Henry Miles
Henry Miles, FRS was an English Dissenting minister and scientific writer; a Fellow of the Royal Society known for experiments on electricity.
Life
He was born in Stroud, Gloucestershire, on 2 June 1698. He was educated for the dissenting ministry, probably in London. His first settlement was at Lower Tooting, Surrey, where he succeeded Francis Freeman, a Presbyterian. Miles was at this time an Independent. He was ordained in 1731. In 1737, still retaining his Tooting charge, he became assistant to Samuel Chandler, at the Old Jewry meeting-house. From this time he was counted as a Presbyterian.He held the double appointment till 1744, and for the rest of his life was minister at Tooting only, having John Beesley as his assistant from 1756. In 1743, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, and in 1744 he received the degree of D.D. from the University of Aberdeen. To his pulpit work, for thirty years, he devoted two days a week, rising between two and three in the morning to write his sermons.
He was a friend of Daniel Neal, and Nathaniel Lardner, and a correspondent of Philip Doddridge, to whom he sent some criticisms of his Family Expositor. He died on 10 February 1763. His funeral sermon was preached by Philip Furneaux.