MITCHEL, John (3 son of John Mitchel of Dromalane, Newry, presbyterian minister). b. Camnish near Dungiven, co. Londonderry 3 Nov. 1815; ed. at Newry and Trin. coll. Dublin; solicitor at Banbridge near Newry 1840–5; joined the Repeal association 1843, from which he seceded 28 July 1846; on the staff of the Nation newspaper 1845 to Dec. 1847; issued first number of the United Irishman 12 Feb. 1848 in which he incited his fellow-countrymen to rebellion; arrested under the treason felony act 13 May 1848, sentenced at Dublin 27 May 1848 to 14 years’ transportation, granted a ticket-of-leave in Van Diemen’s Land April 1850, which he resigned 1853, and escaped to San Francisco Oct. 1853; started The Citizen newspaper at New York 7 Jany. 1854; conducted the Southern Citizen Oct. 1857 to Aug. 1859; naturalised by supreme court of Columbia 7 May 1860; edited the Enquirer at Richmond; wrote leading articles for the Examiner; editor of the Daily News at New York; edited the Irish Citizen at New York 19 Oct. 1867 to 27 July 1872; contested Tipperary Feb. 1874, elected M.P. for Tipperary 16 Feb. 1875 but declared by house of commons incapable of being elected 18 Feb., elected again 12 March 1875, the Irish court of common pleas decided 26 May 1875 that being an alien and a convicted felon he was not duly elected; author of The life and times of Aodh O’Neill, prince of Ulster 1846; Jail journals or five years in British prisons. New York 1854; The last conquest of Ireland (perhaps). New York 1860; An apology for the British government in Ireland. Dublin 1860; The history of Ireland from the treaty of Limerick to the present time. New York 2 vols. 1868 and Dublin 1869. d. Dromalane near Newry 20 March 1875. bur. in unitarian cemetery, Newry 23 March where is monument. J. G. Hodges’ Report of the trial of John Mitchel (1848); W. Dillon’s John Mitchel (1888), portrait; Sullivan’s Speeches from the dock (1887) 74–96; O’Shea’s Leaves from the life of a special correspondent, i 9–24 (1885); Sir C. G. Duffy’s Four years of Irish history (1883) 587–605; Sullivan’s New Ireland, i 175–87 (1877); I.L.N. xii 323 (1848), portrait.
MITCHELL, Alexander (son of Wm. Mitchell, inspector-general of barracks in Ireland). b. Dublin 13 April 1780; brickmaker and builder at Belfast to 1832; patentee of the Mitchell screw-pile and mooring 1842, first used for foundation of Maplin Sand lighthouse 1838, applied to many extensive undertakings; established himself at Belfast, and at 17 Great George st. Westminster as Mitchell’s Screw-pile and mooring company, the privy council in 1847 renewed his patent for 14 years; his improved method of mooring ships was generally adopted; M.I.C.E. 1848–57; author of Description of a patent screw-pile battery and lighthouse. Belfast 1843; On submarine foundations, particularly the screw-pile and moorings 1848. d. Glen Devis near Belfast 25 June 1868.
MITCHELL, Alexander. b. Aberdeen 1831; ensign grenadier guards 15 Oct. 1850, lieut. 19 Oct. 1854, sold out 7 March 1856; contested Berwick 29 June 1863; M.P. Berwick 1865–8. d. 6 Great Stanhope st. London 16 May 1873.
MITCHELL, Alexander. b. near Ellon, Scotland 18 Oct. 1817; clerk in a bank at Peterhead; secretary of the Wisconsin marine and fire insurance company at Milwaukee, U.S. of America 1839, in 1853 the company was reorganized under the state law as a bank; first comr. of board of Milwaukee debt commission 1861 to death; president of Milwaukee and St. Paul railway company, which became Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul railway company and now owns more miles of track than any other railroad company in the world; president of Chicago and Northwestern railway company 1869; member of congress 4 March 1871 to 3 March 1875; richest man in the northwest states. d. New York 19 April 1887.
MITCHELL, Charles. b. Norwich 1807; bookseller and advertisement agent for town and country newspapers at 12 and 13 Red lion court, Fleet st. London about 1836 to death; proprietor and publisher of The Newspaper press directory 1846, which has been published annually from 1854. d. 1 Edith villas, Edith grove, West Brompton, London 8 Feb. 1859.
MITCHELL, David William (1 son of Alexander Mitchell of Gerard’s Cross, Bucks., and Cavendish crescent, Bath). b. Bath 1813; ed. Ch. Ch. Oxf., B.A. 1836; resided at Penzance 1838–42, whence he contributed information to the 3 edition of Yarrell’s British birds 1843; an original member of Penzance Natural history soc. 1839; sec. to Zoological soc. Regent’s park, London 1847 to 1859, and a contributor to the Proceedings in 1849 and 1858; F.L.S. 21 Nov. 1843; author of A popular guide to the gardens of the Zoological society of London 1852; Guide to the gardens of the Zoological gardens of London 1858; furnished the plates of G. R. Gray’s The genera of birds 1844. d. Neuilly near Paris 1 Nov. 1859.
MITCHELL, George (son of Jewish parents). b. 1794; left England before 1820; edited an English paper in Brussels; spent many months with the Carlists in the Pyrenees, imprisoned in Spain 2 years; settled near Bayonne; naturalised in France; occupied a high position at the ministry of the interior, Paris. d. the Avenue d’Eylau, Paris 16–23 July 1880. Morning Advertiser 28 July 1880 p. 5.
Note.—He was the father of Isidore Hyacinthe Marie Louis Robert Mitchell b. Bayonne 21 May 1839 deputy, and of a dau. the wife of Jacques Offenbach the composer. Pierre Larousse’s Grand Dictionnaire, xvii p. 1598.
MITCHELL, James. b. 1791; line-engraver; engraved sir David Wilkie’s Alfred in the neatherd’s cottage 1829, and Rat hunters 1830; engraved The Contadina after sir C. L. Eastlake, and lady Jane Grey after James Northcote, for the Literary Souvenir of 1827 and 1832, The Secret after Robert Smirke for The Keepsake 1831; produced Edie Ochiltree after sir Edwin Landseer, and five other illustrations for the author’s edition of Waverley Novels 1829–33; exhibited 6 engravings at Suffolk st. 1824–31. d. London 29 Nov. 1852.
MITCHELL, James. An excise officer coming daily in contact with the makers of alcoholic liquors; became a total abstainer Nov. 1835; vice president of the Western Scottish temperance union; one of the founders and a gratuitous lecturer of the Scottish total abstinence society; superintendent of City of Glasgow temperance mission; paid lecturer of the United Kingdom alliance for Scotland from June 1856. d. 184 Hospital st. Glasgow 18 Jany. 1862. S. Couling’s Temperance movement (1862) 331–3.