John Mill 1644/5-1707

John MILL 1644/5-1707

Biographical Note

Born in Harnendale, Westmorland, son of Thomas Mill, weaver. BA Queen’s College, Oxford 1666, MA 1669, fellow 1670, BD 1680, DD 1681. Chaplain to Thomas Lamplugh, Bishop of Exeter 1676; prebendary of Exeter 1677; rector of Bletchingdon, Oxfordshire 1682. Principal of St Edmund Hall, Oxford 1685. Prebendary of Canterbury 1704. His life’s work was an edition of the Greek New Testament, with extensive variant readings, which appeared in print just before his death in 1707.

Books

Hearne’s diary records that Mill died intestate and that a catalogue of his library was drawn up and circulated round Oxford shortly after his death. He believed that Mill had intended to allow the Bodleian to have any of his books they lacked, but this was ignored; however, Mill gave a number of books to the Bodleian shortly before his death. After some various dispersals of manuscripts and papers, his library was sold to Henry Penton of New College (later Vicar of Andover) for 200 guineas.

Sources

• Doble, C. (ed), Remarks and collections of Thomas Hearne, vol.2, Oxford, 1886.
• Handley, Stuart. "Mill, John (1644/5–1707), Church of England clergyman and college head." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
• Macray, W. D. Annals of the Bodleian Library. 2 nd edn, Oxford, 1890.