Obadiah Miller

• Brothers Obadiah Miller & Thomas Miller emigrated to Springfield, Massachusetts, by 1649. They are seen as the sons of Robert Miller, of Northumberland & Elizabeth Miller in old GEDCOM uploads, but details do not pan out. They’ve been detached.

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Biography

OBADIAH MILLER.

Obadiah MILLER married Joanna _______. He was a brother of Thomas Miller. The date of his death is not known. His wife died November, 1695. Accounts at the Pynchon store in 1666 absorbed six acres of land near Cold Spring in West Springfield, which Obadiah Miller owned and for which he was allowed £4. Two years later, March 28, 1668, nine acres more, abutting on the Great River, went the same way, for £17 10s. In April following Pynchon made this entry: "Goodwife Miller came to mee with her husband & said she was willing I should have the land. But she thought I gave too little, & in further discourseing & owning my debt to have been long due, she was willing to agree to the sale, if I would allow her 11s she owes for kersey, which I yielded to, & so both of them were willing, & the price for the land is £18 1s." He was evidently a hard worker and was often in the employ of Pynchon. The children born here were:--

1. Lazarus, b. September 23, 1655, m. Mary BURBANK.
2. Obadiah, b. March 26, 1658, m. Benedicta LAWTON, and 2nd Dorothy CHAPIN.
3. Joanna, b. July 6, 1659, m. John BARBER, Jr.

Source: SPRINGFIELD BIOGRAPHICAL AND GENEALOGICAL Page 3
SOURCE: The First Century of the History of Springfield, by Henry M. Burt, Vol. II, 1899; Pages 587-621
http://www.usgennet.org/usa/ma/county/hampden/gene/bios3_spfld.html

Wikitree: Obadiah Miller (1626–1718)

• Provides as rather detailed biography despite the minimal extant sources mentioning Obadiah.

Settled in Springfield

• Filby, Percy William. 1980. Passenger and Immigration Lists Index: A Guide to Published Arrival Records of 300,000 Passengers who Came to the United States and Canada in the Seventeenth, Eighteenth, and Nineteenth Centuries. Detroit Michigan: Gale Research Company. Archive.org (login required) or WorldCat.org.
• Colket, Meredith B., Jr. 1975. Founders of Early American Families: Emigrants from Europe, 1607-1657. Cleveland, Ohio: General Court of the Order of Founders and Patriots of America. WorldCat.org.
  • Name: Obediah Miller
  • Arrival Year: 1654 — Arrival Place: Springfield, Massachusetts
  • Primary Immigrant: Miller, Obediah
    • Source Publication Code: 1262
    • Annotation: Date and place of settlement or date and place of arrival. Names not restricted to the Order of Founders and Patriots of America.

Marriage

• Torrey, Clarence Almon. 1992. U.S., New England Marriages Prior to 1700. Baltimore, Maryland: Genealogical Publishing. Ancestry.com, p. 509.
  • “MILLER, Obadiah & Joanna [COGGAN] (-1695), w Thomas; b. 1655; Springfield”

Children: Births

1. "Massachusetts Births and Christenings, 1639-1915", database, FamilySearch (14 January 2020), LAZURUSS MILLER, 1655.
   1. "Massachusetts Births and Christenings, 1639-1915", database, FamilySearch (14 January 2020), LAZARUS MILLER, 1655.
2. "Massachusetts Births and Christenings, 1639-1915", database, FamilySearch (14 January 2020), OBADIAH MILLER, 1658.
   1. "Massachusetts Births and Christenings, 1639-1915", database, FamilySearch (14 January 2020), OBADIAH MILLER, 1658.
3. "Massachusetts Births and Christenings, 1639-1915", database, FamilySearch (14 January 2020), JOANE MILLER, 1659.

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Disputed origins

Neither he nor his brother were born IN the River Tyne.

• There are three towns in Northumberland that might be their birth towns, though the last two seem least likely:
  • Tynemouth, Northumberland – The birthplace showing for their mother on Geni as of 31 Oct 2024.
  • Blaydon, Tyne and Wear – Nearest place to Tynemouth of these listed towns.
  • Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Northumberland
  • Langley-upon-Tyne, Northumberland - most distant from Tynemouth

BOOK

• Sprague, William Buell. 1825. An Historical Discourse Delivered at West Springfield, December 2, 1824: The Day of the Annual Thanksgiving. Hartford, Connecticut: Goodwin and Company. Archive.org, p. 24.
  • “It is impossible to ascertain, precisely, at what period the settlement, on this side of the river, commenced; though it was probably as early as 1654, or 55; as there were, in those years, a number of house lots granted, on Chicopee plain, on this side of the river.”—Footnote: “The grants here referred to, were made to the following persons:—Francis Pepper, Anthony Dorchester, Samuel Terry, Hugh Dudley John Dumbleton, Miles Morgan, John Stewart, Obadiah Miller and Simon Sacket.”
• Cutter, William Richard. 'Genealogical and Personal Memoirs Relating to the Families of the ..., " Volume 2. Page 845. < GoogleBooks > Brothers Obadiah Miller and Thomas Miller.
• https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/memories/KZD3-X99