(1708 - 71), diplomat, of Thainston, Aberdeen, e. s. of Rev. William Mitchell; educ. Edinburgh U., Leiden U. 1731, Paris 1731; m. 1 1722 Barbara Mitchell (d. 1729); M.Temple 1734, called 1738; Dilettanti 1736; MP 1747 - 71; env. Prussia 1756 - 71; KB 1765.
1732 - 4 [Paris Apr. 1732] Turin (7 - 11 May 1732), Milan (13 - 18 May), Verona (19 May), Venice (21 May - 17 Jun.), Bologna (29 Jun. - 7 Sep.), Florence ( - 4 - 21 Dec. 1732), Pistoia, Lucca, Siena, Rome (Jan. 1733 - ), Naples (Mar.), Rome (Mar. 1733 - 12 Sep. 1734), Foligno, Assisi, Perugia, Rimini, Bologna ( - 28 Sep.), Parma (late Sep.), Piacenza, Genoa ( - 1 Nov.)
Mitchell travelled on the Continent for several years, a rich but lonely man, following the deaths of his father, sister, wife and infant daughter. In April 1732 he set out from Paris for Italy, where he spent two and a half years, principally in Rome.1 There, between November 17332 and June 1734 he frequently saw Martin Folkes, and they were often accompanied by the mathematician Celsius Stevens, with whom Mitchell finally left Rome on 12 September 1734. At Parma on their return journey he witnessed the end of the fighting between the Austrians and the French. Mitchell's diligent travel journals,3 from which his itinerary has been taken, combine careful observation with general reflections - on religious painting in Italy, for example: 'one cannot help regretting (after seeing the vast profusion of paintings in these churches, by the ablest masters), the bestowing so much industry and art upon so silly subjects as the life and actions of one enthusiast and the fabulous martyrdom of a bigot. Corporeal and ridiculous representation of the Deity serve to corrupt and debauch our ideas of him'.4
1. See A. Bisset, Memoirs of Sir Andrew Mitchell, 1:5 - 6. 2. Folkes jnl.mss (1, 2 Nov. 1733). 3. Add.58315 - 19 (extracts in Black 1984, 145, 160 - 3). 4. Black 1992, 241.