John Mills (c. 1717 – c. 1794) was an English writer on agriculture, translator and editor.John Goldworth Alger (1836–1907) and Anne P. Baker. "Mills, John (c. 1717-1786x1796), writer on agriculture". in: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. 1894/2004 Mills and Gottfried Sellius are known for being the first to prepare a French edition of Ephraim Chambers's Cyclopaedia for publication in 1745,John Lough: The Encyclopédie. Slatkine 1971/1989, , p. 9 () which eventually resulted in the Encyclopédie published in France between 1751 and 1772.
As writer on agriculture, Mills is credited for publishing the earliest complete treatise on all branches of agriculture.John Donaldson. "John Mills, F.R.S.". in: Agricultural Biography, 1854, p. 51 His chief work, A New System of Practical Husbandry, in 5 volumes, appeared in 1767. It combines the results of the experience and observations of such writers as Evelyn, Duhamel, John Worlidge, and Jethro Tull, and was highly commended. Mills was a warm advocate of small farms.
Biography Mills was a person of considerable eminence in the 18th century, though little definite is known because no record exists of his life.William White (1889) Notes and Queries. p. 456 From his manner of expression, it is possible he may have lived his early life in foreign countries a long time, possibly in France, but he was not born there. In 1741 he was staying in London, where he had made preparations to go to Jamaica. He cancelled those plans because, as he wrote "having met with something more advantageous which engages me to stay in England"Mills (1741), cited Dix-huitième siècle. Nr. 1-2, 1969. p. 274: And cited in John Lough (1971) Mills married a French woman, and they had two children; one baptised in Paris on 27 April 1742 and another born in May 1743.
In 1743 Mills was in Paris for the purpose of bringing out, in concert with Gottfried Sellius, a German historian, a French edition of Ephraim Chambers's Cyclopaedia; but André le Breton, the printer commissioned by him to manage the undertaking, cheated him out of the subscription money, assaulted him, and ultimately obtained a license in his own name. This was the origin of the famous Encyclopédie. Mills, unable to obtain redress, returned to England.
In 1755 Mills had started translation The History of the Roman Emperors, from Augustus to Constantine by Jean-Baptiste Louis Crévier from the French, and in 1763 Mills continued and completed the Memoirs of the Court of Augustus, by Thomas Blackwell the younger. In the 1760s he found his true vocation as a writer on agriculture, which started with his translation in 1762 of Duhamel du Monceau's Practical Treatise of Husbandry. In 1766 he published an Essay on the Management of Bees. The A New System of Practical Husbandry, (1767) treated all branches of agriculture, and contains the first mention of the potato as grown in fields. In 1770 appeared a translation from the Latin of G.A. Gyllenberg's Natural and Chemical Elements of Agriculture; in 1772 an Essay on the Weather (translated into Dutch in 1772), and Essays, Moral, Philosophical, and Political (anonymous, but advertised under his name); and in 1776 a Treatise on Cattle.
On 13 February 1766List of Fellows of the Royal Society 1660 – 2007 at royalsociety.org, 2008 Mills was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society with Benjamin Franklin as one of his sponsors. He was the first foreign associate of the French Agricultural Society, on whose list his name, with London as his residence, appears from 1767 to 1784. He was also member of the Royal Societies of Agriculture of Rouen, the Mannheim Academy of Sciences, and the Economical Society of Bern.John Mills. A New and Complete System of Practical Husbandry. London. Volume 1, 1766. Title page.
Work Mills was credited for his comprehensive knowledge of agriculture, and of the cultivation and use of the ground. He authored and translated several works in these fields. He became a well known author on the subject of husbandry in the 1760s, and was elected member of the Royal Society in 1766. He had come to prominence about twenty years earlier, while working on the translation of Chambers's Cyclopaedia.
Encyclopédie
Ephraim Chambers had first published his Cyclopaedia, or an Universal Dictionary of Arts and Sciences in two volumes in London in 1728, following several dictionaries of arts and sciences that had emerged in Europe since the late 17th century.Lough (1971. p. 3-5)Robert Shackleton "The Encyclopedie" in: Proceedings, American Philosophical Society (vol. 114, No. 5, 1970. p. 39) This work became quite renowned, and four editions were published between 1738 and 1742. An Italian translation of this work appeared from 1747 to 1754. In France a member of the banking family Lambert began translating Chambers into French,Précis de la vie du citoyen Lambert, Bibliothèque nationale, Ln. 11217; Listed in Shackleton (1970, p. 130). but in 1745 John Mills and Gottfried Sellius were the first to actually prepare a French edition of Ephraim Chambers's Cyclopaedia for publication, which they entitled Encyclopédie.
Early in 1745 Mills and Sellius published a prospectus for the EncyclopédieRecently rediscovered in the Bibliothèque nationale de France, see Prospectus pour une traduction française de la Cyclopaedia de Chambers blog.bnf.fr, Dec. 2010 to attract subscribers to the project. This four-page prospectus was illustrated by Jean-Michel Papillon,André-François Le Breton, Jean-Michel Papillon, Ephraïm Chambers. Encyclopédie, ou Dictionnaire universel des arts et des sciences. 1745 and accompanied by a plan (see image), stating that the work would be published in five volumes from June 1746 until the end of 1748.Reproduction from 1745 original in: Luneau de Boisjermain (1771) Mémoire pour les libraires associés à l'Encyclopédie: contre le sieur Luneau de Boisjermain. p. 165. The text was translated by Mills and Sellius, and it was corrected by an unnamed person, who appears to have been Denis Diderot.Philipp Blom. Encyclopédie: the triumph of reason in an unreasonable age Fourth Estate, 2004. p. 37:
The prospectus was reviewed quite positively and cited at some length in several journals."Prospectus du Dictionnaire de Chambers, traduit en François, et proposé par souscription" in: M. Desfontaines. Jugemens sur quelques ouvrages nouveaux. Vol 8. (1745). p. 72 The Mémoires pour l'histoire des sciences et des beaux arts journal praised the project as "voici deux des plus fortes entreprises de Littérature qu'on ait faites depuis long-tems" (here are two of the greatest efforts undertaken in literature in a long time).Review in: Mémoires pour l'histoire des sciences et des beaux arts, May 1745, Nr. 2. p. 934-8 The Mercure Journal in June 1745 wrote a 25-pages article specifically praising Mill's role as translator; the Journal introduced Mills as an English scholar who had been raised in France and who spoke both French and English as a native. The Journal reports that Mills had discussed the work with several academics, was zealous about the project, had devoted his fortune to support this enterprise, and was the sole owner of the publishing privilege.Mercure Journal (1745, p. 87) cited in: Lough (1971), p. 20
However, the co-operation fell apart later in 1745. André le Breton, the publisher commissioned to manage the undertaking, cheated Mills out of the subscription money, claiming, for example, that Mills' knowledge of French was inadequate. In a confrontation, le Breton physically assaulted Mills. Mills took le Breton to court, but the court decided in le Breton's favour. Le Breton replaced Mills with Jean Paul de Gua de Malves, who in turn was later replaced by Denis Diderot. Soon after the court ruling, Mills left for England.Mills' summary of this matter was published in Boisjermain's Mémoire pour P. J. F. Luneau de Boisjermain av. d. Piéc. justif 1771, p. 162-3, where Boisjermain also gave his version of the events (p. 2-5).Comments by Le Breton are published in his biography; in the preface of the encyclopedia; in John Lough (1971); etc.
The History of the Roman Emperors, from Augustus to Constantine, 1755
Mills re-emerged from the shadow in 1755 as the translator of The History of the Roman Emperors, from Augustus to Constantine. This work was originally written in 10 volumes by Jean-Baptiste Louis Crévier, who was Professor of Rhetoric in the Collège de Beauvais in Paris. Mills had translated from the French the first two volumes, when in 1755 a review of this work was published in The monthly review of literary journal. The review introduced Mills as the translator, with the following phrase:
Mr. Mills, and his other works, we are alike strangers to; but have been informed he has published some tracts, with reputation, abroad; and that he was the first undertaker and promoter of the translation of Chambers's Cyclopædia into French...Review of "The History of the Roman Emperors, from Augustus to Constantine" in: The monthly review of literary journal Vol XII. 1755. p. 405-412
In Robert Watt's Bibliotheca Britannica (1824, p. 670) this translation was credited to another John Mills Esq.,Robert Watt (1824) Bibliotheca Britannica: Or a General Index to British and Foreign Literature. p. 670: See entries: MILLS, John, F.R.S. and MILLS, John, Esq. but this description clearly indicates we are dealing with one and the same person. The 1755 review was critical about Mill's translation skills, and stated:
...If he is an Englishman, which, but for his name, we should doubt, from his manner of expression, it is possible he may have lived so long in foreign countries, as to have somewhat lessened his acquaintance with his vernacular language: for we have met with few writers that have shewn themselves less masters of its purity, Mr. Johnson has judiciously observed, that "the great pest of speech is frequency of translation. No book was ever turned from one language to another, without imparting something of its native idiom; this is the most mischievous and comprehensive innovation; single words may enter by thousands, and 'the fabric of the tongue continue the fame; but new phraseology changes much at once, it alters not the single stones of the building, but the order of the columns."
The review specifically expressed, that Mills left his diction in a Gallic form, that renders it uncouth to an English ear. They hoped, that the remaining volumes would be more agreeable to the reader. It is unknown if Mills fulfilled this expectation, but he did translate another eight volumes, which were published in the next years.
A practical Treatise of Husbandry, 1759 Mills first serious work in the field of agriculture, was the translation of Duhamel du Monceau's Practical Treatise of Husbandry, from the French. The full title of this translation is:
A practical Treatise of Husbandry: Wherein are contained many useful and valuable Experiments and Observations in the New Husbandry, collected during a Series of Years, by the celebrated, M. Duhamel Du Monceau, Member of the Royal Academy of Sciences dt Paris, Fellow of the Royal Society, London, &c. Also the most approved Practice of the best English Farmers, in the old Method of Husbandry. With Copper-Plates of several new and useful Instruments., 4tO. 16s. Whiston, &c.