John Murray Mitchell (missionary)

John Murray Mitchell (19 August 1815 – 14 November 1904) was a Scottish missionary and orientalist who worked in his country of birth, India and France.

He frequently travelled from that base to speak with local people, often in their own language, but in 1846 he had to return to Scotland due to the poor health of his wife, Maria Hay Mackenzie née Flyter, whom he had married in Bombay on 22 December 1842.

[2] Mitchell returned alone to India before the end of 1846, having addressed the church's general assembly during his time back in his native country.

He began 1868 with another voyage to India, where he took charge of Duff College in Calcutta at a time when the mission in that city was experiencing difficulties.

During this period in India, he assisted in founding a mission to work among the Santal people and also had a significant role in establishing the Simla Union Church,[2] which opened in 1870 and catered for a united congregation of European Presbyterians and Dissenters.

[3] After another period in Scotland from 1873, when he served as Secretary of the church's Foreign Mission Committee, he returned to India for the last time in 1880 and remained there for two years.