Born: 29 Apr 1749 in: Carnie by Huntly, Scotland

Died: 20 Sep 1793 on: Pitcairn Island at age: 44

Occupation: Bounty Gunner's Mate

 A tall man (5'10"), and the oldest of the mutineers, the Bounty Gunner's Mate had a fair complexion, light brown hair, was strong-made, and raw-boned. 

He had a scar on his right armpit due to an abcess.  His early history suggests a sadistic bully-boy. 

On the 'Mediator', he was known to send midshipmen on fools' errands in order to steal their food.

Mills was indeed a mystery.  His record on board the Bounty was exemplary.  The only log record against him records his refusal to dance, which cost him his ration of grog. 

He was apparently a guard to the party that arrested Bligh during the mutiny.  We will never know what possessed him to throw in his lot with the younger men, rather than remain with his contemporaries.

His daughter indicated that he was the Pitcairner who most grieved at the destruction of the Bounty, which had been their home for so long. 

Until that time, and even up to his death, he never quite gave up the hope that he would someday return to England, even if it had to be at the risk of his own life. 

Mills, of all the mutineers, can be said to have made a fatal, and perhaps very wrong, choice, a choice he lived to regret.

His short life on Pitcairn, however, was well above average.  He was truly surprised when attacked by the Tahitian men, as he felt he had a good relationship with them.