Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 38.djvu/72

Mitchell line, and one of 44 guns (ib. iii. 65-6). Mitchell, although his duty to attack was plain, hesitated; and when the French, encouraged by his apparent timidity, chased, he fled under a press of sail. At night he gave orders to show no lights; but he did not part company with the enemy, and day after day the experience was repeated. Once only did the squadrons engage, and after a few broadsides Mitchell drew off. On the tenth day, 13 Aug., the French entered the harbour of Cape François, where ‘they fired guns very merrily, and in the dusk of the evening had great illuminations in the town.’

Mitchell's conduct was severely commented on; but the admiral was sick and incapable. Mitchell, next to him, was the senior officer on the station; and it was only when the affair was reported to the admiralty that special orders were sent out to try him by court-martial. Even then there was some difficulty about forming a court, and it was thus 27 Oct. 1747 before he was put on his trial. The evidence against him was very positive; the hearing lasted nearly three months; the minutes of it fill about a thousand closely written foolscap pages; and on 28 Jan. 1747-8 the court determined that Mitchell ‘fell under part of the 12th and 14th articles of war,’ and sentenced him ‘to be cashiered and rendered incapable of ever being employed in his Majesty's service’ (cf., Influence of Sea Power upon History, p. 267 n.) There was a strong feeling that the punishment was inadequate; so that when in 1749 parliament undertook to revise the code of naval discipline the discretionary power of courts-martial in cases such as Mitchell's was abolished, and under the altered regulations Admiral Byng suffered death in 1757.

Charnock incorrectly says that Mitchell was even restored to his half-pay of ten shillings a day. His name does not appear on the half-pay lists; and though it is possible that an equivalent pension was given him in some irregular manner, no minutes of such can be found. There is no official record of his death, which is said to have taken place in 1749.

[Charnock's Biog. Nav. iv. 230; Beatson's Nav. and Mil. Mem. i. 320; Campbell's Lives of the Admirals, iv. 62; minutes of the courts-martial, commission and warrant books, and halfpay lists in Public Record Office.] 

MITCHELL, DAVID (1650?–1710), vice-admiral, was bound apprentice to the master of a Leith trading vessel. Afterwards he was mate of a ship in the Baltic trade, and in 1672 was pressed into the navy. His conduct and appearance attracted attention; he was placed on the quarter-deck, and on 16 Jan. 1677-8 was promoted to be lieutenant of the Defiance in the Mediterranean with Captain Edward Russell, afterwards Earl of Orford [q. v.], whom in March he followed to the Swiftsure, and again in August 1680 to the Newcastle. In May 1682 he was appointed lieutenant of the Tiger, and on 1 Oct. 1683 promoted to the command of the Ruby. Whether in compliment to his patron Russell, who retired from the service on the execution of his cousin William, or finding that he no longer had any interest, he also seems to have retired. He may have commanded ships in the merchant service, or followed the fortunes of Russell, and acted as his agent in his political intrigues at home and in Holland. After the revolution he was appointed to the Elizabeth of 70 guns, and in her took part in the battle of Beachy Head, 30 June 1690. In 1691, when Russell was appointed to the command of the fleet, Mitchell was appointed first captain of the Britannia, his flagship, an office now known as captain of the fleet. He was still first captain of the Britannia at the battle of Barfleur, 19 May 1692, and in the subsequent operations, culminating in the burning of the French ships in the bay of La Hogue, 23-4 May.

For his conduct on this occasion Mitchell was appointed by the king one of the grooms of the bedchamber, and on 8 Feb. 1692-3 was promoted to be rear-admiral of the blue. In March, with his flag in the Essex, he commanded the squadron which convoyed the king to Holland. During the year he served with the main fleet under the command of the joint admirals, and in October escorted the king back from Holland. In February 1693-4 he had command of a squadron to the westward, for the guard of the Channel and the protection of trade; and on his return from this service he was knighted. In May he joined the grand fleet, now again under the command of Russell, whom he accompanied to the Mediterranean. When Russell returned home in the autumn of 1695, Mitchell was left commander-in-chief, till superseded by Sir George Rooke [q.v.], who brought out his commission as vice-admiral of the blue, and with whom he returned to England in the spring of 1696. During the rest of the year he was second in command of the fleet in the Channel, under Rooke; and in 1697 commanded a detached squadron cruising on the Soundings till the conclusion of the peace. In January 1697-8 he was sent with a small squadron of ships of war and yachts to bring the czar Peter to England. He was afterwards, at