Henry Miles, FRS (2 Jun 1698 – 10 Feb 1763) was an English

Dissenting Dissent is an opinion, philosophy or sentiment of non-agreement or opposition to a prevailing idea or policy enforced under the authority of a government, political party or other entity or individual. A dissenting person may be referred to as ...

minister and scientific writer; a

Fellow of the Royal Society Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS and HonFRS) is an award granted by the judges of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural science, natural knowledge, incl ...

known for experiments on

electricity Electricity is the set of physical phenomena associated with the presence and motion of matter that has a property of electric charge. Electricity is related to magnetism, both being part of the phenomenon of electromagnetism, as described ...

Life

He was born at

Stroud Stroud is a market town and civil parish in Gloucestershire, England. It is the main town in Stroud District. The town's population was 13,500 in 2021. Below the western escarpment of the Cotswold Hills, at the meeting point of the Five ...

Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( abbreviated Glos) is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn and the entire Forest of Dean. The county town is the city of Gl ...

, on 2 June 1698. He was educated for the dissenting ministry, probably in London. His first settlement was at Lower Tooting,

Surrey Surrey () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England, bordering Greater London to the south west. Surrey has a large rural area, and several significant urban areas which form part of the Greater London Built-up Area. ...

, where he succeeded Francis Freeman (died 17 November 1726), a Presbyterian. Miles was at this time an

Independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independ ...

(congregationalist). He was ordained in 1731. In 1737, still retaining his Tooting charge, he became assistant to

Samuel Chandler Samuel Chandler (1693 – 8 May 1766) was an English Nonconformist minister and pamphleteer. He has been called the "uncrowned patriarch of Dissent" in the latter part of George II's reign. Early life Samuel Chandler was born at Hungerford in ...

, at the

Old Jewry meeting-house The Old Jewry Meeting-house was a meeting-house for an English Presbyterian congregation, built around 1701, in the Old Jewry, a small street in the centre of the City of London. Its first minister was John Shower. In 1808 new premises were buil ...

. From this time he was counted as a Presbyterian. He held the double appointment till 1744, and for the rest of his life was minister at Tooting only, having John Beesley as his assistant from 1756. In 1743 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, and in 1744 he received the degree of D.D. from the

University of Aberdeen The University of Aberdeen ( sco, University o' 'Aiberdeen; abbreviated as ''Aberd.'' in List of post-nominal letters (United Kingdom), post-nominals; gd, Oilthigh Obar Dheathain) is a public university, public research university in Aberdeen, Sc ...

. To his pulpit work, for thirty years, he devoted two days a week, rising between two and three in the morning to write his sermons. He was a friend of

Daniel Neal Daniel Neal Daniel Neal (14 December 16784 April 1743) was an English historian. Biography Born in London, he was educated at the Merchant Taylors' School, and at the universities of Utrecht and Leiden. In 1704 he became assistant minister, an ...

, and

Nathaniel Lardner Nathaniel Lardner (6 June 1684 – 24 July 1768) was an English theologian. Life Lardner was born at Hawkhurst, Kent in 1684. He was the elder son of Richard Lardner (1653–1740), an independent minister, and of a daughter of Nathaniel Collye ...

, and a correspondent of

Philip Doddridge Philip Doddridge D.D. (26 June 1702 – 26 October 1751) was an English Nonconformist (specifically, Congregationalist) minister, educator, and hymnwriter. Early life Philip Doddridge was born in London the last of the twenty children of ...

, to whom he sent some criticisms of his ''Family Expositor''. He died on 10 February 1763. His funeral sermon was preached by

Philip Furneaux Philip Furneaux (1726–1783) was an English independent minister. Early life Furneaux was born in December 1726 at Totnes, Devon. He attended Totnes Grammar School, where he formed a lifelong friendship with Benjamin Kennicott. In 1742 or 1743 ...

Legacy

His widow, Emma Miles (died 1790), by deeds of 6 October 1763 and 15 February 1766, settled an endowment of £500 on the ministry at Tooting, and conveyed the meeting-house to trustees for the use of Dissenters of "the presbyterian or independent denomination." In 1880 the property became the subject of a chancery suit, which was decided on 1 March 1888 in favour of the Independents.

Works

His communications to the ''

Philosophical Transactions ''Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society'' is a scientific journal published by the Royal Society. In its earliest days, it was a private venture of the Royal Society's secretary. It was established in 1665, making it the first journa ...

'' extend from 1741 to 1753, and relate to natural history, meteorology, and electricity, in which he made new experiments. He gave assistance to

Thomas Birch Thomas Birch (23 November 17059 January 1766) was an English historian. Life He was the son of Joseph Birch, a coffee-mill maker, and was born at Clerkenwell. He preferred study to business but, as his parents were Quakers, he did not go to t ...

in his edition (1744) of the works of

Robert Boyle Robert Boyle (; 25 January 1627 – 31 December 1691) was an Anglo-Irish natural philosopher, chemist, physicist, alchemist and inventor. Boyle is largely regarded today as the first modern chemist, and therefore one of the founders of ...

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Miles, Henry 1698 births 1763 deaths People from Stroud English Dissenters Fellows of the Royal Society Burials at Bunhill Fields