John Murray Mitchell was born in the manse at Garvock near
Aberdeen, Scotland, on 19 August 1815. His parents, who had seven other children, were Rev James Mitchell and his wife, Margaret Gordon. Following education in
Kinneff,
Kincardineshire and a year at
Aberdeen Grammar School, he joined the city's
Marischal College in 1829. He graduated with an MA in 1833 and then studied for the church ministry, initially in Aberdeen and later in
Edinburgh. He was ordained by the
Church of Scotland in July 1838. Mitchell was sent to
Bombay, India, to join some missionary colleagues of the
Church of Scotland in November 1838. There he was able to continue his interest in languages, for which he had already received prizes during his studies. He soon mastered
Marathi and also studied
Sanskrit and what was then called
Zend. 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. Later, after 1888, he worked on behalf of the church in
Nice, France. ==Family==