Author: Hutton, William
Biography:
HUTTON, William (1723-1815: ODNB)
In his posthumously-published autobiography, Hutton described his life as insignificant except as “the history of an individual, struggling, unsupported, up a mountain of difficulties.” He was born in Derby on 30 Sept. 1723 (baptism 9 Oct.) to Presbyterian dissenters, William Hutton, a wool-comber, and Anne Ward, the first of his three wives. After two years of schooling he served two apprenticeships, the first in a Derby silk mill and the second to his uncle George Hutton, a stocking-maker in Nottingham. His ambition, however, was to run a bookshop in Birmingham and to that end he taught himself bookbinding and began trading in books. He made the move to Birmingham in 1750 and became a prominent bookseller and stationer. On 23 June 1755 in Birmingham he secured a licence to marry Sarah Cox (not Cock), who had been born in Aston on Trent and baptised there on 18 Mar. 1730. They had four children, two of whom survived them. Hutton prospered as a businessman and was able to build a country house nearby on Bennett’s Hill, Saltley, and to enjoy boating, fishing, and excursions. He was a prodigious walker. He also undertook some civic responsibilities and contributed verse to periodicals. It was relatively late in life that he caught the writing bug seriously. His first impressive publication was a celebratory History of Birmingham (1781); later noteworthy works were accounts of his local tours, a history of the Battle of Bosworth Field, and the poems listed here. In the Birmingham Riots of 1791, though he had remained aloof from the disputes that provoked them, both his homes were destroyed; compensation was inadequate and slow to arrive. His wife Sarah died in 1796. In 1798 he signed the preface to the manuscript of the autobiography that would be published by their daughter Catherine Hutton, a novelist (1756-1846), in 1816. He died at Bennett’s Hill on 20 Sept. 1815 and was buried with his wife Sarah at the Aston churchyard of St. Peter and St. Paul on 26 Sept. (ODNB 25 Jan. 2023; findmypast.com 25 Jan. 2023; William Hutton, The Life of William Hutton, Stationer, of Birmingham [1841])
Other Names:
- W. Hutton