Samuel John Mills Jr. (April 12, 1783 – June 16, 1818) was an American preacher and missionary from Connecticut. He is known for contributing to the organization of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions and to the formation of the American Colonization Society in 1817. The latter was intended to establish a colony in West Africa as a destination for free American blacks.
Mills suggested the formation of a national Bible society as part of the evangelical effort in the South. In May 1816, thirty-five different bible societies met in New York and organized the American Bible Society. Mills also played a leading role in the formation of the American Colonization Society in 1817, along with Dr. Robert Finley, a clergyman from New Jersey who founded the National Colonization Society and died in 1817.
He sailed from Philadelphia on November 1, 1817.[2] Following a brief stay in England, Mills sailed to the west coast of Africa to purchase land for the American Colonization Society.[2] He embarked for the United States on May 22 and died at sea.[2] His funeral on board was conducted by Ebenezer Burgess.[2]
Mills's niece, Julia Sherman Mills (1817–1890)[3] married missionary to Hawaii Samuel C. Damon (1815–1885). Their son Samuel Mills Damon (1841–1924) became a wealthy banker in Hawaii and was a beneficiary of the estate of Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop for whom he was executor.[4]
References
^William Buell Sprague; Noah Porter (1857). "Samuel John Mills". Annals of the American Pulpit: Trinitarian Congregational. Vol. 1. Robert Carter and brothers. pp. 672–677.
Sarah Johnson and Eileen Moffett (Spring 2006). "Lord, Send Us". Christian History & Biography. 90: 35.
Richards, Thomas C. (Thomas Cole). Samuel J. Mills, Missionary Pathfinder, Pioneer and Promoter. Boston, New York [etc.] The Pilgrim press, 1906. https://archive.org/details/cu31924051258410.