James Mitchell or James Mitchel, (d. 1678), was a religious covenanter who tried to assassinate Archbishop James Sharp.
Early life
Mitchell was the son of "obscure parents" in Midlothian. He graduated in Divinity at Edinburgh University on 9 July 1656, and at the same time signed the National Covenant and the Solemn League and Covenant. He attached himself to the party of remonstrator presbyterians, and studied popular divinity under David Dickson. He was refused a position by the presbytery of Dalkeith on the grounds of insufficiency, and appears to have become ‘a preacher, but no actual minister,’ in or near Edinburgh. In 1661 he was recommended to some ministers in Galloway by Robert Traill, a minister in Greyfriars Kirk in Edinburgh, as suitable for teaching in a school or as private tutor.
He entered the house of the Laird of Dundas as domestic chaplain and tutor to his children, but was dismissed for immoral conduct. Returning to Edinburgh he made the acquaintance of Major Weir, who procured for him the post of chaplain in a ‘fanatical family, the lady whereof was niece to Sir Archibald Johnston of Warriston.
Armed rising, flight and return
He resigned his post in November 1666 in order to join the rising of the covenanters in the west, at Ayr.
He was in Edinburgh on 28 November, when the rebels were defeated at Pentland, but was pronounced guilty of treason in a proclamation of 4 December 1666, and on 1 October 1667 was excluded from the pardon granted to those engaged in the rising.
About four to six weeks after the defeat, he went over to Flanders on mercantile transactions, where he joined a cousin, a factor in Rotterdam. He stayed there around 9 months, and then returned to Scotland in a Dutch vessel, bringing with him a cargo of goods for sale. While abroad, he had opportunities of meeting and conversing with Mr John Livingstone, and the other ministers who had been banished for their adherence to Presbytery.
His attempt upon the life of Archbishop Sharp was made not many months after his arrival from the continent.
After wandering in England and Ireland he returned to Edinburgh in 1668. There he married, and opened a shop for the sale of tobacco and spirits.
Assassination attempt
Mitchell became convinced that Archbishop James Sharp was the sole barrier that stood between him and the clemency of the Government; and, also that this recreant was the "prime cause" of all the trouble in Scotland. Mitchell therefore made an attempt at the assassination of the bishop.
He was lodging in a house on the Cowgate with his later infamous friend, Major Weir and Weir's sister, Grizel. He was aware that Bishop Sharp lived nearby on Blackfriars Wynd. On 9 July 1668 he tracked down the Bishop who was in his coach on the Royal Mile at the head of the Wynd. He fired a pistol into the coach, but instead of hitting Sharp, hit his friend, Bishop Andrew Honeyman, bishop of Orkney, in the arm.
Mitchell then ran down Niddry's Wynd on the opposite side of the road, without opposition, and escaped.
Apprehension
Early in 1674 he was recognised in the street by Sharp, whose brother, Sir William Sharp, obtained a confession from him, after the archbishop had pledged himself that no harm should come to him. But he was imprisoned at the Bass Rock, and, at the instigation of Sharp, brought before the council on 10 February 1674. He made a full confession on 12 February on receiving a promise of his life. Mitchell was indicted before the High Court of Justiciary and sentenced to have his right hand cut off by the common executioner, at the "Mercat Cross" of Edinburgh.
Indicted afresh, before the High Court in 1675, for his participation in the Pentland Rising and the attempt on the Archbishop's life, he retracted his Confession and pleaded "Not Guilty." Having no other proof in support of the latter charge except his Confession (and that having been recanted) the Court ordered the "torture of the Boot," with the view that he might be constrained anew to adhere to it. However, no amount of torture could induce him to incriminate himself; and he was accordingly sent to the Tolbooth Prison where he lay until the beginning of 1677, when he was transferred to the Bass Rock.