Scottish shale Scottish shale

John Miller & Co.

Company number:
Co-partnership
Started:
pre-1857
Finished:
post 1928?
Registered office:

Sandilands, Aberdeen

Oil works:
Aberdeen Oil Works

John Miller was brother to George Miller (of George Miller & Co.) and James Miller (of James Miller & Son & Co.); all involved in the trading or production of oils. In 1861 the company were fined for infringement of Young's patent on oil produced at the Aberdeen works. The works were initially established to process the by-products of the adjoining Aberdeen gas works, but diversifed into the production of various organic chemicals, and later into fertiliser production. The company were taken over by ICI c.1928 and production continued at Sandilands works into the 1950's

Partners

  • John Miller (died 1st March 1894)
  • John Poynter (until 31st July 1857)
  • George Miller (until 31st July 1857
  • Robert Binning (until 31st July 1857)
  • John Edgar Poynter (appointed post-1857, until 31st July 1871)
  • John Poynter Miller (appointed post-1871)
  • James Bruce Miller (appointed post-1871)
  • James Crichton (appointed post-1871)

References

  • Trade directory listings

      • Directory Listings from successive editions of the Aberdeen Post Office Directory:

      • MILLER, John and Co., manufacturing chemists, Sandilands chemical works, Links (1849-66)
      • MILLER, John and Co., manufacturing chemists and oil refiners, Sandilands chemical works, Links (1867-76)
      • MILLER, John & Co., manure manufacturers, tar distillers and paraffin wax refiners, Sandilands Chemical works, Links (1877-80)
      • MILLER, John & Co., coal tar distillers, naptha, benzole, vitriol, manure and albumen manufacturers (1881-85 and later)

  • External resources

      • National Archives of Scotland (NAS) CS228/B/21/41 - Court of Session: Unextracted processes, 1st arrangement. E. M. Binney and Company, Bathgate, county of Linlithgow [West Lothian], James Young, manufacturing chemist, Glasgow, Edward Meldrum, manufacturing chemist, Bathgate, and others v John Miller and Company, manufacturing chemists, Aberdeen, John Miller, Aberdeen, George Miller, junior, Aberdeen, and John Edgar Poynter (individual partners of John Miller and Company): 1st Damages (1861).

  • Newspaper references

      • BY mutual consent, the undersigned JOHN POYNTER, GEORGE MILLER, and ROBERT BINNING, at 31st July 1857, retired from, and ceased to be Partners in, the Copartnership Business previously carried on by them and the other Subscriber in Aberdeen, as Manufacturing Chemists, under the Firm of JOHN MILLER & COMPANY.
      JOHN POYNTER,
      GEO. MILLER.
      ROB. BINNING.
      Signed 1st December 1857. ADAM PATERSON, Witness, THOS. J. SMILLIE, Witness, Witnesses to the signatures of John Poynter, George Miller, and Robert Binning.
      JOHN MILLER,
      5th December 1857. ADAM PATERSON, Witness, GEO. BOWIE, Witness, Witnesses to the signature of John Miller.

      Edinburgh Gazette, 8th December 1857

      .......

      Monday 29th February. Evidence of Mr Grove (for Young, the plainiff) - "In 1861 it was found that a firm of the name of Miller &Co., who carried on business at Aberdeen and Glasgow, were infringing the patent. Proceedings were taken against them; they paid £5000, and took a licence from Mr. Young."

      From the transcript of the court case; Young v. Fernie 1864, reprinted in the Journal of Gas Lighting

      .......

      INTIMATION is hereby given that by mutual consent of the Partners, the Subscriber John Edgar Poynter, Manufacturing Chemist in Glasgow, ceased on 31st July 1871, to be a Partner of the Firm of JOHN MILLER & COMPANY, Manufacturing Chemists at Sandilands, Aberdeen, of which the Subscribers were the sole Partners.
      JOHN MILLER.
      GEO. MILLER.
      JAMES CRICHTON, JAMES ROBERTSON-, both Clerks to John Miller & Co., Witnesses to the Signatures of John Miller and George Miller
      JOHN EDGAR POYNTER
      JOHN MOODY, A. M'DONALD, both Clerks to John Poynter & Son, Witnesses to the Signature of John Edgar Poynter.

      The Edinburgh Gazette, 12th January 1875

      .......

      NOTICE is hereby given that, in consequence of the death of John Miller, who died on 5th March 1894, a Partner of the Firm of JOHN MILLER & COMPANY, Manufacturing Chemists, Sandilands Chemical Works, Aberdeen, the Business will be carried on by the surviving Partners, John Poynter Miller, James Bruce Miller, and James Crichton, as sole Partners, under the same Style or Firm. Dated this 19th day of December 1894.
      J. P. MILLER.
      J. BRUCE MILLER.
      JAS. CRICHTON.
      ELLIOT MILLER,A. L. MILLER, Executors of JOHN MILLER. ALEX. DUFTON, Clerk, 19 Bon-Accord Street, Aberdeen, Witness. JAMES ROBERTSON, Clerk, 19 Hartington Road, Aberdeen, Witness.

      Edinburgh Gazette, 27th August 1895

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