David Mitchell (philanthropist)

David Mitchell (1736-1803) was a philanthropist who founded a hospital in Old Aberdeen. He also created bursaries for students at Marischal College, Aberdeen.

Life and Times

His private life is shrouded in mystery. There are very few recorded facts to give his life depth. He came from a large merchant family in Old Aberdeen. He had several brothers and sisters. There is a record of his baptism on 24 September 1731 in Old Machar Church His father was Robert Mitchell a merchant vintner. His mother, Christian Forbes, came from a family in Ellon Aberdeenshire. It is likely that he attended school in Old Aberdeen and at the age of seventeen he began studies at Marischal College in the neighbouring city of Aberdeen. He graduated with an MA (Hons.) in 1752. He was the only member of the family to study at either of the Universities in Aberdeen. It is probable that the family choice of Marischal College had to do with his father’s interest in the wine business. In the 1750s there were strong business links between both cities of Aberdeen, especially with regard to the import of wines from Europe. However, no certain detail is known of the family business or any of the family who remained in Aberdeen. As the third son of a merchant, he was forced to seek his fortune away from home. For almost fifty years he lived far away from his family. He spent most of his life in Essex to the south east of London in what was then called Holloway Down. Laterly he owned Holloway Down Farm in the Leytonstone/Waltham Forrest district of Greater London. It is probable that he became a Stock Broker. This cannot be confirmed, however in the records relating to his mortifications the names and professions of his witnesses suggest he acted as a “stock broker”. In addition he had business interests in insurance and shipping. His main interest appears to have been as a managing owner for the Honorable East India Company (HEIC). He is recorded as being the managing owner of two important ships that traded in the Far East. Such a connection was not unusual during the late eighteenth century. Acting as an managing investor with the HEIC and working as a broker in the City of London would have been closely associated. Importantly, Mitchell’s connection with the HEIC also involved his younger brother Alexander who also went to London and worked as a Purser on various ships. Alexander died in 1788 at the age of 51. Outwith his business interests David, as a middle class gentleman, followed a common practice by placing his wealth in secure Government bonds; for example, in 1797, he is recorded as investing £1,500 in a secure Government "Loyalty Bond".

Other Family Members

What of other family members? Mitchell’s sister Mary also went to live in London. She appears to have had a comfortable existence in central London some distance from her brother. Notably she went to live with David towards the end of his life and returned to Powis Place in the Holburn area of central London after his death. The main record of her time in London in an obituary where she is described as having “ … exemplary piety and benevolence...”. Later she became a dependable supporter of the Hospital in Old Aberdeen, in particular taking an interest in the health of its residents. David’s younger brother William also went to London returning to Aberdeen after Mary’s death in 1808. David, Alexander and Mary Mitchell are buried in St Paulinus Church, Crayford, Kent. Other members of the family are interred in the Old Machar graveyard or in St Nicholas Churchyard in Aberdeen.

Last Days

David remained a bachelor. He did not leave a Will. This omission appears unsettling given his social status, business interests and his comfortable life style. There appears to be a sense of urgency to his life when he began to sort out his affairs between 1801 and 1803. The absence of a Will suggests that as he grew older he wished to leave a physical legacy of his life as opposed to dealing with the minutiae of his possessions. As a result he may have forgotten to commit his wishes to paper. A sense of his social standing comes from the public notice by the administrator selling his farm as follows: Lot 1 - A very compact and desirable detached leasehold residence pleasantly situated on Holloway Down five miles from London on the road leading to Epping Forrest. The premises stand removed a short distance from the road with fore court; excellent pasture and kitchen gardens fully planted with fruit tress; and well cropped orchard and paddock; with comfortable cottage nearby adjoining; with coach house, stabling and lofts and various outbuildings, tack years etc.; well supplied with fine water comprising in the whole five acres with right of common …. Lot 2 - A piece of copyhold land in front of the above on the opposite side of the road held of the Manor of Wanstead and Stonehall His life-style in London may also be judged by the range and nature of his effects when he died in 1803. He had: old port and sherry wines, a chariot and harness; a gold watch and sundry articles of plate, linen and china a stack of hay, a cow in calf; …. four post bedsteads with chintz furnitures and good bedding, mahogany commodes, secretaries and drawers, dressing stands a set of mahogany dinning tables, chairs, sofa, carpets glasses, a table clock a wrought iron chest, a sewing piece, a musket and blunderbuss, a quantity of coals, kitchen articles … and iron roller and sundry garden utensils One has to speculate how the émigré from Old Aberdeen must have changed from being the son of the Old Aberdeen merchant vintner to be part of a dynamic capital city at the end of the eighteenth century. London was the largest city in Europe. Debate on social change and the rights of individuals was common in publications and hand bills. In this flux, issues such as suffrage and the rights of “man” and “women” and the plight of the elderly through writers such as the Irish émigré Edmund Burke and the radical Mary Wollstonecraft might have stimulated Mitchell’s social conscience. According to one nineteenth century writer women were the victims of male social conventions …. tied to the wall, made to sew and guarded by governesses Perhaps Mitchell was addressing this problem in his own way without being aware of the irony of his subsequent views on the role of his Hospital Governors and the Hospital Mistress - one can only guess.

The paintings

There are two paintings of Mitchell. Sometime in late 1801 or 1802 he had a portrait painted showing him resplendent with his claimed heraldic arms and references to his Deed of Mortification for the hospital and the later bursaries for students at Marischal College. His heraldic claim raises an interesting conundrum. Mitchell did not properly record a heraldic coat of arms and it is not clear why he “adopted” the arms he did. In fact they are of Alexander Mitchell of Mitchell in Stirlingshire. There is no family link between the Mitchell’s of Old Aberdeen and the Stirlingshire family. It is likely that Mitchell simply adopted a similar family name as the practice of “adopting” an heraldic coat was not uncommon. A practice that still persists to-day. Alexander Mitchell of Mitchell unknowingly added to David Mitchell’s legacy.

Marischal College

A final act of Mitchell’s philanthropy was the endowment of six studentships to Marischal College in 1801. These studentships might suggest a developed sense of Christian Charity. They also indicate a clear expectation for recognition. The bursaries were for: the maintenance and education of six boys as Bursars … who are of good genius and disposition and whose Parents are poor and indigent and not able without aid to maintain them at the said College, or whose parents are dead, and who have not means of their own for maintaining themselves sufficiently thereat ... boys of the name of Mitchell or Forbes are to have the preference, and next to them such of the boys … as were born in the City of Aberdeen are to be preferred to those who were born in the country(present author’s emphasis)

The wording of this deed, running to over 1100 words, highlights a precision in drafting to ensure that his detailed wishes were to be fulfilled for “all time”. He also demonstrated a strong affection for his mother in the preference for the name “Forbes” in addition to that of Mitchell. Something that his Hospital mortification was to underscore. It is clear from this slightly later act that his gift was only to apply to students from the “other” Aberdeen to complement the hospital in Old Aberdeen. As a result of his philanthropy to Old and “new” Aberdeen he was elected a Burgess of both cities and granted an honorary LLD degree from Marischal College in 1801. His life’s work was complete. He died on the 8th March 1803.