Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Hutton, Matthew (1693-1758)
HUTTON, MATTHEW (1693–1758), successively bishop of Bangor, archbishop of York, and archbishop of Canterbury, born at Marske in Yorkshire on 3 Jan. 1692-3, was second son of John Hutton of Marske, by Dorothy, daughter of William Dyke of Trant in Sussex. His father was the lineal descendant of Matthew Hutton (1529-1606) [q. v.], archbishop of York. He was sent to school at Kirby Hill, near Richmond, in 1701, and when his master, Loyd, became master of the free school at Ripon, Hutton went thither with him. He was admitted a member of Jesus College, Cambridge, 22 June 1710, graduated B.A. in 1713, and proceeded M.A. in 1717, and D.D. in 1728. On 8 July 1717 he became a fellow of Christ's College. In 1726 Hutton was made rector of Trowbridge, Wiltshire, on the presentation of the Duke of Somerset, to whom he was private chaplain. The duke in 1729 gave him the valuable rectory of Spofforth in Yorkshire, and Archbishop Blackbourne made him a prebendary of York on 18 May 1734. Becoming one of the royal chaplains, he went in 1736 with George II to Hanover, and on 27 March 1736-7 he was installed canon of Windsor. This last preferment he exchanged for a prebend at Westminster on 18 May 1739. When Thomas Herring [q. v.] became archbishop of York, Hutton was chosen to succeed him at Bangor, and the consecration took place on 13 Nov. 1743. His opinions, resembling those of Herring, were somewhat latitudinarian. Hutton again succeeded Herring at York on 28 Nov. 1747, and finally, on Herring's death, he became archbishop of Canterbury, 13 April 1757. He held the see only a year, and never lived at Lambeth owing to a dispute with the executors of his predecessor about the dilapidations. On 18 March 1758 he died, from the effects of a rupture, at his house in Duke Street, Westminster, and was buried in a vault in the chancel of Lambeth Church. There is an inscription on the tomb. Thomas Wray, his chaplain, wrote of Hutton to Andrew Coltee Ducarel [q. v.] (2 Sept. 1758) that he was cheerful and amiable, but that ‘he never let himself down below the dignity of an archbishop.’ The fact that Hutton was ‘a little ad rem attentior’in later years, Wray attributed to his desire to provide for his family (Nichols, Lit. Illustr. iii. 473). Hutton's portrait, painted in 1754, was engraved in mezzotint by J. Faber. This is probably the engraving which Walpole gave to the Rev. William Cole (1714-1782) [q. v.] Hutton married, in March 1731-2, Mary, daughter of John Lutman of Petworth, Sussex, by whom he left two daughters, Dorothy and Mary. He published several separate sermons. He was a friend of the Duke of Newcastle, and letters which passed between them are preserved in the `Newcastle Correspondence' (Brit. Mus. Add. MSS. 32700, &c.)
[Memoir by Ducarel, printed in the Correspondence of Dr. Matthew Hutton (Surtees Soc.), ed. Eaine; Walpole's Letters, iii. 123, 130, iv. 142, 176; Nichols's Literary Anecd. iv. 470, viii. 219, &c.; Nichols's Lit. Illustrations, iii. 386, &c.; Hunt's Religious Thought in England, iii. 274; Le Neve's Fasti.]
Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.163
N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
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