Back More
Salem Press

Table of Contents

Continental Congresses

Nathaniel Mitchell (1753-1814)

A politician who rose to serve as the fifth governor of Delaware (1805-08), Nathaniel Mitchell saw action during the American Revolution before he served in the Continental Congress (1787-88).

Cong_p996_001.jpg

He was born near Laurel, in Sussex County, Delaware in 1753, the son of James Mitchell and his wife Margaret (née Dagworthy) Mitchell, both farmers. [1] A history of Delaware biographies stated, “He was . . . a nephew of Gen. John Dagworthy, of Delaware. Little is known of his early life or opportunities for securing an education.” [2] However, according to his official congressional biography, he “engaged in agricultural pursuits,” usually code for becoming a merchant who sold goods either domestically or to foreign markets, or both. [3]

When the American Revolution began in 1775, Mitchell was appointed as an adjutant in the battalion of his uncle, General Dagworthy; he then was promoted to the rank of captain, and transferred to Colonel Samuel Patterson’s Delaware Battalion, known as “The Flying Camp.” Historian William Whiteley detailed in part the history of this unit: Patterson was the colonel, while Mitchell is listed as one of eight captains under his command. He wrote, “The term of enlistment, however, of ‘The Flying Camp’ expired on December 1st, 1776; winter, at that day, usually commencing by that time, which was protection enough both to the Middle Colonies and Washington’s rear; and the soldiers composing the camp returned to their home, much to their own pleasure and doubtless the same to their commander.” [4]

During the war, Mitchell also served in political offices as well. At the Delaware Constitutional Convention, held in New Castle in August 1776, there is only one mention of Mitchell. According to the minutes of the convention, “The House resumed the Consideration of the Report of the Committee to whom the Resolutions of Congress and the Letter form the President thereof were referred, and thereupon, resolved . . . That the President write to Colonel Patterson to issue his Orders to Mr. Nathaniel Mitchell of Sussex County, elected a Captain in his Battalion, that he immediately march his Company, or such Part thereof as may be raised, to join the Battalion, together with such of the Officers of the said Company as the Colonel may think fit . . . ” [5]

For the remainder of the war, Mitchell continued to serve: In April 1779, he was involved with Colonel Nathaniel Gist’s regiment, rising to be an inspector in the Continental Army, assigned to General Peter Muhlenberg. Although much of Mitchell’s military career is covered in basic terms, we do find one note, in a memo written by General George Washington, regarding “Mitchel” [sic] and a Captain Jones and an incident they were both involved in, in May 1779:

Captains Jones and Mitchel of Colonel Gist’s regiment were tried for, “Beating a Sentry on his Post and a Corporal while on guard”—The Court having considered the charge and the evidence against Captain Jones are of opinion that his justification is sufficient and do acquit him. The Court having considered the charge and the evidence against Captain Mitchel are of opinion that he is not guilty of the first part of the charge exhibited against him; They are likewise of opinion that Captain Mitchel’s justification to the second part of the charge is sufficient & do acquit him. The General is sorry to differ in opinion from the court & to find himself obliged to disapprove the sentences. It was clearly proved that Captain Jones beat a Sentinel on his post and a corporal on his guard and that Captn Mitchel beat a corporal on his guard; tho’ it also appeared that those men were insolent and merited punishment; yet it ought not to have been of an arbitrary kind: They ought to have been confined and punished in a regular way, the sentinel being previously relieved. The priveleges [sic] of guards and especially of sentries are very extensive in every Army, and it is necessary for the sake of order and security that they should be held inviolable, while at the same time any disorders they commit are doubly culpable and ought to be the more severely punished in a legal course—The Idea of inflicting personal punishment for personal insult was, in this instance, carried too far, and if the principle was established would be subversive of all military discipline. Captains Jones and Mitchel are released from Arrest. [6]

In 1780, Mitchell was taken prisoner, and released the following year. [7] One specific source, the Journals of the Continental Congress, describes the details on this: “[a] report from the Board of War . . . on the memorial of Nathaniel Mitchell, late a major [sic] of the 16 battalions, which by the act of 3 October 1780, were reduced on the 1st of January last . . . ” A letter from the board is included:

The Board have considered the memorial of Major Mitchell referred to them by Congress. As his Case is attended with several singular circumstances, they beg leave to state the facts . . . This Gentleman was a Major of one of the 16 battalions commanded by Col. [William] Grayson. In the Spring 1779, this Regiment was consolidated into another of the sixteen commanded by Col. Gist, which still continued an additional Regiment, unconnected with the Line of any particular State. The Regiment was captured at the fall of Charlestown [South Carolina] at which time the memorialist was in Virginia, and some part of the time since has served as a Brigade Major and Inspector to General Muhlenberg, and considered himself in service in consequence of his original appointment, until the 10th day of May 1781 when he was taken prisoner at Richmond and signed his Parole as Major . . . [8]

On 27 October 1786, the Rhode Island General Assembly elected Mitchell to the Continental Congress, then in its final years. Reelected on 10 November 1787, he attended the body from 18 January to 12 April 1787, 7 May to 27 October 1787, 21 January to 1 March 1788, 13-20 April 1788, 20 May to 13 June 1788, and 10 July to 13 September 1788. [9] There are two pieces of correspondence from Mitchell during his Continental Congress service. In the first, to Thomas Collins, the president of Delaware, he wrote:

Sir, I think myself in duty bound to give your Excellency the earliest information of every matter wherein the Interest of the State is concerned. At the present time I find the Southern States are ripe for a removal of Congress to Philadelphia, and it is the first time they have all agreed upon this Subject since their coming to New-York. We want nothing but the Voice of Delaware to decide the important question; the times of the Delegates from South Carolina expire the 21st of this month. I hope your Excellency will use your endeavours to send on some one of the Gentlemen who are in the Delegation, it may be decided in one Day-and if they do not come on I think and it is generally thought we are permanently fixed. Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia are here, Maryland is coming on, Delaware, I have vouched for, Pennsylvania are all sure, Jersey but in part. We have nothing to apprehend but the delinquincy [sic] of Delaware and from thence I think there is little to fear if the measure meets your Excellencies [sic] Concurrence. [10]

To Gunning Bedford, a fellow Delawarean, he penned:

The very important question of a removal of Congress to Philadelphia is shortly to be agitated, we wait nothing but the Voice of Delaware. If your intentions are not to serve for any length of time I think on the present occasion you may venture to give us your Company, it may be decided in one or two days[,] as it will obviate the inconvenience of going to Congress by bringing them to us, I think it behoves [sic] us above all Pennsylvania excepted to forward the measure. I build much on your coming, you will be received with open Arms by all the Southern States. If you do not come I flatter myself you will use your endeavours [sic] to send on some other Gentleman who is in the Delegation. It must be done before the 21st of the Month for then the time’s [sic] of the Gentlemen from S. Carolina expire. [11]

After leaving the Continental Congress, Mitchell returned to Rhode Island, where it appears he returned to work as a merchant. In 1794, in a publication called “The American Kalendar,” which published the names of various occupants of offices across the country, is a listing for Sussex County, Delaware, the name of Nathaniel Mitchell as “prothonotary.” [12]

In 1802, Mitchell was elected governor of Delaware, succeeding David Hall. Mitchell would serve a full term from 1805 to 1808. [13] The Maryland Gazette of Annapolis stated on 18 October 1804, “His excellency [sic] Nathaniel Mitchell is elected governor of the state of Delaware; and the honourable James A. Bayard is chosen to represent the said state in the house of representatives [sic] of the United States . . . ” The paper noted that Mitchell, the “federal candidate for governor,” defeated Joseph Haslet, the Democrat candidate. [14] Federalist newspapers hailed the election of Mitchell and his party’s slate to offices in Delaware. One, under the banner of “Great News!,” said, “The Election in Delaware has terminated gloriously. That State which was [the] first to Ratify the Constitution of the United States, has been first to hurl from their seats, usurped by bribery and executive influence, the Idols of Democracy. The able and eloquent Bayard, sons pere, sous reproach, is elected to congressional; and Mr. Cesar [sic] Rodney, the favorite of Mr. Jefferson, is displaced by ‘The People of Delaware’ His Excellency Nathaniel Mitchell, is chosen Governor, in the room of Joseph Haslet, Esq. the Democratic Candidate.” [15]

After leaving the governor’s office, Mitchell served in the Rhode Island state House of Representatives (1808), and in the state Senate (1810-12). He then retired.

Mitchell died in Laurel, Delaware, on 21 February 1814. The Baltimore Patriot said that he passed away “after a lingering illness, which he bore with christian [sic] fortitude.” [16] He was buried in the Old Christ Church Cemetery in Laurel. A plaque placed in front of his grave reads, “Nathaniel Mitchell. First Native Son of Laurel to Be Governor of Delaware. Hero of the Revolution. Member, Continental Congress.”

In 1898, in an address at a presentation of portraits of the governors of the state of Delaware, historian Charles W. Wiley, Jr., said:

In 1804, the people of Delaware selected for their Governor another hero of the war, Nathaniel Mitchell . . . we find but meagre details of his revolutionary career—men of action are careless of their fame—but we catch hasty glimpses of him, here and there—flashlights that reveal the man. We see him at the head of his company in the thickest of the fight at Brandywine. We see him fretting his brave heart out as, prostrated by camp fever, he hears the news from Germantown. We had him under the hot fire at Monmouth; and we catch him, the grim soldier, bending to listen to the tale of the poor woman, widowed by the war, despoiled of her household goods, of little worth, perhaps, but they were all she had. We follow him and his little scouting party as they dash after the plunderers, overtake and disarm them, and gladden the humble home of the widow and the fatherless by the restoration of their little property. A simple story, this, of a strong man’s gentle heart. [17]

[1] [1] Mitchell family tree, online at http://www.geni.com/people/Nathaniel-Mitchell-Governor/6000000020330873914.

[2] [2] “Biographical and Genealogical History of the State of Delaware, Containing Biographical and Genealogical Sketches of Prominent and Representative Citizens, and Many of the Early Settlers” (Chambersburg, PA: Published by J.M. Runk & Co.; two volumes, 1899), I:132.

[3] [3] Mitchell official congressional biography, online at http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=M000825.

[4] [4] Whiteley, William Gustavus, “The Revolutionary Soldiers of Delaware. A Paper Read by William G. Whiteley, Esq., Before the Two Houses of the Delaware Legislature, February 15th, 1875. Printed by Order of the Legislature” (Wilmington, DE: James & Webb, Printers, 1875), 20-21.

[5] [5] Delaware, Constitutional Convention, “Proceedings of the Convention of the Delaware State, held at New-Castle on Tuesday the Twenty-seventh of August, 1776” (Wilmington, DE: Printed by James Adams, 1776), 10.

[6] [6] “General Orders, Head-Quarters Middle-Brook Saturday May 8th 1779,” in Fitzpatrick, John C., ed., “The Writings of George Washington from the Original Manuscript Sources, 1745-1799; Prepared under the Direction of the United States George Washington Bicentennial Commission and Published by Authority of Congress” (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office; 39 volumes, 1931-44), XV:26-28.

[7] [7] “Mitchell, Nathaniel” in Nancy Capace, ed., “Encyclopedia of Delaware” (St. Clair Shores, MI: Somerset Publishers, Inc., 2001), 102.

[8] [8] Ford, Worthington Chauncey, et al., eds., “Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774-1789” (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office; thirty-four volumes, 1905-37), XXI:1039-40.

[9] [9] Edmund Cody Burnett, ed., “Letters of Members of the Continental Congress” (Washington, DC: Published by the Carnegie Institution of Washington; eight volumes, 1921-36), VIII:lxxxv.

[10] [10] Nathaniel Mitchell to Thomas Collins, 10 February 1787, in ibid., VIII:537.

[11] [11] Nathaniel Mitchell to Gunning Bedford, Sr., 10 February 1787, in ibid., VIII:538.

[12] [12] “The American Kalendar, or United States Register, for New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia. For the Year 1794. To be Continued Annually, and Will be Carefully Corrected to the Time of Publication” (London: Printed for J. Debrett, Opposite Burlington-House, Piccadilly, 1794), 148. A prothonotary is defined as “a chief clerk of any of various courts of law.”

[13] [13] Conrad, Henry C., “History of the State of Delaware” (Wilmington, DE: The Author; three volumes, 1908), III:830.

[14] [14] The Maryland Gazette [Annapolis], 18 October 1804, 2.

[15] [15] Newhampshire Sentinel [Keene], 20 October 1804, 3.

[16] [16] “Died,” Baltimore Patriot, 17 March 1814, 3.

[17] [17] Whiley, Charles W., Jr., “Governors from Sussex County” in “Addresses Delivered at the Formal Presentation of the Portraits of the Governors of Delaware to the State, Thursday, May 26th, 1898. State Capitol, Dover, Delaware” (Dover: Press of the Delawarean, 1898), 45.

Citation Types

MLA 9th
"Nathaniel Mitchell (1753-1814)." Continental Congresses, edited by Mark Grossman, Salem Press, 2016. Salem Online, online.salempress.com/articleDetails.do?articleName=Cong_0293.
APA 7th
Nathaniel Mitchell (1753-1814). Continental Congresses, In M. Grossman (Ed.), Salem Press, 2016. Salem Online, online.salempress.com/articleDetails.do?articleName=Cong_0293.
CMOS 17th
"Nathaniel Mitchell (1753-1814)." Continental Congresses, Edited by Mark Grossman. Salem Press, 2016. Salem Online, online.salempress.com/articleDetails.do?articleName=Cong_0293.