[3] Having become a barrister of the Inner Temple in 1777,[2] Mitford wrote A Treatise on the Pleadings in Suits in the Court of Chancery by English Bill, a work reprinted several times in England, Ireland, and America.

[5] In 1788, he became Member of Parliament for the borough of Bere Alston in Devon,[1][6] and in 1791 he successfully introduced a bill for the relief of Roman Catholics, despite being himself a committed Anglican.

[4] In 1793 he succeeded Sir John Scott as Solicitor-General for England[7] (receiving the customary knighthood at the same time), becoming Attorney General six years later,[1] when he was returned to parliament as member for East Looe in Cornwall.

He had little support from his own colleagues: he was the subject of scurrilous attacks by "Juverna", who was later discovered to be a senior judge, Robert Johnson, who was convicted of seditious libel and forced to resign from the Bench as a result.

[1] Lord Redesdale survived her by thirteen years and died at Batsford Park, near Moreton-in-the-Marsh, Gloucestershire,[2] in January 1830, aged 81.