John Mitford
Encyclopedia
John Mitford, also known as Jack Mitford (22 January 1782 - 24 December 1831), was a British naval officer, poet and journalist who is best remembered for his book The adventures of Johnny Newcome in the navy.
in Northumberland
. As one of the Mitfords of Mitford Castle
he was a cousin to Admiral Robert Mitford the bird-artist and Philip Meadows Taylor
(author of Confessions of a thug), and distantly related to Lord Redesdale
(attorney general), William Mitford
(historian), the Reverend John Mitford (critic), and Mary Russell Mitford
(author of Our village). The younger son of a younger son, Mitford had to make his own way in life and he chose a career in the navy. The patronage of his relative Lord Redesdale secured him a place as a midshipman on the Victory
.
Mitford served in the British navy
for 16 years, during the French Revolutionary Wars
and Napoleonic Wars
. He was on the Zealous
at the Battle of the Nile
, 1–2 August 1798, and was later in command of a revenue cutter off the coast of Ireland, and acting master of the brig Philomel in the Mediterranean
. In 1808 he married Emily Street of Dalintober, Argyll
. The couple had two sons, John (born 1808) and Charles Bertram (born 1810), and two daughters Frances (born 1812) and Emily (born 1815). The marriage ended in separation.
, and a family connection of Mitford’s relative and patron Lord Redesdale. When he returned to England however Mitford found that the position did not exist and Bridget Perceval wanted him instead to join her campaign in support of Princess Caroline
(a neighbour in Blackheath
). While Mitford was helping Bridget Perceval place letters in the newspapers he was hidden away in Warburton’s private asylum in Hoxton, Whitmore House. In the spring of 1813 Bridget Perceval and Mitford 'overleaped the bounds the prudence' and a letter in The News purportedly signed by Lords Eldon
, Castlereagh
, and Liverpool and promising Caroline a larger establishment was traced to Mitford, who swore that the letter had originated with Lady Perceval and that he had no idea it was a forgery. Lady Perceval denied all knowledge of the letter and brought a case against Mitford for perjury; Mitford was tried and acquitted.
Mitford’s stay in Warburton’s asylum provided him with the material for two anonymous pamphlets (published in the 1820s) exposing the exploitation
, neglect
and abuse of patients. He had previously petitioned Parliament to inquire into conditions in Warburton’s asylums, but without success."All private mad-houses are alike public evils, that should be destroyed" wrote Mitford.
The same year saw the publication (under the pseudonym of Alfred Burton) of Mitford’s most famous work: The adventures of Johnny Newcome in the navy, a poem in four cantos, illustrated by Thomas Rowlandson
. Johnny Newcome (a generic term for new recruits) is a clergyman’s son who is forced to leave school and join the navy when his clergyman father loses all his money in a banking crash. He embarks on HMS Capricorn at Sheerness
and, under the good captain Dale his career prospers, but in Jamaica yellow fever strikes the ship, Captain Dale dies and is replaced by the bullying Captain Teak, and Johnny regretfully leaves the navy. Another edition of Johnny Newcome appeared the following year, and the poem was reprinted by Methuen in 1905. Mitford wrote the poem in six weeks whilst sleeping out in Bayswater Fields under a shelter made of nettles, and washing in a gravel pit. In order to keep the poetry flowing, his publisher allowed him a shilling a day; he lived on bread and cheese and spent the rest on gin.
Mitford's other works include:
Other works have been attributed to Mitford, including: Confessions of Julia Johnstone, written by herself in contradiction to the fables of Harriette Wilson (1825)
As an editor, he worked on: Scourge, or Monthly exposure of Imposture and Folly (1811–1814); New Bon-Ton magazine or the Telescope of the Times (1818–21); New London Rambler’s Magazine (1828–30). At the time of his death he was editing the Quizzical Gazette and Merry Companion.
Mitford defended the reputation of Emma, Lady Hamilton
when Edward Pelham Brenton
, in his Naval history of Great Britain, accused her of having demanded to be rowed round the Minerva to see Admiral Caracciolo
hanging. Mitford wrote a letter to the Morning Post denying Brenton's version of events; Brenton in turn dismissed Mitford as someone who lodged 'over a coal shed in some obscure street near Leicester Square'. But more eye-witnesses, including Francis Augustus Collier, came forward to dispute Brenton's version of events and support Mitford's.
Mitford died of a chest infection in St Giles workhouse in December 1831, aged 49, and was buried in the graveyard at St Dunstan's
, Fleet Street.
Mitford’s unconventional life-style and association with publishers such as William Benbow
and Edward Duncombe made him the subject of harsh criticism, although his talents as a writer were recognised.William Howitt
referred to him as "one of the most deplorable instances of misused talents, and one of the most pitiable victims of intemperance and want of prudence", while another Victorian writer described him in the following terms: "Jack was a respectable classical scholar, and possessed some literary ability; but, instead of devoting his talents to any useful purpose, he prostituted them to the lowest ends. Drink, drink, drink! became his besetment and from the day it did so his ignoble fate was sealed." More recently he has been described as "a brilliant hack satirist with an intimate knowledge of the Royal domestic politics" and capable of "more than passable satirical verse".
Early life and naval career
Mitford was born at Mitford near MorpethMorpeth, Northumberland
Morpeth is the county town of Northumberland, England. It is situated on the River Wansbeck which flows east through the town. The town is from the A1, which bypasses it. Since 1981, it has been the administrative centre of the County of Northumberland. In the 2001 census the town had a population...
in Northumberland
Northumberland
Northumberland is the northernmost ceremonial county and a unitary district in North East England. For Eurostat purposes Northumberland is a NUTS 3 region and is one of three boroughs or unitary districts that comprise the "Northumberland and Tyne and Wear" NUTS 2 region...
. As one of the Mitfords of Mitford Castle
Mitford Castle
Mitford Castle is an English castle dating from the end of the 11th century and located at Mitford, Northumberland. It is a Scheduled Ancient Monument and a Grade I listed building, enlisted on 20 October 1969. The castle is also officially on the Buildings at Risk Register...
he was a cousin to Admiral Robert Mitford the bird-artist and Philip Meadows Taylor
Philip Meadows Taylor
Colonel Philip Meadows Taylor CSI , an Anglo-Indian administrator and novelist, was born in Liverpool, England....
(author of Confessions of a thug), and distantly related to Lord Redesdale
John Freeman-Mitford, 1st Baron Redesdale
John Freeman-Mitford, 1st Baron Redesdale PC, KC, FRS , known as Sir John Mitford between 1793 and 1802, was a British lawyer and politician. He was Speaker of the House of Commons between 1801 and 1802 and Lord Chancellor of Ireland between 1802 and 1806.-Background:Born in London, Mitford was the...
(attorney general), William Mitford
William Mitford
William Mitford , English historian, was the elder of the two sons of John Mitford, a barrister and his wife Philadelphia Reveley.-Youth:...
(historian), the Reverend John Mitford (critic), and Mary Russell Mitford
Mary Russell Mitford
Mary Russell Mitford , was an English author and dramatist. She was born at Alresford, Hampshire. Her place in English literature is as the author of Our Village...
(author of Our village). The younger son of a younger son, Mitford had to make his own way in life and he chose a career in the navy. The patronage of his relative Lord Redesdale secured him a place as a midshipman on the Victory
HMS Victory
HMS Victory is a 104-gun first-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, laid down in 1759 and launched in 1765. She is most famous as Lord Nelson's flagship at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805....
.
Mitford served in the British navy
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...
for 16 years, during the French Revolutionary Wars
French Revolutionary Wars
The French Revolutionary Wars were a series of major conflicts, from 1792 until 1802, fought between the French Revolutionary government and several European states...
and Napoleonic Wars
Napoleonic Wars
The Napoleonic Wars were a series of wars declared against Napoleon's French Empire by opposing coalitions that ran from 1803 to 1815. As a continuation of the wars sparked by the French Revolution of 1789, they revolutionised European armies and played out on an unprecedented scale, mainly due to...
. He was on the Zealous
HMS Zealous (1785)
HMS Zealous was a 74-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, built by Barnard of Deptford and launched on 25 June 1785.She served in a number of battles of the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars, notably the Battle of the Nile, where she engaged the French ship Guerrier,...
at the Battle of the Nile
Battle of the Nile
The Battle of the Nile was a major naval battle fought between British and French fleets at Aboukir Bay on the Mediterranean coast of Egypt from 1–3 August 1798...
, 1–2 August 1798, and was later in command of a revenue cutter off the coast of Ireland, and acting master of the brig Philomel in the Mediterranean
Mediterranean Sea
The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean surrounded by the Mediterranean region and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Anatolia and Europe, on the south by North Africa, and on the east by the Levant...
. In 1808 he married Emily Street of Dalintober, Argyll
Argyll
Argyll , archaically Argyle , is a region of western Scotland corresponding with most of the part of ancient Dál Riata that was located on the island of Great Britain, and in a historical context can be used to mean the entire western coast between the Mull of Kintyre and Cape Wrath...
. The couple had two sons, John (born 1808) and Charles Bertram (born 1810), and two daughters Frances (born 1812) and Emily (born 1815). The marriage ended in separation.
The Blackheath affair
In late 1811 Mitford received an offer of a position in the civil service from Lady Bridget Perceval, who was daughter-in-law of the Earl of EgmontJohn Perceval, 3rd Earl of Egmont
John Perceval, 3rd Earl of Egmont was a British politician.Perceval served as Member of Parliament for Bridgwater from 1762-1768. Perceval was initially declared re-elected in 1768, but on petition he was judged not to have been duly elected and his opponent, Anne Poulett, was seated in his place...
, and a family connection of Mitford’s relative and patron Lord Redesdale. When he returned to England however Mitford found that the position did not exist and Bridget Perceval wanted him instead to join her campaign in support of Princess Caroline
Caroline of Brunswick
Caroline of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel was the Queen consort of King George IV of the United Kingdom from 29 January 1820 until her death...
(a neighbour in Blackheath
Blackheath, London
Blackheath is a district of South London, England. It is named from the large open public grassland which separates it from Greenwich to the north and Lewisham to the west...
). While Mitford was helping Bridget Perceval place letters in the newspapers he was hidden away in Warburton’s private asylum in Hoxton, Whitmore House. In the spring of 1813 Bridget Perceval and Mitford 'overleaped the bounds the prudence' and a letter in The News purportedly signed by Lords Eldon
John Scott, 1st Earl of Eldon
John Scott, 1st Earl of Eldon PC KC FRS FSA was a British barrister and politician. He served as Lord Chancellor of Great Britain between 1801 and 1806 and again between 1807 and 1827.- Background and education :...
, Castlereagh
Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh
Robert Stewart, 2nd Marquess of Londonderry, KG, GCH, PC, PC , usually known as Lord CastlereaghThe name Castlereagh derives from the baronies of Castlereagh and Ards, in which the manors of Newtownards and Comber were located...
, and Liverpool and promising Caroline a larger establishment was traced to Mitford, who swore that the letter had originated with Lady Perceval and that he had no idea it was a forgery. Lady Perceval denied all knowledge of the letter and brought a case against Mitford for perjury; Mitford was tried and acquitted.
Mitford’s stay in Warburton’s asylum provided him with the material for two anonymous pamphlets (published in the 1820s) exposing the exploitation
Exploitation
This article discusses the term exploitation in the meaning of using something in an unjust or cruel manner.- As unjust benefit :In political economy, economics, and sociology, exploitation involves a persistent social relationship in which certain persons are being mistreated or unfairly used for...
, neglect
Neglect
Neglect is a passive form of abuse in which a perpetrator is responsible to provide care for a victim who is unable to care for himself or herself, but fails to provide adequate care....
and abuse of patients. He had previously petitioned Parliament to inquire into conditions in Warburton’s asylums, but without success."All private mad-houses are alike public evils, that should be destroyed" wrote Mitford.
Literary career
Mitford spent the rest of his life in London, making a living from writing and editing and by all accounts living a hand-to-mouth existence. In 1818 he produced a book of verse, The poems of a British sailor, some of which had been written when he was at sea and others while he was working for Bridget Perceval.The same year saw the publication (under the pseudonym of Alfred Burton) of Mitford’s most famous work: The adventures of Johnny Newcome in the navy, a poem in four cantos, illustrated by Thomas Rowlandson
Thomas Rowlandson
Thomas Rowlandson was an English artist and caricaturist.- Biography :Rowlandson was born in Old Jewry, in the City of London. He was the son of a tradesman or city merchant. On leaving school he became a student at the Royal Academy...
. Johnny Newcome (a generic term for new recruits) is a clergyman’s son who is forced to leave school and join the navy when his clergyman father loses all his money in a banking crash. He embarks on HMS Capricorn at Sheerness
Sheerness
Sheerness is a town located beside the mouth of the River Medway on the northwest corner of the Isle of Sheppey in north Kent, England. With a population of 12,000 it is the largest town on the island....
and, under the good captain Dale his career prospers, but in Jamaica yellow fever strikes the ship, Captain Dale dies and is replaced by the bullying Captain Teak, and Johnny regretfully leaves the navy. Another edition of Johnny Newcome appeared the following year, and the poem was reprinted by Methuen in 1905. Mitford wrote the poem in six weeks whilst sleeping out in Bayswater Fields under a shelter made of nettles, and washing in a gravel pit. In order to keep the poetry flowing, his publisher allowed him a shilling a day; he lived on bread and cheese and spent the rest on gin.
Mitford's other works include:
- The adventures of a post captain, a poem in similar style to The adventures of Johnny Newcome in the navy which recounts the adventures of Captain Bowsprit.
- A peep into Windsor Castle after the lost mutton, a satirical pro-Caroline poem about the Prince Regent
- The king is a true British sailor, a song about King William IV.
Other works have been attributed to Mitford, including: Confessions of Julia Johnstone, written by herself in contradiction to the fables of Harriette Wilson (1825)
As an editor, he worked on: Scourge, or Monthly exposure of Imposture and Folly (1811–1814); New Bon-Ton magazine or the Telescope of the Times (1818–21); New London Rambler’s Magazine (1828–30). At the time of his death he was editing the Quizzical Gazette and Merry Companion.
Mitford defended the reputation of Emma, Lady Hamilton
Emma, Lady Hamilton
Emma, Lady Hamilton is best remembered as the mistress of Lord Nelson and as the muse of George Romney. She was born Amy Lyon in Ness near Neston, Cheshire, England, the daughter of a blacksmith, Henry Lyon, who died when she was two months old...
when Edward Pelham Brenton
Edward Pelham Brenton
Captain Edward Pelham Brenton was an officer of the British Royal Navy during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars who military career was relatively quiet, apart from involvement in the capture of Martinique in 1809...
, in his Naval history of Great Britain, accused her of having demanded to be rowed round the Minerva to see Admiral Caracciolo
Francesco Caracciolo
Prince Francesco Caracciolo was a Neapolitan admiral and revolutionist.-Early life and British service:Caracciolo was born in Naples to a noble family. He entered the navy and learned his seamanship under Rodney...
hanging. Mitford wrote a letter to the Morning Post denying Brenton's version of events; Brenton in turn dismissed Mitford as someone who lodged 'over a coal shed in some obscure street near Leicester Square'. But more eye-witnesses, including Francis Augustus Collier, came forward to dispute Brenton's version of events and support Mitford's.
Mitford died of a chest infection in St Giles workhouse in December 1831, aged 49, and was buried in the graveyard at St Dunstan's
St Dunstan-in-the-West
The Guild Church of St Dunstan-in-the-West is in Fleet Street in London, England. An octagonal-shaped building, it is dedicated to a former bishop of London and archbishop of Canterbury.-History:...
, Fleet Street.
Mitford’s unconventional life-style and association with publishers such as William Benbow
William Benbow
William Benbow was a non-conformist preacher and a leader of the Great Reform Movement in Manchester, England.Benbow worked with William Cobbett on the radical newspaper The Political Register. Faced with being imprisoned for sedition he fled to the United States where he continued to work on the...
and Edward Duncombe made him the subject of harsh criticism, although his talents as a writer were recognised.William Howitt
William Howitt
William Howitt , was an English author.He was born at Heanor, Derbyshire. His parents were Quakers, and he was educated at the Friends public school at Ackworth, Yorkshire. His younger brothers were Richard and Godrey whom he helped tutor. In 1814 he published a poem on the Influence of Nature and...
referred to him as "one of the most deplorable instances of misused talents, and one of the most pitiable victims of intemperance and want of prudence", while another Victorian writer described him in the following terms: "Jack was a respectable classical scholar, and possessed some literary ability; but, instead of devoting his talents to any useful purpose, he prostituted them to the lowest ends. Drink, drink, drink! became his besetment and from the day it did so his ignoble fate was sealed." More recently he has been described as "a brilliant hack satirist with an intimate knowledge of the Royal domestic politics" and capable of "more than passable satirical verse".