William Henry Miller (book Collector) - Britwell Court Library

Britwell Court Library

As a book collector, Miller was regarded as the successor of Richard Heber, and many of the rarest works from his collections of the latter passed into the library which he formed at Britwell Court, near Burnham, Buckinghamshire. He was particular in his choice of copies, and from his habit of carrying about with him a foot rule in order to measure the size of a ‘tall’ copy of a book which he wished to buy, he became known at sales and among collectors as ‘Measure Miller.’

The Britwell Library, formed chiefly at the time of the dispersal of the Heber and other important collections of half a century ago, and since added to by acquisitions from Thomas Corser, Laing, and other sales of more recent years, is unrivalled among private libraries for the number, rarity, and condition of its examples of early English and Scottish literature. It contains six works from William Caxton’s press, many printed by Wynkyn de Worde and Richard Pynson, and the greater part of the Heber collection of ballads and broadsides. It is especially rich in early English poetry, and possesses also the finest and most complete series in existence of Theodor de Bry’s collections of voyages to the East and West Indies. Britwell Court and its libraries were bequeathed by Miller to his cousin Miss Marsh, from whom they passed to Samuel Christy-Miller, M.P. for Newcastle-under-Lyme from 1847 to 1859, and on his death, on 5 April, to Wakefield Christie-Miller (d.1898), whose sons inherited them.

The Library had a crest showing a right hand holding an open book. The collection of rare books was housed in a library built in 1864 which, with the provision of steel doors and mains water hydrants, was intended to be fire-proof. The house and library collection stayed within the family until the death of the last descendant in 1919, at which point the house and the collection were sold, and the collection split up.