MILLER, WILLIAM (1 849), leader of the Second Adventists in America, was born on Feb. 5, 1782, at Pittsfield, Mass. He bore a good reputation as a farmer and citizen, served as a captain in the War of 1812, and was a diligent student and reader, although he had only a common school education. About 1818, after two years of minute study of the Bible, he became a Second Adventist. In 1831 he began to lecture, arguing that the "two thousand three hundred days" of Daniel viii. 14 meant 2,300 years, and that these years began with Ezra's going up to Jerusalem in 457 B.C., and therefore came to an end in 1843, and urging his hearers to make ready for the final coming of Christ in that year. To his many followers, after the year 1843 had passed, he proclaimed that 1844 was the year, that his error was due to following Hebrew instead of Roman chronology, and that Oct. 22 was to be the day. There was renewed excitement among Miller's followers; many of them left their business, and in white muslin robes, on house tops and hills, awaited the epiphany. In
spite of disappointment, many still believed with him that the time was near. He returned to Low Hampton and died there on Dec. 20, 1849. The Adventists or Millerites, were formed into a single body in a convention called by him in April 1845, but have since separated into four sects: Seventh Day Adventists (110,998), Advent Christians (29,410), Churches of God in Jesus Christ (1,686) and the Life and Advent Union (535)• Their total membership in the United States in 1926 was about 146,177. Miller published in 1833 a pamphlet which was the basis of his lectures; these also were published in 1842 as Evidence from Scripture and History of the Second Coming of Christ about the Year 5843.
There are biographies by Sylvester Bliss (1853) and James White (1875).