James Mill was a distinguished historian, philosopher and administrator of the Indian civil service (although he never visited India), a very influential proponent of Utilitarian philosophy, and the father of John Stuart Mill who was to become among the most important British intellectuals and proponents of a revised Utlitarianism in the 1850s and 1860s. John Stuart Mill left a telling and not exactly flattering portrait of James Mill in his Autobiography (1873).
Born in Forfar, Scotland, in 1773, and raised a Presbyterian, James Mill studied Greek at Edinburgh University before being licensed as Presbyterian minister in 1798. Drawn to London and journalism, from 1802 he was contributing to the conservative and philosophical press, notably the Anti-Jacobin Review, the British Review, the Eclectic Review, and the Edinburgh Review. He was a fierce advocate of individual liberty,...
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Citation: Editors, Litencyc. "James Mill". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 02 December 2007 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=3112, accessed 09 June 2026.]
