HUTCHINSON, Aaron, clergyman, b. in He- bron, Conn., in March, 1722; d. in Pomfret, Vt., 27 Sept., 1800. He was graduated at Yale in 1747, studied for the ministry in Hebron for about three years, and on 6 June, 1750, responded to a call to preach in Grafton, Mass., where he remained for about twenty-two years. In 1776 he moved to Pomfret, Vt., established a- congregation there, and two others in the adjoining towns of Hartford and Woodstock, and for several years performed the pastoral duties for the three congregations. During his fifty years of preaching he lost only two services from illness, and never used a book for conducting his services. Dr. Hutchinson was one of the foremost classical scholars of his time in this country. It was said of him by those who had an intimate knowledge of his attainments, that if the New Testament had been lost he could have reproduced it from memory in the original Greek. Upon one occasion, when he was at Bennington attending the sittings of the council of safety, he met Ethan Allen, who invited him to preach at his house the next Sunday, and at the same time handed to him the manuscript of his " Oracles of Reason," which Allen called his Bible. The Sun- day arrived, a chapter from the Old Testament, specially selected for the occasion, was recited, and the first hymn that was given out began with the verse
"Let all the heathen writers join
To form a perfect book,
But, good Lord ! compared with thine,
How mean their writings look!"
This was followed by an orthodox sermon. Allen never forgave Hutchinson for this, and never in- vited him to preach again. Of his sermons only eight were published. The most notable among them was " Mr. Hutchinson's Sermon at Windsor, July 2, 1777, at the Convention for the Forming of the State of Vermont : A well-tempered Self Love a Rule of Conduct towards Others" (Dresden, 1777), which was the first book issued from a print- ing-press in the state of V r ermont. Among the others are " Valour for the Truth " (Boston, 1767) ; " Coming of Christ " (1773) ; and " Meat out of the Eater, or Samson's Riddle Unriddled " (1774).
HUTCHINSON, Anne (Marbury), religious
teacher, b. in Lincolnshire, England, about 1590 :
d. near Stamford, Conn., in September, 1643. She
was a daughter of the Rev. Francis Marbury,
and descended from the Blunts, a distinguished
family. About 1612 she married William Hutchin-
son, of Alford, Lincolnshire, a distant cousin of
the celebrated Col. John Hutchinson. Mary, a
younger sister of William Hutchinson, married the
Rev. John Wheelwright, a Lincolnshire preacher.
In 1633 Mrs. Hutchinson's eldest son, Edward, ac-
companied the Rev. John Cotton to Massachu-
setts, and in the course of the next year he was
followed by his father and mother. Mrs. Hutchin-
son, says Winthrop, brought with her to Massa-
chusetts "two dangerous errors: first, that the
person of the Holy Ghost dwells in a justified
person ; second, that no sanctification can help to
evidence to us our justification." To these opin-
ions Mrs. Hutchinson attached so much impor-
tance that she held meetings in Boston and gave
lectures expounding them. In this she was ably
supported by her brother-in-law, Wheelwright,
who came to' Boston in 1636. She violently at-
tacked the Massachusetts clergy, all except Wheel-
wright and Cotton, whom she declared to be
" under a covenant of grace," while the rest were
only " under a covenant of works." Great excite-
ment was aroused by her preaching, and for a while
Boston was divided into two hostile theological
camps. Mrs. Hutchinson went far toward win-
ning to her cause not only the powerful preacher,
Cotton, but also the youthful and enthusiastic
governor, Harry Vane. The doughty Capt. Under-
bill was one of her converts. The" agitation was
fraught with danger to the infant colony. On the
eve of the Pequot war a company of militia was
found unwilling to march, because its chaplain
was held to be "under a covenant of works."
When things had come to such a pass, it was
thought to be high time to put Mrs. Hutchinson
down. She was tried for heresy and sedition, and
banished from Massachusetts, along with Wheel-
wright and several others of her followers, who
were known as " Antinomians." Wheelwright and
others went northward and founded the towns of
Exeter and Dover, in New Hampshire. Mrs. Hut-
chinson, with her husband and fifteen children,
bought for forty fathoms of wampum the island
of Aquidneck from the Narragansett Indians, and
founded the town of Portsmouth, while Codding-
ton, one of her followers, founded Newport. After
the death of her husband in 1642, Mrs. Hutchinson
left Rhode Island, and settled upon some land to
the west of Stamford, supposed to be within the
territory of the New Netherlands. There in the
following year she was cruelly murdered by Indians,
together with most of her children and servants,
sixteen victims in all. Her child, Susanna, ten
years old, was carried into captivity by the Indians,
but four years afterward was ransomed, and in
1651 married John Cole, of Rhode Island. — Ed-
ward, eldest son of William and Anne Hutchin-
son, b. in Alford, Lincolnshire, 28 May, 1613 ; d.
in Brookfield, Mass.. 2 Aug., 1675, left" Boston in
1638, at the time of his mother's banishment, but
returned some years afterward, and from 1658 till
1675 was deputy to the general court. He was a
captain of militia, and in July, 1675. after the
disastrous beginning of Philip's war, was sent to
Brookfield to negotiate with the Nipmuck Indians.
The treacherous savages appointed a place for a
rendezvous, but lay in ambush for Hutchinson as
he approached, and slew him, with several of his
company. — Thomas, royal governor of Massachusetts, b. in Boston, 9 Sept., 1711 ; d. in Brompton.
near London, 3 June. 1780, was a great-grandson
of Capt. Edward Hutchinson, just mentioned. His
father, a merchant in high standing, and at one
time quite wealthy, was for twenty-six years a mem-
ber of the council of assistants. At five years of
age Thomas was admitted to the North grammar-school, and in 1727 he was graduated at Harvard. While in college he began carrying on a little trade by sending ventures in his father's vessels. He was not very attentive to his studies at college, but afterward acquired a thorough knowledge of Latin and French. From early childhood he took great delight in reading history. After leaving college he spent four years in his father's counting-house, and showed himself extremely methodical, exact, and business-like in his habits. On 16 May, 1734, he married Margaret Sanford. a beautiful girl of seventeen, with whom he lived happily until her death in 1753. He never married again. In 1737 he was chosen a selectman for the town of Boston, and about a month afterward was elected representative to the general court. The people were there greatly agitated over the question of paper money. Bills of credit had been issued since the beginning of the century, partly to meet the expenses of the French and Indian wars on the northern frontier. In all the New England states the depreciation of the paper wrought serious disturb-
