MITCHELL, Robert (son of James Mitchell 1791–1852). b. 19 May 1820; engraved in mezzotint Tapageur, after sir Edwin Landseer 1852 and The parish beauty and The pastor’s pet after Alfred Rankley 1853 and 1854, and in the mixed style The happy mothers and The startled twins after Richard Ansdell 1850 and Christ walking on the sea after R. S. Lander 1854; etched several plates completed in mezzotint by other engravers; exhibited at Royal academy 1858. d. 8 Rochester place, Widmore lane, Bromley, Kent 16 May 1873.
MITCHELL, Samuel (son of Samuel Mitchell, cutler and edge tool maker). b. Sheffield 13 Feb. 1803; entered his father’s business, for which he travelled in Norway, Sweden and Russia; member of Sheffield literary and philosophical soc. Dec. 1822 and a contributor to its transactions, president 1856; explored with Thomas Bateman the tumulus at Arba Lowe 23 May 1845; collected materials for The history and topography of the hundreds of wapentakes of High Peak and Scarsdale, of which a small part was prepared for printing at his death. d. The Mount, Sheffield 1869. W. Smith’s Old Yorkshire, iii 108–102 (1891).
MITCHELL, Stephen (son of Stephen Mitchell, tobacco manufacturer d. 1820). b. Linlithgow 19 Sept. 1789; apprentice to J. Anderson & Co. merchants Leith and London 1805–9; in his father’s business at Linlithgow 1809, removed the business to Glasgow 1825, head partner till his retirement in 1859. d. Moffat 21 April 1874; left £66,998 10s. 6d. to found the Mitchell library in Glasgow, library opened in Nov. 1877, it contained 58,000 volumes, including special collections of Burns’ literature and Glasgow books in 1886. Maclehose’s Glasgow men ii 233–4 (1886) portrait.
MITCHELL, Thomas. b. 1842; assistant to Groombridge and Sons, booksellers, London, then to Longmans’, Green, Reader and Dyer; bookseller at Hastings; architect; author of The stepping stones to architecture 1869; A rudimentary manual of architecture 1870. d. Hastings 24 Nov. 1872.
MITCHELL, Thomas. b. 1821; ed. Trin. coll. Camb., B.A. 1845, M.A. 1848; V. of Long Clawson near Melton-Mowbray 1848 to death; author of Palestine revisited and other poems 1858, 3 ed. 1881. d. Long Clawson vicarage 5 March 1885.
MITCHELL, Thomas Alexander (youngest son of John Mitchell, Russia merchant at Riga and London). b. Montrose 1812; ed. at Wiesbaden and Heidelberg; entered his father’s business 1829, became the head of the firm of Mitchell, Yeames & Co. New Broad st. London; travelled frequently in Russia; connected with Bridport in business; M.P. Bridport 1841 to death; chairman of Chartered bank of India, Australia and China. d. 50 Charles st. Berkeley sq. London 16 March 1875, left more than £100,000. I.L.N. 15 Feb. 1851 p. 144 portrait, 27 March 1875 p. 307.
MITCHELL, Sir Thomas Livingstone (eld. son of John Mitchell of Craigend, Stirlingshire). b. 16 June 1792; joined the army in the Peninsula as a volunteer 1808; 2 lieut. rifle brigade 24 July 1811, lieut. 16 Sep. 1813, placed on h.p. Dec. 1818; captain 2 foot 25 Jany. 1825, placed on h.p. 29 Aug. 1826; brevet colonel 20 June 1854; served on the battle fields in Spain and Portugal, received silver medal with 5 clasps; deputy surveyor general New South Wales 1827, surveyor general 1828 to death, his survey of the colony was published in three sheets 1835; surveyed northern part of N.S.W. Nov. 1831 to Feb. 1832; surveyed the course of the river Darling 1835; surveyed the rivers Murray and Darling and discovered the region called by him Australia Felix 1836; knighted at St. James’s palace 17 April 1839; hon. D.C.L. Oxford 1839; explored overland route to gulf of Carpentaria, Nov. 1845 to Jany. 1847; reported on the Bathurst goldfields 1851; fought a duel with Stuart Alexander Donaldson 27 Sep. 1851; visited England 1853, and patented a new screw-propeller for steam vessels called the boomerang; F.R.G.S.; author of Outlines of a system of surveying for geographical and military purposes 1827; Three expeditions into the interior of eastern Australia 2 vols. 1838, 2 ed. 1839; Journal of an expedition into tropical Australia in search of a route from Sydney to the gulf of Carpentaria 1848; The Australian geography 1851; Origin, history and description of the boomerang propeller 1853; The Lusiad of Camoens closely translated 1854. d. Carthona, Darling Point, N.S.W. 5 Oct. 1855. G. B. Barton’s Poets of New South Wales (1868) 215–18; Mennell’s Australian biography (1892) 325–6; W. Howitt’s History of discovery in Australia, i 264–310 (1865), ii 92–107 (1865); J. E. T. Wood’s History of discovery of Australia i 366–94 (1865), ii 121–42.
MITCHELL, William. b. Billquay, Durham 1799; in a counting house in Newcastle-on-Tyne 6 years; first appeared on the stage as a country boy in the Recruiting Officer at Newcastle; appeared at Strand theatre, London in Professionals puzzled 1831; actor and stage manager Coburg theatre, London 1834; appeared at National theatre, New York as Jem Baggs in The Wandering Minstrel 29 Aug. 1836; opened the Olympic theatre, New York, Dec. 1839, which he conducted till 1850 making money which he afterward lost; his best known part was Manager Crummles in Nicholas Nickleby. d. in poverty at New York 12 May 1856. J. N. Ireland’s Records, ii 192–3 (1867).
MITCHELL, Sir William (son of John Mitchell of Modbury, Devon, a turner in wood and ivory and then a farmer). b. Modbury 1811; an apprentice to a printer at Modbury; a journalist on the True Sun in London 1833; established The shipping and mercantile gazette, a daily paper 1 Jany. 1836, and was chief proprietor and editor; introduced an international code of signals gradually adopted by all maritime countries; established signal stations for reporting movements of all ships using the international code; knighted by patent 27 July 1867; knight commander of Swedish order of St. Olaf 1869; edited A review of the merchant shipping bill, being a series of leading articles from the Shipping and mercantile gazette 1869; and Maritime notes and queries, a record of shipping law and usage 3 vols. 1873–6; published the Mercantile navy list and code of signals 1850. d. Strode near Ivybridge, Devon 1 May 1878. bur. Modbury churchyard 6 May. Biograph, iii 400–409 (1880); Men of the West. Part 3 Sir W. Mitchell. March 1877 pp. 16, portrait; Academy, i 413 (1878).
Note.—He was a performer on the violoncello, bassoon, viola and flute; he procured from Paris the parts and copies for a chorus of 30 voices of Rossini’s Petite Messo Solennelle and produced the work at his residence 6 Hyde Park gate, London in May 1869. Vanity Fair 22 May 1869 p. 379. He also produced the Rival Beauties an operetta by Signor Randegger, which he repeated at Plymouth theatre for some charities 13 Aug. 1868.