PERSONAL FILE JS Mill 1806–1873

John Stuart Mill was the son of a famous writer, James Mill. He was subjected to a rigorous educational programme which meant that he was learning Greek at three years old and advanced philosophy at twelve. He became both a brilliant philosopher and a nervous wreck, prey to both severe facial twitching and recurrent depression.

Mill was an active campaigner for birth control and spent two nights in jail for distributing literature promoting it. His main cause in life was the liberty of the individual and the limits of the power of the state.

He met the love of his life, Harriet Taylor, at a dinner party in 1830. She was also a radical thinker and was attracted by his strong convictions supporting sexual equality and the removal of legal disabilities imposed on women. Taylor was already married to another man who she left in order to continue a relationship with Mill, but she returned to her husband to nurse him when he was dying of cancer. In 1851, now free to do so, Harriet Taylor finally married Mill; they lived in Blackheath and travelled a great deal to alleviate the tuberculosis from which she was suffering. Mill was widowed in 1858. He attributed works such as On Liberty (1859) to his wife’s influence, and published The Subjection of Women in 1869 which went on to become one of the most influential books of the 19th century. In 1867, as MP for Westminster, Mill proposed that women should have the vote equally with men, in a debate on the Reform Bill. This voting equality was finally achieved in 1928.