HUTCHINS HUTTEX. 



9 



His works and lectures contributed to diffuse a taste 

 for analytical discussion in Scotland, which led to 

 the production of some of the most valuable writings 

 of the eighteenth century. 



HUTCHINS, THOMAS, geographer to the United 

 States of America, was born in New Jersey, about 

 1730. He entered the army in the French war, and 

 served at fort Pitt and against the Indians in Florida. 

 He was imprisoned in England, in 1779, on the 

 charge of having corresponded with doctor Franklin, 

 then American agent in France. On recovering his 

 liberty, he joined the army of general Greene at 

 Charleston. He was nominated geographer-general 

 to the United States ; and died at Pittsburgh, in 1789. 

 He published an Historical Sketch of the Expedition 

 of Bouquet against the Indians of Ohio, in 1764 ; a 

 Topographical Description of Virginia, Pennsylvania, 

 Maryland and Carolina, with maps (London, 1778) ; 

 a Historical Account and Topographical Descrip- 

 tion of Louisiana, West Florida, and Philadelphia 

 (1784). 



HUTCHINSON, ANN, a religious enthusiast, 

 who occasioned dissensions in the churches of New 

 England, came from Lincolnshire to Boston, in 1636. 

 She instituted meetings for women, in which, pre- 

 tending to enjoy immediate revelations, she taught 

 many Antinomian and other sentiments, which soon 

 occasioned great controversy in the colony, and, in 

 1637, drew together an ecclesiastical synod, which 

 condemned her errors. Not long after, she was 

 banished from the colony, and removed to a Dutch 

 settlement in New York, where, in 1643, she, and 

 her family, consisting of fifteen persons, were cap- 

 tured by the Indians, and all except a daughter 

 killed. 



HUTCHINSON, THOMAS, a governor of the 

 colony of Massachusetts, was of a family distin- 

 guished in the annals of New England, and was 

 born in Boston, in 1711. After graduating at Har- 

 vard college, in 1727, he became a merchant ; but, 

 not succeeding in trade, engaged in the study of 

 law and politics, in order to qualify himself for 

 public life. He was sent to London to transact 

 some business for the town of Boston, which charge 

 he executed satisfactorily, and, on his return, was 

 elected a representative. He was. after a few 

 years, chosen speaker of the house, and, in 1752, 

 succeeded his uncle as judge of probate. He was 

 placed in the council, and was appointed lieutenant- 

 governor in 1758, and chief-justice in 1760 all of 

 which offices he held simultaneously for several 

 years. In 1771. he received his commission as 

 governor of Massachusetts. It is affirmed that 

 there was no single officer of the British government 

 in America, who contributed more to produce the 

 separation of the two countries than Hutchinson. 

 His ambition and avarice were such as to render 

 him completely subservient to the views of the 

 British ministry, and to cause him to sacrifice his 

 principles, in order to abet every arbitrary regula- 

 tion, and to suggest the most odious means of en- 

 forcing them. He went so far even as to challenge 

 the legislature to a discussion of colonial rights, 

 which, he believed, he could convince them by 

 argument that they did not understand, and ought 

 to abandon. For some time, he enjoyed consider- 

 able popularity in the province, in consequence of his 

 attention to business, and the circumstances of his 

 being a native, and not a member of the English 

 church. But the publication of several of his letters 

 to the ministers, which had fallen into the hands of 

 Doctor Franklin in London, and by him had been 

 transmitted to Boston, by which the people became 

 aware of his hypocrisy, and of the odious counsels 

 which he had given against their rights, combined 



with his obstinacy in preventing the obnoxious tea 

 from being returned to the ships, so exasperated 

 them, that his recall was rendered indispensable. 

 In the year 1774, accordingly, he was removed from 

 his office, and general Gage was put in his place. 

 He then repaired to England, where, for some time, 

 he was fed with expectations of favour : but, after it 

 was found by the British ministry to be a more diffi- 

 cult matter to conquer the Americans than he had led 

 them to suppose, he fell into disgrace, and lived in 

 the most retired way, near Brompton, until his 

 death, June 3, 1780, in his sixty-ninth year. 



The following extract of a letter from president 

 Adams to William Tudor will give an idea of 

 governor Hutchinson's condition in London : " Fled, 

 in his old age, from the detestation of a country 

 where he had been beloved, esteemed, admired, and 

 applauded with exaggeration ; in short, where he 

 had been every thing from his infancy, to a country 

 where he was nothing; pinched by a pension, which, 

 though ample in Boston, would barely keep a house 

 in London ; throwing round his baleful eyes on the 

 exiled companions of his folly ; hearing daily of the 

 slaughter of his countrymen, and conflagration of 

 their cities ; abhorred by the greatest men end 

 soundest part of the nation, and neglected, if not 

 despised, by the rest hardened as had been my 

 heart against him, I assure you, I was melted at the 

 accounts I heard of his condition. Lord Townsend 

 told me that he put an end to his own life. Though 

 I disbelieve this, I knew he was ridiculed by the 

 courtiers. They laughed at his manners at the 

 levee, at the perpetual quotations of his brother 

 Foster (Foster Hutchinson, brother of governor 

 Hutchinson, was a judge of the supreme court in 

 Massachusetts), searching his pockets for letters 

 to read to the king, and the king's turning away 

 from him with his nose up," &c. 



As a judge, he was irreproachable, and evinced 

 great ability. He was a writer of considerable merit, 

 more valuable for his facts than his style. His 

 principal work was a History of Massachusetts Bay, 

 in two volumes, with a volume of State Papers, which 

 was brought down to the year 1750. He left a con- 

 tinuation of it in manuscript, which was published in 

 London, in 1828, forminga third volume of the history. 

 His other productions consist of occasional essays, and 

 a pamphlet on Colonial Claims, in 1764. A large 

 number of manuscripts of all kinds concerning the 

 colonies, which he had collected, were unfortunately 

 destroyed during the riot in Boston, when his house 

 was nearly demolished. 



HUTTEN, ULRICH VON, was descended from an 

 ancient family, which could boast of many knights and 

 statesmen distinguished in the service of the German 

 emperors. Hutten was born at the family castle of 

 Steckelberg on the Maine, in 1488. In his tenth year, 

 his father placed him at Fulda, in order to educate 

 him for a monk. The monastic school there was one 

 of the most famous in all Germany, and he received 

 an excellent education ; but the monastic life corre- 

 sponded so little with his inclination, that he fled to 

 Erfurt, in 1504, where he became intimately acquain- 

 ted with several scholars and poets. A pestilence 

 drove him, in the next year, to Cologne, the univer- 

 sity in which place was then flourishing. But 

 Rhagius, one of the most learned professors there, 

 having been banished, retired to Frankfort on the 

 Oder, whither Hutten accompanied him. His patron, 

 Eitelwolf von Stein, assisted him in various ways, 

 during the three years of his residence here. But 

 quiet did not long accord with his restless disposition. 

 He travelled in the north of Germany, although tor- 

 mented with the loathsome disease, which, making 

 its first appearance at that time, raeed like a pestt- 



