Philip John Miles

Philip John Miles (1773–1845) was an English landowner, slave owner, merchant, shipowner, banker and politician from Bristol. Through his banking interests he found himself on the register of owners of slaves on plantations in Jamaica though only as mortgagee in possession in cases when his bank had taken possession of plantations through the default of their owners on mortgage payments. He left an estate of over £1.2 million (the equivalent of £1.75 billion in 2023 using relative income by GDP per capita ), making him the first recorded millionaire of Bristol.

Life He was born on 1 March 1773, the second but only surviving son of William Miles (1728–1803), a Bristol West India merchant, and his wife Sarah Berrow. His elder brother William died aged 23 in 1790, and he inherited from his financier father in 1803. Walton Castle, Cardigan Priory and Underdown by Anthony Keck in Ledbury, Herefordshire, where the family originated before moving to Somerset.

He sat three times as a Member of Parliament, for Westbury from 1820, for Corfe Castle from 1829, and for Bristol from 1835. He was a member of White%27s, Arthur%27s, the Carlton, the Union Club and was a founder member of the Athenaeum.

Miles died on 24 March 1845. The Bristol Mercury wrote "His manners and deportment were plain and unassuming, free alike from affectation and coarseness, they bore the English stamp of honest and hearty sincerity. His disposition corresponded with his appearance. He gave away much in charity, but he gave it without the slightest ostentation."

Family Miles married: Sarah Agatha Miles (1799–1830) Maria Miles (1804–1822) Elizabeth Miles (1806–1853) Milicent Miles (1808–1867).

From the second marriage, there were seven sons and four daughters: Philip William Skinner Miles (1816–1881), father of Philip Napier Miles; John William Miles (1817–1878), died unmarried, lived with brother Henry Cruger Miles and sister Clarissa Philippa Miles at Penpole House Robert Henry William Miles (1818–1883), father of Frank Miles, and Robert Miles George Frederick William Miles (1820–1886) Ellen Octavia Miles (b. 1821) Charles William Miles (1823–1892) Sybilla Mary Miles (1827–1889), Edward Peach William Miles (born 1829 at Abbots Leigh – died 1889 at Raglan, New Zealand), married Olivia Caroline Cave (1831–1870) and had three children; great-grandfather of Peter Miles (courtier). Henry Cruger William Miles (1832–1888), died unmarried, lived with his brother John William Miles and sister Clarissa Philippa Miles at Penpole House. High Sheriff of Bristol in 1866. Marianne Adelaide Miles (b. 1834) who married General Patrick MacDougall, Commander of the British Troops in Canada Clarissa Philippa Miles (1838-1892) died unmarried, lived with brothers Henry Cruger Miles and John William Miles at Penpole House.