Miller, George
George Miller
Active 1669 to 1684
Bishopsgate and The Royal Exchange
The area of Bishopsgate outside of the City of London was an important centre for instrument making in the years around 1660. Christopher Wise is recorded in Vine Court from a record of a label (in the Hill papers) from 1658, and it was here that he made a viol for Samuel Pepys in the early 1660s. The Hearth Tax records of 1668 show that by this time George Miller, a draper, was living in the same building and a label in a bass viol from the following year reads 'George Miller in VINE COURT / Without Bishopsgate, London, 1669', the only one of four known instruments where the label is legible enough to yield a date.
The dealings between Christopher Wise and Samuel Pepys highlight the commercial arrangements with resellers during the period, where despite Pepys' many visits to Wise's shop, he took delivery of the finished instrument from Richard Hunt in St Paul's Churchyard, and gave him the money for the viol. It appears to be the case that the Bishopsgate workshops, which also included Richard Meares shop at the centre of the Bishopsgate Street market, were largely disposed to making instruments for the broader London trade. Whilst Christopher Wise left the instrument making business entirely in the 1660s to establish a sugar plantation in Barbados, Miller moved into the city as a member of the Draper's company, setting up a music shop near to the Royal Exchange by 1672 probably as a response to opportunities that came with the rebuilding of the city in the wake of the Fire of London. He appears to have remained a part of the same circle of retailers and makers. In 1676 when he supported the publication of Nathaniel Noel's The Circle, it was alongside Richard Hunt and John Carr, another important retailer working from a shop in the Middle Temple Gate on Fleet Street. Miller's will, made in 1678 (but not proved until 1684) shows the continued relationship when he bequeathed 'to my Loving friend John Carr Twenty Shillings to buy him a Ring and to the widow Andrews forty shillings in many'.( Another bass viol was seen by the Hills with the inscription 'of William Andries 1670', and it is possible that this relates to the identity of 'widow Andries' in his will).
George Miller may have retired from his business in 1679, the year in which his will was written, although he lived for a further six years. He was succeeded by John Miller, for whom a bass viol contains a printed label 'Sold by John Miller, over against the Fleece Tavern in Corn-hill, 1680' with the appended inscription 'Made by Thos Collingwood / and' in ink above it.
Active 1669 to 1684
Bishopsgate and The Royal Exchange
The area of Bishopsgate outside of the City of London was an important centre for instrument making in the years around 1660. Christopher Wise is recorded in Vine Court from a record of a label (in the Hill papers) from 1658, and it was here that he made a viol for Samuel Pepys in the early 1660s. The Hearth Tax records of 1668 show that by this time George Miller, a draper, was living in the same building and a label in a bass viol from the following year reads 'George Miller in VINE COURT / Without Bishopsgate, London, 1669', the only one of four known instruments where the label is legible enough to yield a date.
The dealings between Christopher Wise and Samuel Pepys highlight the commercial arrangements with resellers during the period, where despite Pepys' many visits to Wise's shop, he took delivery of the finished instrument from Richard Hunt in St Paul's Churchyard, and gave him the money for the viol. It appears to be the case that the Bishopsgate workshops, which also included Richard Meares shop at the centre of the Bishopsgate Street market, were largely disposed to making instruments for the broader London trade. Whilst Christopher Wise left the instrument making business entirely in the 1660s to establish a sugar plantation in Barbados, Miller moved into the city as a member of the Draper's company, setting up a music shop near to the Royal Exchange by 1672 probably as a response to opportunities that came with the rebuilding of the city in the wake of the Fire of London. He appears to have remained a part of the same circle of retailers and makers. In 1676 when he supported the publication of Nathaniel Noel's The Circle, it was alongside Richard Hunt and John Carr, another important retailer working from a shop in the Middle Temple Gate on Fleet Street. Miller's will, made in 1678 (but not proved until 1684) shows the continued relationship when he bequeathed 'to my Loving friend John Carr Twenty Shillings to buy him a Ring and to the widow Andrews forty shillings in many'.( Another bass viol was seen by the Hills with the inscription 'of William Andries 1670', and it is possible that this relates to the identity of 'widow Andries' in his will).
George Miller may have retired from his business in 1679, the year in which his will was written, although he lived for a further six years. He was succeeded by John Miller, for whom a bass viol contains a printed label 'Sold by John Miller, over against the Fleece Tavern in Corn-hill, 1680' with the appended inscription 'Made by Thos Collingwood / and' in ink above it.
