William Mitchell was the son of Edward and Cornelia (Anderson) Mitchell, was born in New York City. His grandfather, William Mitchell, was a stationer in Coleraine, Ireland, near Belfast. His father emigrated in 1791 and for many years was pastor of the Society of United Christians (Universalist) in New York City. His mother was a native of New York City, a descendant of Peter Andresson to whom a grant of land in the city of New Amsterdam was made in 1645 by the Dutch West India Company.
Education
William prepared for college at the school of Joseph Nelson, a blind teacher. He was at the head of his class and received from Nelson as a testimonial of esteem a rare copy of Quintilian. In 1820, he graduated with high honors from Columbia College, where he excelled in mathematics and classics. To the end of his life, Greek and Latin authors continued to be his recreation from professional studies. He also studied law in the office of William Slosson.
Career
Mitchell's Commencement oration, delivered in Latin, was entitled, "De Julii Caesaris vita et nece. " He was admitted as an attorney at law in 1823, a solicitor in chancery in 1824, counselor at law in 1826, and counselor in chancery in 1827. In 1832, he published an edition of Blackstone's Commentaries with special references to American cases, which was one of the early efforts to correlate American decisions with English common law. He is said to have been too modest to acknowledge his editorship so he attributed the work to "A Member of the New York Bar. " He was made master in chancery in 1840 and was elected justice of the state supreme court for the 16t judicial district in 1849. In 1854, he became the presiding justice of the court and continued in that position until he retired in 1857, with the exception of the year 1856 when he was a member of the court of appeals.
At the time of his death, he had been a member of the New York bar sixty-three years and was said to be its oldest member. He died on a visit to his son at Morristown, New Jersey.
Achievements
Connections
On June 2, 1841, Mitchell was married to Mary Penfold Berrien of New York City, a descendant of Cornelius Jansen Berrien who came to Long Island about 1670 from Rotterdam.