Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Cruttwell, Richard
CRUTTWELL, RICHARD (1776–1846), writer on the currency, born in 1776, was educated at Exeter College, Oxford, and took the degree of B.C.L. on 13 June 1803. He was at one period chaplain of H.M.S. Trident, and secretary to Rear-admiral Sir Alexander J. Ball (d. 1809) [q. v.], and was perpetual curate of Holmfirth, in the parish of Kirkburton, Yorkshire. In 1822 he was presented by Lord Eldon to the rectory of Spexhall, Suffolk, and held it till his death, which took place in London on 12 Nov. 1846. Cruttwell persistently brought forward his views on the currency in numerous treatises and pamphlets. At one time he printed at his own cost and distributed hundreds of tracts; but his theories seem to have aroused little interest, and his publisher once received an unfranked note, saying: ‘Sir Robert Peel requests that Mr. Tippell will discontinue sending him printed papers respecting the currency.’ Cruttwell claims to have laboured for more than twenty years for the good of his country, and to have sacrificed for it health, friends, and comfort. In ‘Reform without Revolution,’ one of the latest of his writings, he urges the practical application of his principles to the relief of ‘our suffering millions, manufacturing operatives in particular,’ whose misfortunes arise ‘from untaxed foreign competition, from overtaxed home competition, [and] from a viciously depraved money standard.’ Cruttwell's publications are: 1. ‘A Discourse … on occasion of the Death of Admiral Sir A. J. Ball,’ London, 1809, 8vo. 2. ‘A Treatise on the State of the Currency … being a full and free Exposition of the Erroneous Principles of Mr. Ricardo … Mr. Huskisson, Mr. Peel,’ &c. London, 1825, 8vo. 3. ‘Practical Application of the Rev. Mr. Cruttwell's Plan for adjusting the Currency to the real gold value of all property,’ 1826. 4. ‘A Petition to his Majesty the King on the Currency,’ &c., Halesworth, 1827, 8vo. 5. ‘The System of Country Banking defended,’ London, 1828, 8vo. 6. ‘Catholic Emancipation not calculated to relieve the starving Peasantry of Ireland’ [1828?]. 7. ‘Lectures on the Currency’ [Prospectus], Halesworth [1829], folio. 8. ‘Salva Fide, a letter on the Currency and the necessity of a new Standard, as opposed to the ruinous principles of what is called Mr. Peel's Bill,’ &c., London, 1830, 8vo. 9. ‘Two Modes for Accounting for the Church being in Danger,’ &c., Halesworth, 1837, 12mo. 10. ‘Wellingtoniana; or how to “make” a Duke and how to “mar” a Duke,’ &c., London, 1837. 11. ‘Reform without Revolution: in a strict union between the Mercantile …, Monied, Agricultural, and Labouring Classes on the principle of a … Sound … Standard, &c., by One of No Party [R. C.],’ London, 1839, 8vo. 12. ‘The Touchstone of England … Excessive Taxation … proved … the true Cause of England's present Public Distress,’ Halesworth, 1843, 12mo.
[Gent. Mag. 1847, new ser. xxvii. 100; Davy's Suffolk Collections, xciii. (Suffolk Authors) 375 = Brit. Mus. Addit. MS. 19169, f. 283; Catal. Oxford Grad.; Cruttwell's Reform without Revolution, &c.; Brit. Mus. Cat.]