William Mitchell was an American amateur astronomer.
Background
William Mitchell was born on December 20, 1791, in Nantucket, Massachusets. He was the son of Peleg and Lydia (Cartwright) Mitchell, and a lineal descendant of several of the first settlers of the island, including Peter Folger, the grandfather of Benjamin Franklin. Peleg Mitchell was the grandson of Richard who emigrated to Rhode Island in 1708. The Mitchells, like many other residents of Nantucket, belonged to the Society of Friends. They were in comfortable circumstances until the War of 1812, when their income, hitherto derived from whaling ventures, was greatly reduced.
Education
William was a natural student, with a scientific mind, and an innate fondness for astronomy. The strict discipline of the times, however, prevented his having any love for school or his teachers. He prepared for Harvard College but he did not enter, and at fifteen years of age he undertook to learn the cooper's trade.
Career
Giving up cooperage and work in an oil factory for the more congenial occupation of teaching school, Mitchell became, in 1827, master of the first free school of Nantucket. In 1830, he became secretary of the Phoenix Marine Insurance Company, and from 1837 until 1861, he was cashier of the Pacific Bank. He was president of the Nantucket Atheneum for more than thirty years; a delegate to the Massachusetts constitutional convention of 1820; state senator in 1845; and a member of the council of Gov. George N. Briggs in 1848 and 1849. Astronomy was his favorite diversion. He had several telescopes and made observations of star positions for the United States Coast Survey and for his own use in rating chronometers for the Nantucket fleet of ninety-two whaleships. A scientific atmosphere pervaded his home and neighborhood, a fact somewhat remarkable when the isolated position of the island is considered. He died in Poughkeepsie, New York.
Achievements
Membership
a member of the visiting committee of the Harvard College Observatory, a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science
Personality
Mitchell's kind and sympathetic character, his love of peace, and his other sterling traits won for him the affection of his pupils and of all with whom he came in contact.
Professors William Cranch Bond and George P. Bond, the first two directors of the Harvard Observatory, were his intimate friends.
After the death of his wife in 1861, he moved to Lynn, Massachusetts. In 1865, when his daughter, Maria, became head of the Astronomical Department of Vassar College he went to Poughkeepsie to live.
Connections
Mitchell was married, December 10, 1812, to Lydia Coleman of Nantucket. They had ten children, two of whom, Maria and Henry, gained distinction in the scientific world.