The Guiding Star
A Brief History of the Miller Family
William Miller was born to John and Margaret Miller in 1751 in Kendal, Westmorland County, England. He married Mary Spurstow in 1779 and they lived in Liverpool. Ten children were born there to William who is listed in various records as a mercer and draper or silk merchant. William died in 1826 and his wife Mary died not long after, in 1832.
Their son John was a tea and coffee merchant; Joseph Dundas was a Brazilian shipping merchant; George Spurstow was a woolen merchant and a shipping broker; William Spurstow was a solicitor [lawyer] and land speculator; and Charles was a minister. Little is known about their daughters.
Joseph Dundas Miller married Elizabeth Tomlinson. They resided in Brazil and England and their children included two shipbrokers, William Charles and Henry, a minister, Joseph Dundas, and a Canadian homesteader, Francis Benjamin. Joseph Dundas Miller Sr, died and was buried in Funchal, Madeira, and Elizabeth died in England.
William Charles Miller, a shipbroker, married Lucy Swainson. One of their eight children was Charles Edward Miller who married Annie Bayley and moved to America, homesteading in Manitoba, Canada. Charles also lived and worked in Pennsylvania, England, Wyoming and Montana. Except for one son, Edward Howard, their children married and lived in the United States. Edward went to South Africa during the Boer War, and spent the rest of his life there. His descendants live in South Africa but there has been no contact with them for many years.
Related Links
The Miller family
The SS Antelope, another ship used by Millers and Thompson
A flyer for the Millers & Thompson Golden Line of packets sailing to Australia
The Guiding Star was a ship in the "Golden" Line of Australian Packets owned by the firm of Millers and Thompson of Liverpool. This ship, built in 1853 in New Brunswick, Canada, was one of several that transported passengers to Australia in the mid-1800s during the Australian Gold Rush.
