John Miles and Martha of Norwich, Norfolk, England
Information from the Raddell Research Center in Queen's County, Nova Scotia, shows that immigrant John Miles was the son of John Miles and Martha of Norwich, Norfolk, England. LDS parish records show a John Miles who married Martha Reve (Reeve) in the parish of St. John de Sepulchre. Parish records show 16 children born to "John Miles and Martha", but it is not known if they were all siblings of John Miles, or if there may have been two Johns, each with a wife named Martha, nor the significance of christenings in different parishes. Thus, while all 16 children are shown here, it is uncertain if they were all children of John Miles and Martha, and siblings of Nova Scotia immigrant John Miles. Those children christened in St. John de Sepulchre would appear to be, but there is a near-ten-year gap in christenings for this parish, indicating either the records are incomplete, or that John and Martha did christen some children in other parishes.
Further research was commissioned through East Anglia Village Research (EAVR) in England. That John Miles (Jr) was a carpenter by trade seems apparent, yet EAVR could find no apprenticeship record in the appropriate timeframe. But their research did find the following records:
| The Norwich Directory of 1783 had the following entry: Miles, John Carpenter No. 124 Magdalen Street The Norfolk Poll Book for 1780 had one entry: The Norfolk Poll Book for 1786 had two entries: |
EAVR suggested that the entry from the Norwich Directory may be immigrant John Miles...the timeframe is certainly a match, but that the remaining entries for Norwich parishes from the 1780 and 1786 Norfolk Poll Books are a mystery. The author believes it also possible that this John Miles, carpenter, could be the father of immigrant John Miles which would explain why no apprenticeship record was found in the time period searched; he learned his profession from his father. A preliminary search through Norwich wills yielded no matches.
John Miles, the Immigrant
The only immigration record found thus far which can be verified as subject John Miles is from Nova Scotia Immigrants to 1867, one of only two Miles individuals listed. There is no date shown, only his birthplace as Norwich and his settlement location as Milton. There are other entries within this book which specifically identify individuals as Loyalists and/or as members of british regiments. This would seem to indicate that John Miles was not a Loyalist in the sense that he emigrated from New England or was a member of the british army, nor that any surviving records indicate that he proclaimed himself as such. But the fact that he settled in Canada, and appears alongside other Loyalists in Simeon Perkins' diary, would appear to indicate that he was of Loyalist sentiment, lured to Nova Scotia by the offer of land and a new life.
Whether or not he was a soldier or civilian, the records found thus far indicate his first appearance in Nova Scotia was around 1783-1785. The first entry from Simeon Perkins' diary which mentions John Miles is dated June 1, 1786, but it is possible there may have been earlier mentions of him than those portions provided to this author. This first entry was just three days before he married Thankful Freeman, and the last entry, dated Oct 21, 1811, when he would have been about 60-61 years of age. This diary was published in several volumes, but the author has only been able to locate one volume for which the timeframe was not applicable.
Following is an exact transcription from a copy of selected entries from the Diary of Simeon Perkins, which presents a fascinating image of life in the Nova Scotia wilderness. The Thomas Raddall Research Center of the Queens County Museum graciously furnished these entries pertinent to John Miles, as well as numerous other records on the Miles family.
Barnabas Miles and Eliza Keddy
Barnabas Miles, son of John Miles and Thankful Freeman, was a farmer, who, according to information from the aforementioned Thomas Raddell Research Center, removed to the town of Greenfield in Queens County about the time he married Eliza Keddy. No doubt he was named after his mother's father, Barnabas Freeman. His first wife and mother of their three children, Eliza Keddy, is strongly believed ("99.9%") by a Keddy descendant to be one and the same as Maria Elizabeth Keddy, she being one of the few Keddy descendants he had not been able to trace forward. The fact that she had a sister, Maria Sophia Keddy, who lived to adulthood and married, makes it probable that both went by their middle names, indeed the middle name in German families was the baptismal name and was commonly used as the given name.
The following are exact transcripts of two articles which appeared in the local newspaper, The Liverpool Advance; notice the irony of the dates:
| The Liverpool Advance, July 5, 1893 | The Liverpool Advance, date missing, but shortly after 17 Aug 1893 |
Henry Allen Miles and Elizabeth Matilda Crouse
When the author began tracing the Miles genealogy, this was the earliest known generation, which had fortunately been preserved in family records, along with dates and locations.
At some point before around 22 Jun 1886, Henry Allen and Matilda removed from Greenfield in Queens County, to neighboring Annapolis County; this is known from a record of the burial of their second-to-last child, George Stanley Miles, who died at three months and was buried in Melvern Square Cemetery in Annapolis County. The 1920 census for Massachusetts shows that Henry Allen and Matilda removed to Plymouth town, Plymouth in 1894 and 1893, respectively, evidently Matilda going earlier, probably with most, if not all, of their children, to set up the home, and Henry following after taking care of business matters. Matilda survived her husband by some 20 years and died in Plymouth, Massachusetts. The family records state that U.S. citizenship papers were drawn up, but that Elizabeth Matilda Crouse died before she was able to sign them.
George Outhitt Miles and Ida Tew Scott
George Outhitt Miles went with his family to Plymouth, Mass. in either 1893 or 1894, being then about 6 or 7 years of age; and later, probably at age 21, became a U.S. citizen. He was an avid horseman who trained jumpers for various owners and this profession dictated a transient lifestyle. How he met Ida Tew Scott of Newport is not known. Their only child, the author's father, was born just over three years after they married. Wife Ida Scott Miles died just three years after the birth of their only child, due to acute Bright's disease.
Shortly thereafter, with World War I waging, George enlisted and went to Europe. His son was left with Ida's family in Newport, and, when Ida's sister, Laura Tew Scott, married in 1923, George, Jr. went to live with she and her husband in Newport. George Outhitt Miles lived in various places, as his vocation demanded, including Chicago, Pennsylvania, and Maryland; the author's parents married at his home in Monkton, Maryland. By that time George Outhitt Miles had remarried and had a daughter, Edith, who, unlike her half-brother, inherited her father's love of horses. Edith often told the family that even as a teenager, some 20 years after Ida's death, that her father had still carried a picture of his first wife, Ida Tew Scott, in his wallet. His last place of residence was on Long Island, close to his daughter, where he died in a veteran's hospital in 1942, at the age of 54.
Return to TOP of this page
Return to MILES GENEALOGY
Return to INDEX FOR MILES
Return to MAIN INDEX
Return to HOME