Miller, Lady Anna

(1741-1781)

   She was the daughter of Edward Riggs, a commissioner of customs in London. In 1765 Anna married John Miller, a member of a poor Irish family from Ballicasey, County Clare. She inherited great wealth from her grandfather, a privy councilor in Ireland, and after the couple built a grand house with gardens at Batheaston, near Bath, they toured Italy in 1770. In 1776 three volumes, Letters from Italy, describing the Manners, Customs, Antiquities, Paintings, &c., of the Country, in 1770-1, were published, with a second in 1777. Her husband was created an Irish baronet in 1778 and Lady Miller set up a literary salon in her villa. Poetical Amusements at a Villa near Bath (1775), a selection of the poems read, was published in 1775, with a fourth volume in 1781, the profits being donated to charity. Anna Seward (see entry) was one of the contributors. Lady Miller died at Bristol and was buried in the Abbey Church, Bath. Some of her poems: "Novelty: An Irregular Essay," "On the Pleasures of Society at Batheaston Villa," "On Trifles, and Triflers," "Subject, Painting, A Dream," "Subject, Dancing."

   Sources: Dictionary of National Biography. Electronic Edition 1.1. Oxford University Press, 1997. English Poetry: Author Search. Chadwyck-Healey Ltd., 1995 (http://www.lib.utexas.edu:8080/search/epoetry/author.html).