1787 - his family moved to Belfast. 1790 - studied at the Royal Belfast Academy under Dr William Bruce. 1800 - started a business as a brick manufacturer and builder. 1803 - went totally blind following smallpox as a child. 1832 - retired from the brick manufacture business. 1833 - patented Mitchell's screw pile system. 1838 - Maplin Sands lighthouse constructed using the Mitchell system. 1839 - designed and constructed, with the aid of his son John, the lighthouse at Fleetwood, on the Wyre in Morecambe Bay. 1848 - elected a member of the Institution of Civil Engineers.