James Mills Thoburn (March 7, 1836 – November 28, 1922) was an American bishop and missionary of the Methodist Episcopal Church as well as an author.

Thoburn was born on March 7, 1836, in St. Clairsville, Ohio, and graduated from Allegheny College in Meadville, Pennsylvania, in 1857, beginning his Methodist preaching ministry that same year in the Pittsburgh Conference.

On a busy street in Calcutta Thoburn built, and later rebuilt, a church, which was twice filled to capacity every Sunday.

Some two years later, at the 1888 Methodist Episcopal General Conference held in New York City, Thoburn was elected as India and Malaysia’s first missionary bishop.

he was committed in an effort to “put India on America’s heart.”[5] The consecration services were held on Tuesday, May 29.