MITCHELL, ALEXANDER FERRIER: Church of Scotland; b. at Brechin Sept. 10, 1822; d. at St. Andrews Mar. 22, 1899. He studied literature, philosophy, and theology at the University of St. Andrews (M.A., 1841), became minister of the parish of Dunnichen, in the presbytery and county of Forfar, in 1847, professor of Hebrew and Oriental languages in the College of St. Mary in the University of St. Andrews in 1848, and was transferred to the chair of ecclesiastical history and divinity in the same college in 1868. He retired in 1894. From 1856 to 1874 he was convener (chairman) of the Church of Scotland's Jewish Mission, visited the stations of the mission in Turkey,, and recommended the occupation of Alexandria, Beirut, and Constantinople. He was first convener of the Assembly's committee on the minutes of the Westminster Assembly,, one of the Church of Scotland's representatives at all the general councils of the Reformed Churches, convener of its committee on the desiderata of Presbyterian history, and moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in 1885. He was an authority on all matters connected with Scottish ecclesiastical history, and the author of The Westminster Confession of Faith, a Contribution to the Study of its History and the Defence of its Teaching (Edinburgh, 1868; 3d ed., 1867); The Wedderburns and their Work, or the Sacred Poetry of the Scottish Reformation ire its Relation to that of Germany (1867); Minutes of the Westminster Assembly from November, 1644, to March, 161,9 (ed. John Struthers), with Historical Introduotion (1874); Historical Notice of Archbishop Hamilton's Catechism (prgr to black-letter reprint of the same, 1882); '!'he Westminster Assembly, its History and Standards (Baud Lecture for 1882, London, 1883); The Catechisms of the Second RefmTrtation (1886); and The Scottish Reformation: Its Epochs, Episodes, Leaders arid Distinctive Chtfrawteristic8 (Baud lecture for 1899; ed. D. Hay Flaming, 1900). He edited in 1860 the Sum of Saving Knowledge, Translated into Modern Greek by the late Prof. Edward Masson; in 1876 the late Prof. Thomas Jackson Crawford's The Preaching of the Cross arid other Sermons; in 1888 John Gan's The Rich! Vey to Heuine; and in 1897 The Gude and Godlie Bal. latis from the edition of 1567, both for the Scottish Teat Society; in 1892 for the Scottish History Society (with James Christie), The Records of the Commissions of the General Assemblies of the Church of Scotland, holden in Edinburgh in the years 16.46 and 1647; and for the same and with the same in 1896 the Records of the same in 1648 and 1649. He was a frequent contributor to the periodic press and to encyclopedias.

Bibliography: A biographical sketch by James Christie is prefixed to his Scottish Reformation, ut sup., London, 1900.