by Basil Clarke

Joseph Mitchell was the vicar at Yealand Conyers from 1889 to his death in 1927.

He was born in Leicester in 1844 and educated there at the John Highton Collegiate School. He entered St. Thomas’s Hospital in 1866. There he was among the first men of his year and won prizes. Subsequently he took his M.R.C.S. (Eng.) in 1869, his M.R.C.P. (Edin.) in 1875 and his M.D. (St Andr.) in 1887. In 1886 he had become the medical attendant and secretary to Dr John Haddy Jones, a blind doctor at Exeter, until the death of Dr Jones. He then had fairly short attachments to the Tower Hamlet Dispensary and in Plaistow, and was the resident accoucheur at St Thomas’s Hospital.

Then in 1870 he began a private practice in London, and was elected the medical officer of No.4 District of St Pancras Workhouse. He had many dealings with the people of the slums in St Pancras; and he had much experience of their physical and spiritual needs.

Being strongly religious and belonging to the evangelical side of the church, he decided to give up his medical career and spend his time in missionary and social work. While a doctor he had become an enthusiastic temperance lecturer, and sometimes shared a platform with Lord Shaftesbury.

He passed the Cambridge theological examination in 1877 and was ordained Deacon at Ripon. In 1878 he was made a Priest. His first sermon was in Pentonville, London, and the ‘ same evening he preached at Somers Town to a crowded congregation consisting largely of his old patients, among whom he was popular.

His first curacy was in New Wortley, Leeds. He then spent a few months in Reading and, when the benefice of New Wortley became vacant in 1881, he was unanimously chosen as the vicar. New Wortley was a large urban parish; many of the men there worked on the railway, and it was said that a warm affection developed with them and their families. A new church was erected in New Wortley, largely through his efforts.

His wife, nee Emma Burton, whom he had married in 1871, was a very active helper. But Leeds did not agree with her health, and Dr Mitchell resigned in 1889, and accepted from the Hyndman Trustees the living of Yealand Conyers .”A picturesque village near the English Lakes“. Mrs Mitchell’s health improved, and she remained an enthusiastic aide till her death in 1908. Dr Mitchell continued to work successfully in Yealand for over thirty years.

One small child was sent to him with a button in her ear. He said his instruments would be a little rusty, but he dealt with the problem without trouble. The child recalled this in age, when visiting Yealand, where she no longer lived.

He was a keen supporter of Sunday Observance and of Foreign Missions, and was personally a strict teetotaller; but he remained very tolerant of those who disagreed with him.

He resigned finally in 1919, when 75, through failing health and eyesight. His farewell sermon made a great impression, and a copy was in circulation in the village till a few years ago. He retired to Kew and then to Wadhurst in Sussex, where he died in December 1927 at the age of 83. He is buried at Yealand Conyers. He asked for the words “God is my exceeding joy” to be engraved on his tombstone; they are on the base of the stone.