James T. Mitchell

From 1859 until 1862, Mitchell served as assistant Philadelphia city solicitor under Charles E. Lex.^[4] He returned to private practice and was elected to succeed George M. Stroud as a judge of the Philadelphia District Court in 1871.^[6] He became a judge on the Pennsylvania courts of common pleas in 1875 after a reorganization of the courts.^[7] He was elected to the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania in November 1888 and assumed office as an associate justice in January 1889. He became chief justice in 1903 and served until his retirement in 1910.^[8] He was appointed prothonotary of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania in 1910.^[5]

He served as editor of The American Law Register from 1862 to 1887 and co-founded Weekly Notes of Cases in 1874. He served as an overseer of Harvard University from 1905 to 1912^[6] and was senior vice president of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania from 1896 to 1915.^[9] He was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society in 1890^[10] and was a member of the Union League of Philadelphia,^[2] the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States, the Sons of the Revolution and the Society of the Cincinnati. He collected historical engraved portraits and never married.^[5]

He died on July 4, 1915,^[11] and was interred at Laurel Hill Cemetery in Philadelphia.^[12] His collection of engraved portraits was auctioned off after his death.^[13]

• Collection of Engraved Portraits of Washington Belonging to Hon. James T. Mitchell, 1834
• The Unequalled Collection of Engraved Portraits of Napoleon Bonaparte and His Family and Marshals, Belonging to Hon. James T.Mitchell, 1834
• The Statutes at Large of Pennsylvania from 1682 to 1801, 1896
• John Marshall - An Address Delivered on John Marshall Day, February 4, 1901, upon the invitation of The Law Association of Philadelphia, The Pennsylvania State Bar Association, The Lawyers Club of Philadelphia and The Law School of the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia; George H Buchanan and Company, 1901
• Motions and Rules at Common Law According to the Practice of the Court of Common Pleas of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia; Rees Walsh & Co., 1906

Citations

Sources

• Carson, Hampton L. (1916). "Hon. James Tyndale Mitchell, LL.D., Senior Vice President of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania; Late Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania". The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography. 40: 1–45. Retrieved August 11, 2023.