- Richard Holt Hutton
Richard Holt Hutton (
June 2 ,1826 –September 9 ,1897 ) was an Englishwriter and theologian.The son of Joseph Hutton,
Unitarian minister atLeeds , he was born at Leeds. His family moved toLondon in 1835, and he was educated atUniversity College School andUniversity College, London , where he began a lifelong friendship withWalter Bagehot , whose works he later edited. He took his degree in 1845, and was awarded the gold medal forphilosophy . Meanwhile he had also studied for short periods atHeidelberg andBerlin , and in 1847 he enteredManchester New College with the idea of becoming a minister like his father, and studied there underJames Martineau . He was not, however, called on by any church, and for some time his future was unsettled. In 1851, he married his cousin, Anne Roscoe, and became joint-editor with JL Sanford of the "Inquirer", the principal Unitarian organ. His innovations and unconventional views about stereotyped Unitarian doctrines caused alarm, and in 1853 he resigned. His health had broken down, and he visited theWest Indies , where his wife died ofyellow fever .In 1855 Hutton and Bagehol became joint-editors of the "National Review", a new monthly which lasted for ten years. During this time Hutton's theological views, influenced directly by F W Robertson and F D Maurice, gradually came closer to those of the
Church of England , which he ultimately joined. He brought to his study of theology a spirituality of outlook and an aptitude for metaphysical inquiry and exposition which made his writings more attractive. In 1861 he joinedMeredith Townsend as joint-editor and part proprietor of "The Spectator", then a well-known liberal weekly, but it did not pay. Hutton took charge of the literary side of the paper, and gradually his own articles became one of the best-known features of serious and thoughtful Englishjournalism . The "Spectator", which gradually became a prosperous property, was an outlet for his views, particularly on literary, religious and philosophical subjects, in opposition to the agnostic and rationalistic opinions then current in intellectual circles, as popularized by T H Huxley.Hutton had many friends, and became one of the most respected and influential journalists of the day. He was an original member of the
Metaphysical Society (1869). He was ananti-vivisectionist , and a member of theRoyal Commission (1875) on that subject. In 1858 he married Eliza Roscoe, a cousin of his first wife; she died early in 1897, and Hutton's own death followed in the same year.Among his other publications may be mentioned "Essays, Theological and Literary" (1871; revised 1888), and "Criticisms on Contemporary Thought and Thinkers" (1894); and his opinions may be studied compendiously in the selections from his "Spectator" articles published in 1899 under the title of "Aspects of Religious and Scientific Thought".
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