Born in Sydney in the British penal colony of New South Wales, Wills grew up on George Street with his mother Sarah Harding, a free settler, and his step father George Howe, a convict.

[2] Wills worked as a printer and editor for Australia's first newspaper, The Sydney Gazette, before founding his own journal, The Currency Lad, in 1832.

[3] He fathered nine children, including Tom Wills, Australia's first great cricketer and founder of Australian rules football.

[2] In the late 1830s, Wills took up pastoralism and overlanded with his family to the Grampians region of the Port Phillip District (now the state of Victoria).

Wills was one of the first settlers in the area, and purchased a 125,000-acre (510 km2) property named Lexington near Moyston.