf to Watt expressing dissatisfaction on Miller's part with the performance of Symington's engines, on account of the great loss of power by friction, and declaring that from what Miller had seen of Boulton and Watt's engines he thought that they might be successfully adapted to the purpose of steam navigation. The letter, which was recently discovered at Soho after a search made at the request of the present writer, is printed in full in the ‘Engineer’ for November 1893. Watt's reply, dated 24 April 1790, is given by Williamson in his ‘Memorials of James Watt,’ 1856, p. 219. It was not encouraging; Watt seems to have considered Symington's engines ‘as attempts to evade our exclusive privilege.’ These letters furnish a sufficient explanation of the abandonment by Miller of experiments which at one time seemed to be full of promise.
Miller seems to have derived some assistance from the suggestions of James Taylor, who was then living in his family as tutor to his sons, and many years afterwards Taylor set up a claim to be regarded as part inventor. A similar claim was also advanced by Symington. The relative amount of credit to be assigned to Miller, Taylor, and Symington has been dealt with fairly and impartially by Woodcroft, by Major-general Miller, in ‘A Letter to Bennet Woodcroft vindicating the Right of Patrick Miller to be called the first Inventor of Practical Steam Navigation,’ London, 1862, and by Patrick Miller the younger (Edinb. Phil. Journ. 1825, xiii. 83, and art. Symington, William).
After abandoning the subject of steam navigation, Miller still paid attention to the improvement of naval architecture, and in May 1796 he obtained a patent (No. 2106) for ships with flat bottoms, of great capacity, and drawing very little water. In calms or light winds they were to be propelled by paddle-wheels, but the specification contains no mention of steam power.
With the poet Burns Miller maintained very agreeable relations. In December 1786 Burns writes: ‘An unknown hand left ten guineas for the Ayrshire bard with Mr. Sibbald, which I got. I have since discovered my generous unknown friend to be Patrick Miller, Esq., of Dalswinton.’ Several of Burns's letters to Miller, written after the poet became Miller's tenant, are printed in W. Chambers's ‘Burns.’
When nearly eighty years of age Miller introduced fiorin grass into Scotland, sending his steward, John Farish, to Ireland, where it had been cultivated with great success, to collect information. His report was published at Dumfries in 1810 under the title of ‘Treatise on Fiorin Grass.’ Miller's method of cultivating this grass is described at length in the Edinburgh ‘Farmers' Magazine,’ 1811, xii. 233; 1812, xiii. 3, 21, 203.
He died at Dalswinton House, 9 Dec. 1815, and was buried in Greyfriars churchyard, Edinburgh.
Miller married a Miss Lindsay, by whom he had five children: (1) Patrick, at whose instance Perry in 1794 offered to place Burns on the list of contributors to the ‘Morning Chronicle’ (Chambers, Burns, iv. 18); (2) William, captain in the horse guards, M.P. for Dumfriesshire, 1790, alluded to as ‘the sodger youth’ in Burns's election ballad, ‘The Five Carlines;’ (3) Janet, married to John Thomas, eighth earl of Mar and thirteenth lord Erskine (Marshall, Genealogist, 1878, ii. 80); (4) Jean, married to Leslie Grove Jones, lieutenant-colonel grenadier guards; and (5) Thomas Hamilton, advocate. After the father's death a dispute arose in the family respecting the disposition of his property, and the case reached the House of Lords, by whom it was remitted back to the Edinburgh court of session (see Journals of House of Lords, 1818 li. 542, 1822 lv. 465).
There is a portrait of Miller by Alexander Nasmyth, which was lent for exhibition in 1859–60 at the Patent Office Museum, by Miss Gregan of Dumfries; a copy is in the possession of the widow of Bennet Woodcroft. It was engraved in 1862 by Walker and Zobel as one of a group of inventors and men of science. Another, by an unknown artist, was presented to Woodcroft in 1861 by Mrs. Bairnsfather, a granddaughter of Miller, and is now temporarily deposited in the machinery and inventions department, South Kensington Museum. Mrs. Woodcroft also possesses a portrait-medallion by Wedgwood. A medallion by James Tassie is in the National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh.
R. B. P.
Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.199 N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
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