Judge Mitchell was Justice of the Circuit Court of Common Pleas for the Southern Circuit, from 1811 to 1821, inclusive, being Chief-Justice during the last two years of that time. He was Representative to General Court from Bridgewater seven years between 1798 and 1812; Representative in Congress from Plymouth District two years, from 1803 to 1805; Senator from Plymouth County two years, 1813 and 1814; Counsellor from 1814 to 1820, inclusive; Treasurer of the Commonwealth five years, from 1822 to 1827; Representative to General Court from Boston, 1839 and 1840, in which place he then resided. He was appointed by the Governor one of the Commissioners for settling the boundary lines between Massachusetts and Rhode Island; and afterwards, for settling the line between Massachusetts and Connecticut; and was Chairman of the first Commissioners for exploring and surveying the country from Boston to Albany for a railroad route, 1827, and is a member of the Massachusetts Historical Society, and has been Librarian and Treasurer of that institution. He was also several years President of the Bible Society in Plymouth county.
Judge Mitchell married, in 1794, Nabby, daughter of Gen. Silvanus Lazell of East Bridgewater, and has 5 children, Harriet, Silvanus L., Mary Orr, Elisabeth Cushing, James Henry. Harriet married the Hon. Nathaniel M. Davis, Esq., of Plymouth; Silvanus L. married Lucia, daughter of Hon. Ezekiel Whitman of Portland, Me., Chief-Justice of Court of Common Pleas; Mary O. married David Ames, Jr., Esq., of Springfield; Elisabeth C. married Nathan D. Hyde of East Bridgewater; James Henry married Harriet Lavinia, daughter of John Angier of Belfast, Me., and is a merchant in Philadelphia; Silvanus L. was graduated at H. C., 1817, and he and his brother-in-law, Hyde, went into business as merchants at East Bridgewater, and thence removed to Boston.
Judge Mitchell wrote a short History of Bridgewater, which was published in 1818, in the Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society, Vol. VII., 2nd series. He has since published an enlarged History of the Early Settlement of that Town, with a particular Genealogy or Family Register of the Early Settlers.
[ADVICE OF A DYING FATHER TO HIS SON.]
Dated January 27, 1716.
[The following article was addressed by the Rev. William Brattle of Cambridge to William Brattle, his son and only child who lived to maturity, while he was preparing for college. The father was a man distinguished for "piety, wisdom, and charity;" and the son "was a man of extraordinary talents and character, acceptable as a preacher, eminent as a lawyer, celebrated as a physician." He was a Major-General in the militia, and much in public office. May it not be supposed that this paternal Advice from an affectionate father to a son of filial affection and an obedient disposition, had great effect in making him what he was? For this and several other articles of an antiquarian nature we are indebted to Charles Ewer, Esq.]
1. Agreeably to what is written 1 Chron. xxviii, 9, My dear Son, know thou the God of thy father, & serve him with a perfect heart, and with a willing mind. If thou seek him, he will be found of thee; but if thou forsake him, he will cast thee off for ever.
2. Think often of thine own frailty, and of the uncertainly and emptiness of all Sublunary Enjoyments. Value not Self upon riches. Value not thy Self upon any worldly advancement whatsoever. Let faith and Goodness be thy treasure. Let no happiness content and Sattisfie thee but what secures the favour and peace of God unto thee.