Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 38.djvu/67

 and appears to have acted as tutor. He did much towards promoting the prosperity of the college. After being ordained at Cambridge, Massachusetts, on 21 Aug. 1650, he succeeded Thomas Shepard as pastor of that town. When his old preceptor, [q. v.], president of Harvard, openly announced his conversion to the doctrines of the baptists, Mitchel opposed him, although retaining his friendship. Dunster died in 1659, and Mitchel wrote some wretched lines in his memory, printed in Cotton Mather's ‘Ecclesiastes’ (p. 70), and in the same author's ‘Magnalia’ (bk. iv. sect. 175). Mitchel hospitably entertained the regicides Whalley and Goffe when they sought refuge in Cambridge in July 1660. In June 1661 he was one of the committee appointed to defend the privileges of the colony, then menaced by the English government. In 1662 he was a member of the synod that met at Boston to discuss questions of church membership and discipline. Its report was chiefly written by him, and he was mainly responsible for the adoption of the so-called ‘half-way covenant.’ On 8 Oct. 1662 he and Captain [q. v.] were appointed the first licensers of the press in Massachusetts. With Francis Willoughby and Major-general John Leverett, Mitchel was entrusted with the task of drawing up a petition to Charles II respecting the colony's charter on 3 Aug. 1664, and he wrote it entirely himself. In ecclesiastical councils, to which he was frequently called, and in weighty cases in which the general court often consulted the clergy, ‘the sense and hand of no man was relied more upon than his for the exact result of all.’ Overwork at length told on him, and he died of fever at Cambridge on 9 July 1668.

His union with Sarah, daughter of the (d. 1652) [q. v.], having been prevented by her death in January 1650, he married on 19 Nov. following Margaret Boradale, widow of his predecessor, Thomas Shepard, by whom he left issue (, iv. 76).

Mitchel wrote several sermons and treatises, among which were: Mitchel also edited Thomas Shepard's ‘Parable of the Ten Virgins,’ fol. 1660.
 * 1) ‘Letter to his brother’ David ‘concerning your spiritual condition,’ dated 19 May 1649; many editions.
 * 2) Propositions concerning the subject of Baptism and Consociation of Churches, collected and confirmed out of the Word of God by a Synod of Elders … assembled at Boston in 1662,’ 4to, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1662; chiefly written by Mitchel.
 * 3) . ‘A Defence of the Answer and Arguments of the Synod met at Boston in 1662 … against the reply made thereto by the Rev. Mr. John Davenport. … By some of the Elders,’ 4to, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1664. Of this work the first 46 pages, designated ‘Answer’ on the title-page were by Mitchel.
 * 4) ‘A Discourse of the Glory to which God hath called Believers by Jesus Christ delivered in some sermons … together with an annexed letter’ [to his brother], edited by J. Collins, 8vo, London, 1677; 2nd edition, with a preface by Increase Mather, 12mo, Boston, Massachusetts, 1721.
 * 5) ‘A Letter concerning the subject of Baptism,’ dated 26 Dec. 1667; printed in ‘Postscript’ of Increase Mather's ‘First Principles of New-England,’ 4to, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1675.
 * 6) ‘The Great End and Interest of New England stated by the memorable Mr. J. Mitchel, extracted from an instrument of his which bears date 31 Dec. 1662.’ This tract constitutes pp. 1-5 of Increase Mather's ‘Elijah's Mantle,’ 8vo, Boston, Massachusetts, 1722.

 MITCHEL, WILLIAM (1672–1740?), pamphleteer, known as the ‘Tinklarian Doctor,’ seems to have gone to Edinburgh about 1696 to earn a poor livelihood as a tinsmith at the head of the West-Bow. For twelve years he superintended the lighting of the town-lamps. A disastrous fire at the Bowhead (1706?), by which he lost thirteen hundred merks, and his dismissal from his post in 1707 reduced him to penury. He continued his tinkering, but found time to issue a large number of ‘books,’ or rather broad-sheets, which he sold at his shop ‘at very reasonable rates.’ In 1712 he was restored to his former post. He survived the Porteous riots (about which he is stated to have written a pamphlet) in 1736. Chambers states that he died in 1740.

His tracts deal chiefly with religion and church politics, and especially with the shortcomings of the professional ministry. ‘Give the clergy,’ says his petition to Queen Anne, ‘less wages, and lay more dutie upon gouf [golf] clubs, and then fewer of them and others would go to the gouf.’ His claim was ‘to give light,’ a metaphor which he proudly borrowed from his experience in lamps. His writings are extremely illiterate, and show, even in their titles, the audacity and incoherence of a madman. They are badly printed on shabby paper, most of them on single sheets.