Author: Miller, George
Biography:
MILLER, George (1771-1835: SBTI)
Born at Dunbar, his father was James Miller and his mother Elizabeth (Wilson) Miller. He was apprenticed to Alexander Smart, a bookseller in Dunbar, but the indenture was cancelled when Smart moved to Edinburgh. Miller became a grocer and printer. Established in 1795, his was the first printing press in East Lothian and he issued tracts, chapbooks, and the Cheap Magazine which included improving articles and sold for 4d a copy. He operated a second printing shop in Haddington which eventually was run by his son, James Miller (q.v.). He also operated as an auctioneer to the book trade but he declared bankruptcy in 1817; his financial troubles are detailed in his autobiography, Latter Struggles in the Journey of Life (1833). With Janet Jameson whom he married in 1791, he had five sons and one daughter. After Janet’s 1802 death, he married Helen Grieve. He died at Dunbar. Although the standard reference works attribute to him both Verses in Memory of Dunbar Collegiate Church and The Luckless Drave, and other Poems, it is possible they were written by his son, James Miller; certainly they are not mentioned in Miller’s autobiography. (Scottish Book Trade Index; George Miller, Latter Struggles in the Journey of Life [1835])