James Talboys Wheeler was born in Oxford in 1824 and, after a private school education, started a business as a publisher and bookseller. Having had little success with this venture he joined the War Office before going to India in 1858 as editor of the 'Madras Spectator'. That same year he left journalism for an academic post at Madras presidency college. After a successful project in historical research for the Madras government, Wheeler became a civil servant for the Indian government writing historical and political summaries which, although printed, were not published and used only internally. During this employment, he spent his leisure time writing a history of India, the first volume of which was published in 1867, and this working pattern, with further publications, continued until his retirement in 1891. He died in Ramsgate in 1897.