Nathan Miller (grave 21) was born in Rehoboth, Massachusetts to Nathaniel and Ruth (Chase) Millerd. He married Robey (also spelled Rhobe) Salisbury of Swansea, Massachusetts, on February 3, 1750/51. By 1761, Nathan and Robey had moved to Cowesett in Warwick, just over the East Greenwich town line, where they had purchased 18 1/2 acres of land.
Nathan had a reputation as a knife and bayonet maker. His father and brother Nathaniel operated a foundry in Warwick. When he was drafted to serve in guard at Warwick, a general petition was raised asking that he be excused to continue his work making “these important articles of warfare”. The petition was accepted and he returned to his work until the outbreak of fighting, when he was made a captain in Colonel John Waterman’s regiment of Rhode Island militia.
Both Nathan and his son, Nathan Jr., served in the war. Private Nathan Miller, which most likely referred to Nathan’s son born December 31, 1751, appeared on pay abstracts of Captain Squire Millard’s company in Colonel Waterman’s 2nd Rhode Island Regiment for the alarm of November 21, 1776, and for service in the period of December 4, 1776, to January 7, 1777. Squire Millard, some twenty years younger than Nathan Sr., was his half-brother and uncle to Nathan Jr.; when Ruth Millerd died, the men’s father Nathaniel’s second marriage to Barbara Bowen produced Squire and several other children. Nathan Miller, probably Sr., also appeared on a list of Warwick men in 1777 whose “guns & equipage” had been impressed into military service by the town of Warwick.
Both Nathan and his son participated in the campaign against British forces in Newport, which culminated in the Battle of Rhode Island on August 29, 1778. On June 2, 1779, in East Greenwich, both men signed a receipt for pay for service in the “expedition against Newport in August and September” of the previous year – the same receipt Jacob Campbell and Joseph Greene signed.
Nathan died in Warwick at the age of 88. His grave reads “Erected to the memory of Capt Nathan Miller of Warwick who died Oct. 18, 1815 in the 89th year of his age”. His widow Robey (grave 22) was buried beside him. Her stone reads “Robey Miller, widow Capt. Nathan Miller, who died July 11, 1826, in her 94th year.”
Nathan and Robey had seven children:
Nathan b. December 31, 1751, m. Ann Rice
James b. January 19, 1754, m. Elizabeth Burlingame
John b. May 2, 1756, m. (1) Sarah Potter, (2) Zerviah Potter
Mary b. 1759
Susannah m. October 31, 1784, Jonathan Andrews
Rhobe b. September 22, 1764; m. (1) Jeremiah Bailey, (2) Archibald Dorrance
Ruth b. 1766, m. Capt. Simmons Spencer
