Author: Mitford, John
Biography:
MITFORD, John (1782-1831: ODNB)
Born at Mitford, Northumberland, he was the son of John Mitford and his wife Dorothy (Young). He was a distant relation to John Freeman-Mitford, Lord Redesdale, who sponsored his entry to the navy and supported his family. He married Emily Street in 1808; they had two sons and two daughters. Mitford served in the navy during the Napoleonic wars, beginning as a midshipman and becoming commander of various vessels. In 1811 he returned to England to take up employment for Lady Perceval who wanted him to copy and publish letters in support of Queen Caroline. Thus began a bizarre episode during which Mitford was confined to a private madhouse to write the letters; later, when Lady Perceval realised the letters could cause trouble for her, she brought an action against Mitford. Although Mitford was found not guilty, he began to experience episodes of insanity, was dismissed from the navy, and lived the remainder of his life in increasingly makeshift circumstances. However, it was during this time that he began to write in earnest and his publications and contributions to periodicals date from this period. John Johnstone, one of his publishers, paid him a shilling per day to ensure a continuous supply of copy; the money was spent on food and gin while Mitford lived in an old gravel pit in Battersea Fields. The ODNB states that he died in St. Giles’s workhouse, but ancestry records give his abode as New Compton St., London, at the time of his death. (ODNB 19 Mar. 2020; Samuel Maunder, Select British Biography [1839]; ancestry.co.uk 19 Mar. 2020)