Richard Holt Hutton (2 June 1826 – 9 September 1897) was an
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
journalist
A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalism ...
of
literature
Literature is any collection of written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially prose fiction, drama, and poetry. In recent centuries, the definition has expanded to include ...
and
religion
Religion is usually defined as a social- cultural system of designated behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics, or organizations, that generally relates humanity to supernatural, ...
.
Life and work
The son of Joseph Hutton, a
Unitarian minister, Richard Holt Hutton was born at
Leeds
Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by populati ...
. His family moved to
London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
in 1835, and he was educated at
University College School
("Slowly but surely")
, established =
, closed =
, type = Public schoolIndependent day school
, religion =
, president =
, head_label = Headmaster
, head = Mark Beard
, r_head_label =
, r_hea ...
and
University College London
, mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward
, established =
, type = Public research university
, endowment = £143 million (2020)
, budget = ...
, where he began a lifelong friendship with
Walter Bagehot
Walter Bagehot ( ; 3 February 1826 – 24 March 1877) was an English journalist, businessman, and essayist, who wrote extensively about government, economics, literature and race. He is known for co-founding the ''National Review'' in 1855 ...
, whose works he later edited. He took his degree in 1845, and was awarded the gold medal for
philosophy
Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. Some ...
. Meanwhile, he had also studied for short periods at
Heidelberg
Heidelberg (; Palatine German language, Palatine German: ''Heidlberg'') is a city in the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, situated on the river Neckar in south-west Germany. As of the 2016 census, its population was 159,914 ...
and
Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...
, and in 1847 he entered
Manchester New College with the idea of becoming a minister like his father, and studied there under
James Martineau
James Martineau (; 21 April 1805 – 11 January 1900) was a British religious philosopher influential in the history of Unitarianism.
For 45 years he was Professor of Mental and Moral Philosophy and Political Economy in Manchester New College ( ...
. 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
John Langton Sanford
John Langton Sanford (1824–1877) was an English historical writer.
Life
Born at Upper Clapton, London, on 22 June 1824, Sanford studied at University College, London. Entering Lincoln's Inn, he read in the chambers of John Richard Quain, an ...
of the ''Inquirer'', the main Unitarian periodical. His innovations and unconventional views about stereotyped Unitarian doctrines caused alarm, and in 1853 he resigned. His health had broken down, and he visited the
West Indies
The West Indies is a subregion of North America, surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea that includes 13 independent island countries and 18 dependencies and other territories in three major archipelagos: the Greater A ...
, where his wife died of
yellow fever
Yellow fever is a viral disease of typically short duration. In most cases, symptoms include fever, chills, loss of appetite, nausea, muscle pains – particularly in the back – and headaches. Symptoms typically improve within five days. In ...
.
In 1855 Hutton and Bagehot 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
Frederick William Robertson
Frederick William Robertson (3 February 1816 – 15 August 1853), known as Robertson of Brighton, was an English divine.
Biography
Born in London, the first five years of his life were passed at Leith Fort, where his father, a captain in the R ...
and
John Frederick Denison Maurice
John Frederick Denison Maurice (1805–1872), known as F. D. Maurice, was an English Anglican theologian, a prolific author, and one of the founders of Christian socialism. Since the Second World War, interest in Maurice has expanded."Fre ...
, gradually came closer to those of the
Church of England
The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britain ...
, which he ultimately joined. He brought to his study of theology a
spirituality
The meaning of ''spirituality'' has developed and expanded over time, and various meanings can be found alongside each other. Traditionally, spirituality referred to a religious process of re-formation which "aims to recover the original shape o ...
of outlook and an aptitude for
metaphysical
Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy that studies the fundamental nature of reality, the first principles of being, identity and change, space and time, causality, necessity, and possibility. It includes questions about the nature of conscio ...
inquiry and exposition which made his writings more attractive. In 1861 he joined
Meredith Townsend Meredith White Townsend (1831–1911) was an English journalist and editor of ''The Spectator''. With Richard Holt Hutton, he was joint-editor of the Spectator until 1887, and he was largely instrumental in making it an established success, writing ...
as joint editor and part proprietor of the ''
Spectator
''Spectator'' or ''The Spectator'' may refer to:
*Spectator sport, a sport that is characterized by the presence of spectators, or watchers, at its matches
*Audience
Publications Canada
* ''The Hamilton Spectator'', a Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, ...
'', 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 English
journalism
Journalism is the production and distribution of reports on the interaction of events, facts, ideas, and people that are the "news of the day" and that informs society to at least some degree. The word, a noun, applies to the occupation (profes ...
. 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
Thomas Henry Huxley (4 May 1825 – 29 June 1895) was an English biologist and anthropologist specialising in comparative anatomy. He has become known as "Darwin's Bulldog" for his advocacy of Charles Darwin's theory of evolution.
The stor ...
.
Hutton had many friends, and became one of the most respected and influential journalists of the day. 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''.
Interests
He was an original member of the
Metaphysical Society
The Metaphysical Society was a famous British debating society, founded in 1869 by James Knowles, who acted as Secretary. Membership was by invitation only, and was exclusively male. Many of its members were prominent clergymen, philosophers, and ...
(1869). He was an
anti-vivisectionist
Vivisection () is surgery conducted for experimental purposes on a living organism, typically animals with a central nervous system, to view living internal structure. The word is, more broadly, used as a pejorative catch-all term for experiment ...
, and a member of the
Royal Commission (1875) on that subject, which led to the
Cruelty to Animals Act 1876
The Cruelty to Animals Act 1876 ( 39 & 40 Vict. c. 77.) was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which set limits on the practice of, and instituted a licensing system for animal experimentation, amending the Cruelty to Animals Act 1 ...
.
Hutton took interest in
parapsychology
Parapsychology is the study of alleged psychic phenomena (extrasensory perception, telepathy, precognition, clairvoyance, psychokinesis (also called telekinesis), and psychometry) and other paranormal claims, for example, those related to near ...
. He was the vice president of the
Society for Psychical Research
The Society for Psychical Research (SPR) is a nonprofit organisation in the United Kingdom. Its stated purpose is to understand events and abilities commonly described as psychic or paranormal. It describes itself as the "first society to condu ...
in 1882.
[ James, William. (1986). ''Essays in Psychical Research''. Harvard University Press. p. 390. ]
Collections
*1871. ''Essays, Theological and Literary.'' 2 vols. London: Macmillan. (2nd ed., 1880. 3rd ed., 1888. 4th ed., 1895–1896.)
*1894. ''Criticisms on Contemporary Thought and Thinkers.'' 2 vols. London: Macmillan.
*1899. ''Aspects of Religious and Scientific Thought.'' Edited by Elizabeth M. Roscoe. London: Macmillan.
*1906. ''Brief Literary Criticisms.'' Edited by Elizabeth M. Roscoe. London: Macmillan.
*1989. ''A Victorian Spectator.'' Edited by Robert H. Tener and Malcolm Woodfield. Bristol: Bristol Press.
*1998. ''A Spectator of Theatre.'' Edited by Robert H. Tener. Calgary: University of Calgary Press.
References
Notes
Further reading
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External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Hutton, Richard Holt
1826 births
1897 deaths
Alumni of Harris Manchester College, Oxford
Alumni of University College London
Anti-vivisectionists
British male journalists
English Unitarians
English Anglicans
Converts to Anglicanism from Unitarianism
The Economist editors
Parapsychologists
People educated at University College School
19th-century British journalists
The Spectator editors
19th-century British male writers