Author: Miller, Anna
Biography:
MILLER, Anna, formerly RIGGS (1741-81: ODNB)
Her first name is spelled variously “Anna,” “Anne,” and “Ann.” No record has been found of her birth or baptism but she is known to have been born in London in 1741, the daughter of Edward Riggs of the Middle Temple, who was appointed commissioner of Customs in 1741 but died in 1748, and his wife Margaret Pigott of Chetwynd, Shropshire. Anna was an heiress thanks to her Irish paternal grandfather Edward Riggs of Riggsdale (or Rigsdale), Co. Cork and of Binfield, Berkshire. On 15 Jul. 1765 she married another Irishman, Captain John Miller of Ballycasemore, Co. Clare, at St. James’s, Bath, Somerset, with her mother and his father as witnesses. They proceeded to spend much of her fortune building Batheaston Villa, a house with a landscaped garden, in her parish. They had two children, the second born in Paris in 1770 and left there temporarily in the care of his grandmother as his parents and elder sister made a tour of Italy. Anna’s letters to her mother formed the basis of her lively book of travels, Letters from Italy (1776). Back in Batheaston, in 1773 Anna Miller established a literary salon at which she held fortnightly poetry competitions. Though it attracted some ridicule, she published the winning poems in four collections between 1775 and 1778, the profits going to charity. John Miller was given an Irish baronetcy in 1778 and she became “Lady Miller”; in 1780 he added “Riggs” to his surname. She died suddenly at Bristol Hotwells on 24 June 1781 and was buried in Bath Abbey. The epitaph on her monument (1785) is by one of her protégées, Anna Seward (q.v.). Her husband, Riggs Miller, became an MP (1784-90) and remarried in 1795. He died on 28 May 1798 and was also buried in Bath Abbey; their son John Edward Augustus Miller (1770-1825) inherited the baronetcy. (ODNB [Anna Miller and John Riggs Miller] 13 June 2023; findmypast.com 13 June 2023; landedestates.ie 13 June 2023; Orlando 13 June 2023; Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette 5 Jul. 1781)
Other Names:
- "Lady" Anne Miller