Born in Middletown, Connecticut, son of Return Meigs, a hatter, Josiah Meigs (1757–1822) graduated from Yale College in 1778 and several years later returned as a tutor of mathematics, natural philosophy, and astronomy. He also studied law and in 1783 was admitted to the bar. In 1794, Meigs was appointed professor of mathematics and natural philosophy at Yale, but he was soon threatened with dismissal for his zealous support of Jefferson and his political views. In 1800, he accepted an invitation from Abraham Baldwin, who had served as his mentor at Yale, to become a professor at the newly established college at Athens, Georgia. The next year Meigs became president of the new institution, which became the University of Georgia. He established an innovative curriculum, with an emphasis upon mathematics and science. Meigs resigned the presidency of the college in 1810 because of conflicts with the Federalist trustees and local citizens. In 1812, President Madison appointed him Surveyor General Northwest of the Ohio. Two years later Meigs moved to Washington as commissioner of the General Land Office. He served as a founding trustee of Columbian College, which became George Washington University. He was serving as professor of natural philosophy at the college at the time of his death (ANB description begins John A. Garraty and Mark C. Carnes, eds., American National Biography, New York and Oxford, 1999, 24 vols. description ends ; Malcolm J. Rohrbough, The Land Office Business: The Settlement and Administration of American Public Lands, 1789–1837 [New York, 1968], 55–6, 69, 71–4).