HISTORY OF KENTUCKY, by Lewis Collins, and J.A. & U.P. James, published 
1847.  Reprinted by Henry Clay Press, Lexington, Ky., 1968, pp. 202-203 
[Bourbon county].

BENJAMIN MILLS was born in the county of Worcester, on the eastern shore 
of Maryland, January 12th, 1779.  While he was quite young, his family 
emigrated to the vicinity of Washington, Pennsylvania, where he obtained 
his education, and engaged in the study of medicine.  While yet a youth, 
he was called to the presidency of Washington Academy, an institution 
which was soon after erected into Washington College, and which has sent 
from its walls a number of prominent public men.  Having removed with 
his father to Bourbon county, Kentucky, and relinquished the study of 
medicine for that of the law, in 1805 or '06, he commenced in Paris the 
practice of that latter profession.  His abilities and diligence soon 
ensured him, in his own and the adjacent counties, an extensive 
practice.  For several years he was elected to represent the county of 
Bourbon in the legislature, and in 1816 failed of an election to the 
senate of the United States, in competition with Isham Talbot, Esq., by 
only three votes.  In 1817, to relieve himself from an oppressive and 
injurious practice of the law, he accepted the appointment of judge in 
the Montgomery circuit.  In the succeeding year, by the unanimous 
request of the Fayette bar, he as transferred to that circuit.  In 1820, 
he was elevated to a seat on the bench of the court of appeals, which he 
filled with great firmness, through a period of extraordinary excitement 
with reference to the judiciary of the State, till he retired in 1828.  
Having resigned this post, he removed from Paris to Frankfort, to engage 
again in the practice of the law in the higher courts of the State.  
Success commensurate with his wishes again crowned his labors, till the 
morning of the 6th of December, 1831, when, by an apoplectic stroke, his 
mortal existence was terminated.
	As a man, Judge Mills was never remarkably popular.  Though kind 
and faithful in every relation of life, he aimed, by a course of firm 
and inflexible integrity, rather to command the approbation than to win 
the affections of his fellow men.  He was, to a very great extent, a 
self-made man, and affords a fine example of the ennobling tendency of 
republican institions, and an encouragement to all meritorious young men 
who are struggling in obscurity and poverty.
	As a practitioner of the law, by a profound and thorough knowledge 
of its principles, and the most approved forms of practice, he soon rose 
to eminence.  As a public speaker he was clear, logical and forcible; 
but not possessing a fine voice, and seldom using the ornaments of 
rhetoric, he was less admired as an orator than many others.
	As a legislator, he was zealous and active in the promotion of 
wise, and the resistance of injudicious measures.  Some of the most 
valuable provisions of the statutes of the state, had their origin in 
his conceptions.  His efforts on the exciting new election question in 
1816, will be remembered by those familiar with the politics of that 
day, as having a great influence in settling a construction of the 
constitution, which, in several instances since, has been acquiesced in 
with happy effects by the people of the state.  	
	As a circuit judge, he conducted the business of the courts with 
uncommon industry and energy.  The prompness and general accuracy of his 
decisions, and the perfect impartiality of his administration of 
justice, gained for him the respect of the orderly portion of the 
community.
	While on the bench of the court of appeals, his official acts 
tended not only to enlighten, but to enlarge the sphere of his 
profession, and to establish a system of legal polity alike favorable to 
the country and honorable to himself.  His written opinions furnish 
abundant proofs of the clearness of his perceptions, the depth of his 
legal researches, the strength of his memory, his power of analysis, and 
the steadiness and sterness of his integrity.
	For the last twelve years of his life, he was a member of the 
Presbyterian church, and for a considerable portion of that time a 
ruling elder.  His life, during this period, was in a high degree 
consistent with his profession; and the extent of his charities in the 
support of all the great benevolent enterprises of the day, was 
surprising to those who knew how limited were his means. 

Mills Talbot
=
Worcester-MD PA Fayette-KY

http://www.rootsweb.com/~kygenweb/kybiog/bourbon/mills.b.txt