Updated October 12, 2014
William Henry Mitchell, merchant, newspaper editor, judicial official, civil servant, was listed as a resident of Hong Kong from 1846 to 1860. He was the founder and proprietor of the mercantile firm, Mitchell & Co. He succeeded John Cairns as editor of the Hong Kong Register in 1849. He was appointed Assistant Chief Magistrate of Police, Sheriff, Provost Marshal, Coroner and Marshal of the Vice-admiralty Court in 1850 (vice Charles Gordon Holdforth). He was a Justice of the Peace (official) between March 28, 1850 and 1860. He was a member of the Royal Asiatic Society, China Branch in 1850. Gough Street Was listed as his address in 1850. He retired in 1860 due to ill health. He received his first pension payment of £156 from the Hong Kong Government on September 16, 1861.
Mitchell was born in 1815 to Irish merchant, David Mitchell, of Galway. He was educated at the Trinity College in Dublin. He joined the British Colonial Service and was sent to Amoy (Xiamen) 廈門 to work as a clerk at the British Consulate. He became consular assistant in 1844. He came to Hong Kong in 1846 and returned to the U.K. in 1860. He matriculated at the Lincoln's Inn on March 13, 1863 to read law. Soon after having been called to the Bar on June 9, 1865, he returned to Hong Kong, and thence to Shanghai, where he carried on a private law practice.
[Mitchell was accused by Attorney General Thomas Chisholm Anstey (b.1816-d.1873) in June 1856 of extorting money from prisoners while in the office of Sheriff and Acting Chief Magistrate.]
Selected Bibliography: Foster, Joseph, Man at the Bar 1885, 2nd Edition, London: Hazel, Watson and Viney, Limited, 1885, p.356. Gwulo: Old Hong Kong [online]. Hong Kong's First [online]. Hong Kong Government, Pensions Payable out of the Revenues of the Colony, 1871. Tarrent, William, The Hong Kong Almanack and Directory for the Year 1846, 1848, 1850, Hong Kong: China Mail, resp. 1846,1848 and 1850.
Don't forget to add “HKR 1841-50” to your subject blank when you email me. I have a habit of deleting messages from people I don't know, and I don't want to throw away yours. Thank you.
The most boring task of compiling a biographical dictionary, speaking from my very limited experience, is to list up all the names and attach the most basic of information in each entry. My bases for this phase of the project lie upon three volumes of “The Hong Kong Almanack and Dictionary” viz. 1846, 1848 and 1850, which were compiled by William Tarrent, editor of The Friend of China. I hope I am able to get this done say within a couple of weeks and move into the next, and clearly a much more interesting, phase in which I will begin researching the individuals. (8/3/2014)
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