Joseph Mitchell (politician)

Joseph Earl Cherry Mitchell (22 July 1840 – 22 October 1897) was an English-born Australian politician.

He was born in Cheshire to shipbuilder Richard Mitchell and Margaret Cherry. He was his father's apprentice when they arrived in New South Wales in 1859, and then established himself in Newtown as a coal merchant. In 1866 he married Charlotte Harrison at Bowral; they had eight children. A highly successful coal trader, he was elected to the New South Wales Legislative Assembly in 1881 as the member for Newtown, but he was defeated the following year. He returned to the Assembly in 1883, but was defeated again in 1885. In 1888 he was elected as a Free Trader and was re-elected for Illawarra in 1889, but he was in Europe at the time of nominations for the 1891 election and therefore was unable to contest. He unsuccessfully contested a by-election later in the same year, and contested Woronora in 1894 and Newtown-Camperdown in 1895, without success. Mitchell died at Bellambi in 1897.