It will be 100 years in October next since the late Rev. Frederick Miller preached his first sermon in Tasmania. The fact is of local interest because of the relationship he bore to Mr. R. J. B. Miller, Manager of the Bank of Australasia at Albany (a grandson), and also owing to the very distinguished service he rendered his Church in a life of self-sacrifice.

The following facts regarding his career are gleaned from a history compiled by another of his grandsons:-

On March 8, 1806, two years after the founding of Hobart by Collins, a boy was born at London Place, Hackney, London, to whom was given the name of Frederick. His ancestors had apparently been Londoners for generations, for there is a record of the marriage of his grandfather, John Miller, on January, 1758, at St. Martin's-in-the-Fields. Of John Miller's 14 children, four only had survived infancy, viz., two daughters, and two sons, Henry and John.

At the time when this story opens, Henry Miller was in the service of the Bank of England, but he died in January, 1815, at the age of 45, leaving his widow with two daughters, Susanna and Wilhelmina, and one son, Frederick. The loss of his father gave a shock to this boy of tender years, from which he never entirely recovered.

He was, in due course, sent to school, at an Academy at Cambridge Heath, London, conducted by a Mr. Thompson. He was duly confirmed in the Church of England, attending a Church called the Episcopal Jews' Chapel, with his mother and sisters; but, in spite of the earnestness of the clergyman, and his mother's piety, Mr. Miller's outlook on life, as he grew up and began to prepare for his chosen profession of an architect, was mainly through the medium of novels and plays.

He was conscious of receiving an impression from a conversation with a minister, a Mr. Hawtrey, and later from a sermon by John Angel James, of Birmingham, and at last he began to study the Bible, but only to weary himself with fruitless speculations on the mysteries of God's providence and government.

In July, 1825, he heard with feelings of most intense interest and anxiety a series of sermons on the work of the Holy Spirit, preached in the Caledonian Church, Hatton Garden, by the Rev. Mr. Irving, and the crisis of his life was reached at a service conducted by the Rev. Dr. Burder, whose text was "Who is on the Lord's side?" Mr. Miller, being then 19 years of age, joined Dr. Burder's Church, which met in the Independent Chapel, St. Thomas's Square, London.

Two years later, he entered Highbury College, Islington, as a student for the Ministry. He had thus definitely abandoned the position of a spectator of the drama of human life, and had enlisted for active service in the army of the Cross. While he was at the College, the Resident Tutor informed the students that he had received from the London Missionary Society a letter written to them by Mr. and Mrs. Henry Hopkins, asking if the Society would send a Minister to Hobart Town, and assist in building a Chapel there, and saying that they would be glad to entertain the Minister till the Church to be formed could support him.

The London Missionary Society, feeling that such work was beyond their province, suggested that any student, who might be led to volunteer, should communicate with the Committee of the College. At length Mr. Miller, with the approval of the College Committee, accepted this opportunity for Service, arrangements for his passage being made by a then well-known gentleman. Mr. Thomas Wilson, of Highbury, London, and other friends.

Mr. Miller was then engaged to his cousin, Elizabeth Miller, who lived at Greenwich, and, on February, 1830, at St. John's Church, Church, Hackney, they were married, he being nearly 24, and she about two years younger.

Mr. Miller was ordained on April 23, 1830, at Dr. Burder's Church, St. Thomas's Square, Hackney. The following Ministers took part in the service:- The Rev. Joseph Slatterie, of Chatham, the Rev. Robert Halley, the Rev. George Collison, Tutor at Hackney Acadamy, the Rev. John Pye Smith, D.D., Theological Tutor at Homerton College, and the Rev. Henry Townley, formerly Missionary at Calcutta.

Mr. and Mrs. Miller left England on May 16, 1830, in the ship "Lang," 360 tons, with a commission to establish a Church in what has been described as the Sodom of the Southern Hemisphere; an island which was the abode of bushrangers, and the scene of conflicts between naked savages and clothed ones; the place whose mere name would then send a shudder through a boy in England - Van Diemen's Land.

The ship arrived at Hobart Town on Wednesday, September 22, 1830, and a house in Brisbane Street was taken, and furnished by Mr. Hopkins with surplus furniture from his own residence. That house in Brisbane Street still stands in 1930, being one of the first set of semi-detached dwellings past the Church buildings. In it their first child, Elizabeth, was born, in August, 1831.

Mr. Miller began to conduct services on Sunday, October 17, 1830, preaching, from Isaiah lxi., 1-3, to about thirty persons in the reading room over Mr. J. P. Deane's library in Elizabeth Street, near Wellington Bridge, next to a Chemist's shop, and opposite to what was then known as Cat and Fiddle Alley. This building, also, is still standing, though it is now three storeys high, instead of two.

As the young man walked through the streets of Hobart Town - manifestly a new arrival - with his clerical dress, his somewhat delicate appearance, his neat, slight figure, and his 'gentlemanly deportment,' no doubt many conjectures sprang up in the minds of those who saw him as to what manner of man he would turn out to be.

From the first, the Governor seems to have taken an interest in him. Colonel Arthur had had such a difficult task in enforcing respect for the Ten Commandments that he must have welcomed this young preacher of righteousness as a valuable acquisition.

The Governor attended the opening of the Chapel in 1832, contributing £25 to the Church funds. In 1836, when the Church had a debt on the buildings of £500 or £600, he made them a grant of £500, which had apparently been applied for some time before. But he now went further, and induced the Legislative Council to vote Mr. Miller a salary of £200 a year. This offer seemed to give the young man a shock. He evidently realised that, if he accepted the salary, he would practically become the paid servant of the Government, instead of the trusted pastor of his people; that, instead of establishing Congregationalism, he would be conniving at the setting up of a semi-state church - and would thus forfeit the confidence of those who had ordained him. Had he left London, and come to the ends of the earth, only to accomplish this?

So, in spite of the financial weakness of his Church, and his own impaired health, and his responsibility for the little family that was growing up around him, the offer of a salary was respectfully and thankfully declined. This should not be regarded as the act of a man with private means, for, as far as is known, Mr. Miller never owned any money, except that which he received as minister of his Church.

Shortly afterwards, Mr. Miller realised that the Church, even more than he, should be freed from the consciousness of being indebted to State support and he consequently informed the Governor (apparently with the Church's approval) that the grant of £500 could only be looked upon as a loan, which would be repaid, as soon as possible. The Governor made the kind suggestion that it might perhaps be regarded as a persona! donation from him, but this way of escape Mr. Miller could not accept; and he held to his purpose, though it was 20 years before the money was repaid, and, when the time came, he bore his share of the burden.

We may be justified in regarding this renunciation as Mr. Miller's final act of consecration - the proof of the sincerity of his profession - the purchase of freedom for himself and the Church to do the will of Christ in the community - the foundation of the prosperity of the Church, and of the great influence which he wielded, and the deep respect with which he was regarded, throughout the whole community.

In giving an account of his Ministry, we can only speak in general terms, quoted largely from matter published at the time of his death.

He certainly made full use of his freedom to work among the people, for it was said that the outcasts of society were not outcasts to him, and that he became more familiar with the interior of the gaols than of the houses of his friends.

Possibly he obtained acquaintance with the poor through his three Sunday Schools (at the Chapel in Brisbane Street, and in Liverpool Street, and at Battery Point), for he used to have a week night service in each. There certainly must have been a very strong bond between him and the unfortunate classes, as it was at last said that, among thousands of the poor, scattered through the remoter districts of the Colony, his name was held in universal honor.

He induced many of the poor people, whom he visited, to take the total abstinence pledge; he co-operated with Messrs. Backhouse and Walker in forming the first Temperance Society in the town, and he lectured and preached on total abstinence.

Many of the local religious societies originated with him, and he laid himself out most assiduously to foster and advance their objects and interests. He was the means of forming a Council of Churches called the Evangelical Union, and he exerted himself on all occasions, in the interest of peace, to maintain the principles of the Union, so as to bring together the members of the different Churches, for devotion and co-operation in advancing the great objects of Christian brotherhood.

He had likewise the honor of originating the Bethel Union (or Mission to Seamen). He convened the preliminary meetings, communicated with Governor Arthur as to obtaining accommodation, and, in conjunction with other members of the Committee, succeeded in securing the appropriation of a building on the New Wharf, for the purposes of a Bethel Chapel.

For 25 years he was the indefatigable Secretary of the Bible Society. He was also Secretary to the local auxiliary of the London Missionary Society, and he always manifested a deep interest in the operations of the Sunday Schools, and of the Tract Society, and he took part in the establishment of the Hobart City Mission, in 1852.

The great number of young persons who belonged to his congregation, and identified themselves with his Church, showed the facility with which he could gain upon the young affections. He had the happiness of receiving numbers, as members of his Church, whom he had known as children in the Sunday Schools.

His services were eminently valued as a visitor of the sick and dying. He was ready at all hours of the day and night to leave his study, or his bed, to minister to their comfort, and that without respect of persons. The privilege of his counsel and prayers was desired by many a poor sinner, and not a few of the pious and the excellent of the earth. Ministers of the several denominations felt cheered with his visits of condolence and sympathy; and some, who passed away, showed their estimate of his worth and cathlocitity, by desiring that he should be sent for to attend their sick and dying beds.

He was a true friend of education. He was accustomed, when in health, to take his turn in visiting the public schools, and affording religious instruction at the times allowed.

With such a record of activities by a man of a delicate nervous frame, it is not surprising that his health was continually breaking down. The only means adopted of restoring his health seems to have been a holiday, with a sea voyage. It was his practice always to endeavour to turn his sick leave to good use, or, at least, to regard his suffering as intended to enforce on him some needful lesson.

Not all Mr. Miller's travels were caused through ill-health. In 1843 he exchanged pulpits for six months with the Minister of Collins Street Church, Melbourne. In July, 1856, he wrote of having been recently to Melbourne and Geelong. He was in Sydney a second time in October, 1847, and once more in February, 1857, when he acted as Chairman of an inter-Colonial Conference of Congregational Churches.

Mr. Miller's final breakdown occurred in 1860. He then felt that his work was done. He had in his mind a certain Minister of eminence in England that he would have liked to recommend as his successor. The Church, however, having obtained a medical report of his condition, thereon decided to send him on a voyage to England, and gave him a sum of money to cover the expense of the holiday, while undertaking to continue the payment of his usual stipend, and to bear the expense of pulpit supplies. He was then only 54, and there seemed every prospect that he might once again recover his health.

As his life drew near to a close, he was much humbled by the review of his labor, and spoke in most affecting terms of the defects and faults that had mingled with all his earnest endeavour to fulfil his course. There was one point, on which he often expressed sorrowful reflections, and which, had his life been spared, he would have set himself to correct. He thought that he had not given sufficient prominence to the more cheerful and hopeful aspects of the Gospel, and had dwelt too uniformly on the more sombre and depressing views and prospects of our fallen humanity.

On Sunday, October 12, he had his family collected around him, and fervently commended them to God, to whom his soul was evidently soon to be gathered. He died in the afternoon of the following day, in the presence of his wife and several of his children, and, though unable to speak, endeavored to do so, and was conscious to the last.

He was buried, in a tomb prepared by Mr. Henry Hopkins, on Friday, October 17, 1862, the same date as that on which, in 1830, he had preached his first sermon in the Colony.

On the following Sunday a funeral service was held in the Melville Street Wesleyan Church, conducted by the Rev. George Clarke, and attended by about 2,000 persons. In the course of the service, the declaration made by Mr. Miller at his ordination was read, and the congregation was called upon to bear witness to the way in which he had carried out that pledge.