Menteath appears in Miller's "Memoir" as "Jacobus Montaltus", a Latinised version of his name. Annotations by Menteath state that he and Miller were close friends, from 1737 (when they overlapped at the University of Oxford, at St Mary Hall) to 1780 when Miller died. The "Memoir" states that Menteath was promised the Barrowby living from 1745, by Sackville Tufton, 7th Earl of Thanet and his wife; the incumbent was Thomas Wood, who held it from 1732 to 1759. This was also the year of the Jacobite Rebellion, in which Menteath became embroiled, on a visit to his family.