Miller was ap­pren­ticed to his fa­ther, a pav­ior (a lay­er of pav­ing stones and the like), but ran away to stu­dy mu­sic. He is said to have been flaut­ist in Han­del’s or­che­stra at one time.

He played the or­gan for 50 years at Don­cas­ter Church, and com­posed hymn tunes and harp­si­chord so­na­tas. Cam­bridge Un­i­ver­si­ty award­ed him a doc­tor­ate de­gree in 1786.

Works

• The Psalms of Da­vid Set to New Mu­sic, 1774
• Elements of Tho­rough-Bass and Com­po­si­tion, 1787
• The Psalms of David for the Use of Par­ish Church­es, 1790
• Thoughts on the Pre­sent Per­form­ance of Psal­mo­dy, 1791
• The Psalms of Watts and Wes­ley, 1801
• Sac­red Mu­sic, 1802
• History of Don­cas­ter, 1804
• Da­vid’s Harp, 1805