Spearin Surname Project: November 2019

In the Will of Rebecca Speiran (née Carter) from 1680, it states that she died an intestate widow and administration of her goods was granted to John Miller Esquire "for use of Elizabeth Baynham, daughter & next heir". This implies that any other children of Rebecca Carter & George (II) Spierin were dead by that time (Rebecca 1638, Mary 1641, & George 1646), leaving Elizabeth as the sole surviving heir.

Further details of Elizabeth's life is included on our The London Spering's page of the main website:

George and Rebecca's first daughter Elizabeth married Isaac Baynham in May 1679 but it did not last long - he died 6 months later in November and is buried in St Andrew Undershaft. It was a very late marriage and she was about 45 years old at the time. Furthermore, while she was getting married in London, her mother was in Ireland - why were the family separated?

On her death in 1680, Rebecca would have been aged somewhere between 65 and 80 years old. So ... how did she get over to Ireland? If her children (bar Elizabeth) were dead, did George III have any family before he died? If not, how did the Spering name get into Ireland?

The Will of Elizabeth Baynham was written 30 years later in December 1710 in London. She had kept in close touch with the Pennington's (in-laws from the marriage of her aunt Alice to John Pennington in 1598) and one of them was Executrix of her will (Mary Bramston, nee Pennington). However, nowhere is there any mention of land in Ireland. Did she dispose of it some time before this? or did she inherit any land at all? And why is there no mention of her putative nephews Matthew and Luke Spierin in Limerick?

John Miller is a relatively common name and there may have been several of them around Limerick in the late 1600s and early 1700s. And they may have had sons called John too.

We can say from the 1680 Will that there was a John Miller Esquire (i.e. gentleman) in Limerick at that time.

Furthermore, a 1719 land grant indicates that a Lieutenant John Miller owned 378 acres of land in Cappagh ("Keppagh and Killnokappagh") which was subsequently leased to "Luke Sperrin of Killtonan". Is this the same John Miller who was administrator of the 1680 Will? or was it his son?

If he was a Lieutenant in the army, there should be army records for him.

This transcript is from the Dillon Papers available from a JSTOR publication (page 45)

Luke Spierin of Cappagh made a Will in 1726 (and died about 1728). He left the lease of the lands at Cappagh to his eldest son Hartwell.

Thus the name "John Miller" provides a direct connection between the 1680 Will (John Miller Esquire administrator) and the 1719 land lease to Luke Spierin of Cappagh ("in the tenure of Lieut. John Miller"). As there is a 40 year gap between these two documents, it is probable that they are not the same person and that Lieutenant John Miller may be the son of the first John Miller Esquire.

From the sources below, it seems that the latter John Miller (the son) had moved up the social ladder to "gentleman" by 1723 when he was Barrack-Master of the garrison at Limerick. He also paid for the upkeep of the infirmary at Limerick until at least April 1725.

He was still Barrack-Master in 1734 as his account of repairs to the Barracks were quoted in a House of Commons Enquiry into the misuse of funds allocated to Barracks-Masters (published in 1745).