Robert Miller was the oldest child of Robert and Jane Pickens Miller. During the Revolutionary War, he was a lieutenant in George Neal's Company, Upper Ninety Six Brigade, Long Cane Militia, Colonel Richard King's Regiment of loyalist militia in 1780 and later was leader of a band of Tory symphathizers who fought the Whigs in the Sourth Carolina backcountry during the 1781-1782 time period. As the Revolutionary War ended, he left South Carolina for the Spanish Territory on the Mississippi River near Natchez. He first appears in the Natchez court records in 1788. In 1789 Robert Miller purchased part of a tract of 200 acres on Wells Creek from the estate of Francesco Bazo. In 1790 he married Sarah Cole, daughter of James Cole, a Delaware native who settled in the Natchez territory in the 1770s for whom Coles Creek was named. In 1793, he purchased property adjacent to that of his father in law on Coles Creek, but did so in the name of his (recently born) son Stephen Miller (perhaps to keep the property from creditors). He was listed as an inhabitant of the Natchez District in the Spanish Census of 1792 in the Homochitto District. By 1796, he is described in the Natchez Court Records as residing on a plantation on Coles Creek about 24 miles from Natchez; in that year he was forced to seek relief from his creditors and surrendered most of his property to them to pay debts. In 1798, his father-in-law and neighbor James Cole sold his property to Robert's brother-in-law Felix Hughes, who had married Margaret Miller in 1791and moved to Mississippi as a schoolteacher.
In approximately 1808, Robert Miller moved his family to Concordia Parish, Lousisiana. By the time of the 1810 census, Robert Miller had in his household, seven male and four female children, including the four children (Robert, John Sample, Margaret and Jane) of his brother, Andrew Miller, who had died approximately 1800. Robert's eldest son, Stephen, was born around 1791-2, followed by probably by Joseph, then James in 1796, daughter Jane in about 1797, Ebenezer around 1800 and daughter Mary. By 1818, he wrote his brother John Henry Miller seeking slaves for his Louisiana plantation, remarking that Stephen was an overseer at the time. In a letter dated 8 Sep 1821, he wrote his brother Ebenezer: "My Children have all left me but my youngest son, Ebenezer. My wife, myself, Ebenezer and an orphan boy are all the white family. "
Robert Miller died intestate on 20 Sep 1822 in Concordia Parish. His residence was described in the estate papers as about 24 miles above the town of Vidalia on the Missisippi River. The estate inventory mentions five slaves, 60 head of cattle, 20 head hogs, one yoke of oxen, 10 horses, two colts and various farm implements. |