William Hodge Mill (1792–1853) was an English churchman and orientalist, the first principal of

Bishop’s College, Calcutta Bishop's College, Calcutta is an Anglican educational establishment founded on 15th December 1820 at Sibpur by Thomas Fanshawe Middleton the first Diocese of Calcutta of the Church of North India, bishop of the Anglican diocese of Calcutta. The ...

and later Regius Professor of Hebrew at Cambridge.

Life

Memorial to Canon Hodge Mill in Ely Cathedral

He was son of John Mill, a native of Dundee, by his wife Martha née Hodge, and was born 18 July 1792 at Hackney, Middlesex. He was educated chiefly in private under

Thomas Belsham Thomas Belsham (26 April 175011 November 1829) was an English Unitarian minister Life Belsham was born in Bedford, England, and was the elder brother of William Belsham, the English political writer and historian. He was educated at the disse ...

. In 1809 he went to

Trinity College, Cambridge Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any college at either Cambridge or Oxford. ...

, where he graduated B.A. as sixth wrangler in 1813, was elected Fellow in 1814, and proceeded M.A. in 1816. He took deacon's orders in 1817, and priest's in the following year, and continuing in residence at Cambridge. In 1820 he was appointed the first principal of

, then just founded, under the superintendence of Bishop

Thomas Fanshawe Middleton Thomas Fanshawe Middleton (28 January 1769 – 8 July 1822) was a noted Anglican bishop. Life Middleton was born in Kedleston in Derbyshire, England, the son of Thomas Middleton, Rector of Kedleston and educated at Christs Hospital. He then w ...

. There he assisted in the publication of works in Arabic, of which he had already gained some knowledge, and addressed himself to the study of the Indian vernaculars and

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...

, and he co-operated in the work of the Sanskrit and other native colleges. He was also a leading member of the Bengal Asiatic Society (vice-president 1833–7), and supported the society's ''Journal'', then just founded, his contributions extending from vol. ii. to vol. vi. He also deciphered of several inscriptions, then little understood, especially those on the pillars at Allahabad and Bhitari. Mill's health obliged him to return to Europe in 1838. He was appointed in 1839 chaplain to

William Howley William Howley (12 February 1766 – 11 February 1848) was a clergyman in the Church of England. He served as Archbishop of Canterbury from 1828 to 1848. Early life, education, and interests Howley was born in 1766 at Ropley, Hampshire, w ...

, Archbishop of Canterbury, and in the same year

Christian Advocate The ''Christian Advocate'' was a weekly newspaper published in New York City by the Methodist Episcopal Church. It began publication in 1826 and by the mid-1830s had become the largest circulating weekly in the United States, with more than 30 ...

on the Hulse foundation at Cambridge. In 1848 he became Regius Professor of Hebrew in the same university, with a canonry at Ely Cathedral. His lectures were chiefly on the text of the

Psalms The Book of Psalms ( or ; he, תְּהִלִּים, , lit. "praises"), also known as the Psalms, or the Psalter, is the first book of the ("Writings"), the third section of the Tanakh, and a book of the Old Testament. The title is derived ...

. He died 25 December 1853, at Brasted,

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

, a living to which he had been presented by the archbishop in 1843. He was buried in Ely Cathedral on New Year's Eve. A portion of a window in the chapel of Trinity College, Cambridge, was subsequently (1862) filled with stained glass to his memory.

Works

His major work is ‘Christa-saṅgītā’ (Calcutta, 1831, 8vo; 2nd edition, 1837), a translation of the Gospel-story into the metre and style of the Sanskrit '' purānas''; it was originally suggested to Mill by a Hindu pundit, who was the main author of the first canto. Other works of the same period are a Sanskrit translation of the

Sermon A sermon is a religious discourse or oration by a preacher, usually a member of clergy. Sermons address a scriptural, theological, or moral topic, usually expounding on a type of belief, law, or behavior within both past and present contexts. ...

on the Mount, and contributions to the Arabic translation of the Anglican prayer-book. His Christian Advocate's publication for 1840–4, ‘On the attempted Application of Pantheistic Principles to the Criticism of the Gospel,’ appeared in two editions, and is mainly directed against

David Strauss David Friedrich Strauss (german: link=no, Strauß ; 27 January 1808 – 8 February 1874) was a German liberal Protestant theologian and writer, who influenced Christian Europe with his portrayal of the "historical Jesus", whose divine nature he ...

. Mill also published theological lectures and sermons.

Family

Mill married Maria, daughter of James Ruthven Elphinstone. Their daughter Maria Elphinstone Mill married Benjamin Webb.

References

;Attribution Regius Professors of Hebrew (Cambridge) {{DEFAULTSORT:Mill, William Hodge 1792 births 1853 deaths 19th-century English Anglican priests English orientalists Christian Hebraists Fellows of Trinity College, Cambridge Academics of the University of Cambridge Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge British Sanskrit scholars