Frederick MILLER

MILLER, FREDERICK, (b. London, England, 8 March 1806, d. Hobart, Tas, 13 Oct 1862). First permanent Congregational minister in Australia.

Son of a bank clerk, Miller was confirmed in the Church of England, and trained as an architect. By the mid-1820s he had become religiously troubled. Bible study and a conversion experience associated with the prophetic preaching of the Rev Edward Irving caused him to eschew his former indulgence in worldly pleasures, and shortly afterwards he became a regular attender at Dr Burder's Independent Chapel, St Thomas's Square. In 1828 Miller entered Highbury College to train for the Independent ministry. In the same year Henry Hopkins (q.v.), a wealthy Van Diemen's Land merchant, requested the LMS to send an Independent minister to Hobart Town, offering some financial support, and in 1830 Miller volunteered for this task. Endorsed by the LMS he married his cousin, Elizabeth Miller in Feb 1830, was ordained in April, and by Sept was in Hobart as minister to the town's small band of Independents. Miller was Australia's first permanent (as distinct from itinerating) Congregational minister. A chapel was soon erected in Brisbane Street. Miller declared that his mission was to 'proclaim salvation by Christ to the people in this land of darkness and wilful ignorance'. Apart from regular ministerial work, he was long active in the local Bible Society, the Bethel Union for seamen, and temperance work. He was Calvinistic in outlook, and also a strong voluntaryist, opposing state aid to churches and church schools although he did endorse a loan from the government to build the chapel. Of nervous temperament, and described as gentle in manner, he was popular with townsfolk: more than 2000 attended his memorial service. To his congregation he seemingly showed a more austere face than to the world at large. Efforts to foster and insist on strict doctrinal and behavioural standards induced defections. Most damaging, from a practical viewpoint was the semi-departure of Henry Hopkins and his wife to gentler, more Arminian, Protestant theological pastures. Miller preached, he once said, to change the 'heart of stone' to the 'heart of flesh'; but in later years wondered if he impaired his effectiveness by labouring unduly the prospects of damnation. He died in Hobart in 1862, shortly after returning from a short trip to England. He was survived by his wife and seven children.

ADB 2; A Alexander, 'Henry Hopkins and George Clarke: Two Tasmanian Nonconformists' (MA thesis, University of Tasmania, 1983) ch 4; G Clarke, Work and rest (Hobart, 1862)

RICHARD ELY