Archdeaconry of Lincoln, July 28, 1494.7 And James Hutton was instituted, 20 Feb. 1488, to the Vicarage of St. Olave's, Jewry, at the presentation of Thomas Hutton, D.D.8 Many other instances to the same purpose might easily be produced. . . . . And, here, we may venture to lay it down for a general rule, that all persons of the same surname, though never so much different in condition, did all originally spring from the same stock. .... The name of HUTTON is formed and derived from the two Saxon words Hou, a hill, and Tun, a house, a dwelling, a town, a vill, or a district. This derivation is so well grounded, that the parish of Hutton, in Essex, was anciently named Hou only, as appears from records, so that the name signifies a town or village on a hill, of the same import as the names Hilton and Houghton. Some ignorant people have imagined that persons who took their surnames from towns, manors, villages, and other places, were commonly illegitimate. But nothing can be more false than such a notion. For it was, on the contrary, the most eminent persons in a parish, the lords of manors, and the like, that were denominated from the parish, the chief mansion, the hall, or place of their habitation, as is undeniable from numberless records; and they generally had the addition DE, i. e. of such or such a place, before their surnames. For an abundant proof of this, we shall have recourse only to one page of Registr. Honoris de Richmond, (54,) where we find Henry de Mersk, Robert de Mersk, Robert de Heyer, Hugo de Ask, Roaldus de Richemond, Roger de Bretham, &c. Afterwards, the addition DE was dropped, or melted in part of the surname, as De Areci, D'Arci, &c. Before we enter upon the life of Archbishop Hutton, it is proper and necessary to consider and refute a groundless, scandalous, and injurious calumny that hath been raised, not many years ago, upon the memory of that most worthy prelate. This calumny we shall express in the words of the first author who made it public in print,10 being as follows:11 "He was born," 7 Dr. Browne Willis's Survey of the Cathedrals, vol. ii. pp. 103. 124. 153. 8 Newcourt's Repertorium, vol. i. p. 515. 9 W. Holman's MS. Collections. 10 Dr. Browne Willis, from Torr's MS. " Dr. Browne Willis's Survey of the Cathedrals, vol. i. p. 51. as Mr. Torr says, "at Warton, in Lancashire, (which Mr. Le Neve calls Wareton,) and, as he has heard, it is the common tradition of that place, that he was a foundling there, and on that account, in his will, provided for the erection of an hospital and free school at Warton; though other writers, especially Mr. Le Neve, mention his being born at Priest Hutton, in Lancashire...." But this story is as false as it is injurious. We do not find that it was ever mentioned by any contemporaries, as it undoubtedly would, at a time when feuds and parties ran high; when both Papists and Puritans were inveterate against the Protestant clergy and bishops, and would have let nothing slip that could any way blacken and expose them, or destroy their credit and influence with the nation. But no such thing appears in their swarms of libels. It was, therefore, reserved for the invention of J. Torr, a hasty and injudicious collector, who raked together everything that came in his way, and composed in such a hurry, consequently with so little thought and reflection, that he transcribed 1250 columns, "mostly close writ and in a very small hand," in less than a year and a half.12 A clause in this relation of Dr. Willis's requires a particular animadversion, viz. “that he was a foundling there, and on that account, in his will, provided for the erection of an hospital and free school at Warton." For it was not on account of his being a foundling there that he provided in his will for the erection o. an hospital and free school at Warton, but only because he was born there.13 This remark, therefore, of the Doctor's is a most palpable falsehood or mistake. Dr. Fuller, an honest and plain historian, and who lived much nearer Archbishop Hutton's time than James Torr, assures us, that he was" descended from an ancient family of Hutton Hall (as he takes it) in Lancashire.” 14 And we have an earlier evidence, an authentic and incontestable proof, of his legitimate and honourable birth, in the grant of arms to him by Sir Gilbert Dethicke, Garter Principal King at Arms, ao 1584, wherein he declared that Dr. Hutton was descended from parents sufficiently famous or illustrious in the 12 See Fr. Drake's preface to his History of York, P. 6. 13 As he expressly declares in his will," which I do erect at Warton, where I was born." 14 Fuller's Church History, book x. p. 38. county of Lancaster; and was related to the Huttons of Cambridgeshire, and others of that name in England.1 15 ODOR + Omnibus Christi fidelibus ad quos præsentes pervenerint Gilbertus Dethicke Miles, alias Garter, principalis Rex Armorum Angliæ et primarius Officiarius inclitissimi Ordinis Garterii, salutem. Quamvis in hac vita variis fortunæ dictæ (sic orig.) procellis jactantur homines aut paulatim perpetua oblivione delentur ; quibus quasi obviam dare non solum amplissimis vitæ immortalis beatissimæ præmiis (nulla generationum memoria vel seculorum injuria delendis) spe conservantur, coronantur, hii saltem qui omne studium et operam in fide et virtutis actione posuerunt, verum apud mortales excogitatissima statuuntur virtuosis (tam divinarum quam humanarum scientiarum cognitione præditis, vel reipublicæ administratione perspicuis, quam belligerosis pro patria civibus, forensisve (sic orig.) inveteratis militibus) diversa præmia: quos honoribus, divitiis, et summæ nobilitatis titulis præ cæteris ornatos et honoratos esse ubique censentur. Ex quibus inter alia permulta, antiquus ille Armorum, Stemmatum, seu Insigniorum, in Parmis, Scutis, Clipeisque depingendi aut insculpendi mos, cum rerum et colorum varietate, Dignitatis, Famæ, Honoris, Stirpis, Prosapiæ, et Virtutis perhibent testimonium. Unde alii etiam eorum exemplis ad virtutis semitas adcisci et incitari videntur. Cumque nos Foeciales, Heraldi, seu Reges Armorum nuncupati, harum omnium Commemoratores dignississimos (sic orig. leg. dignissimi) judicamur; Ego prædictus Garterus, principalis Rex Armorum, ad hæc rogatus, de præcognita bona fama, virtute, prudentia, doctrina, multisque fide dignorum testimoniis instructus et informatus, quod illustris et venerandus Mattheus Hutton, Sacræ Theologiæ professor, Eboracensis Ecclesiæ Cathedralis Decanus, et Regiæ Majestatis in partibus Septentrionalibus ibidem a Consiliis regiis diplomate constitutus, de Republica bene meritus, clarisque satis parentibus de Comitatu Lancastriæ oriundus; cujus stemma, progenies et prosapia altius repetenda, ad alios suos affines hujus nominis de Hutton in Comitatu Cantabrigiæ, et alibi, inter Angligenos assignanda, una cum antiquis hujusmodi armorum insignibus huic nomini de Hutton ab antiquo consuetis et perusitatis; quemadmodum in Officio nostro Armorum, Libris, Rotulis, et Panchartis Officii nostri predicti depicta et exemplificata, remanere approbamus. Verum cum in Let it further be observed, that a foundling is a child dropt in a parish, whose parents are unknown: but upon this as well as the foregoing considerations, Archbishop Hutton was not a foundling; for his father is well known to have been Matthew Hutton, of Priest Hutton, within the parish of Warton, wherein, as he says himself in his will, he was born, and his being known to have had two brothers, Edmund and Robert, 16 to the latter of whom he gave the first prebend in the Church of Durham that fell after his consecration, as well as the great living of animo habemus, hujus Matthæi progenitores et parentes variis jactatos (ut præfertur) fortunæ procellis, quo minus Arma propria et genuina eidem Matthæo assignare possumus; ut nusquam de hiis in posterum dubitetur, vel alius quisquis impugnare possit, quam simillima et dignitati consentanea, eidem Matthæo hiis nostris litteris patentibus depicta, et usitatissimis verbis quam potuimus expressa, exemplificari curavimus: Viz. in Parma rubra, super Barram unam inter tria pulvinaria alba, fibulis deauratis, Crucem planam (æqualem dictam) inter duos Lilii flores rubicundos: Hiisque insuper additur, ex gracia speciali eidem Matthæo Hutton et heredibus suis, quod Cassidi, seu Galeæ militari, impositæ pulvinari rubro quadrato, et fibulis deaurato, Codex vel Liber apertus, foliis albis, fimbriisque auratis, symboloque (odor vitæ) inscripto, cum tortile et mantellis albis et rubris coloribus involutis appendicibus auro adornatis ; ut in margine magis dilucide depicta apparent. Habendum et Tenendum prædicto Matthæo Hutton, &c. generoso et heredibus suis de corpore suo legitime procreatis, quibus illi et illorum singuli ab hiis legitime descendentes, tam in Parmis, Clipeis, Scutis, Armis, Castris, Tentoriis, Vexillis, cæterisque belli apparatibus; quam in Sigillis, Annulis, Fenestris vitreis, Picturis, Sculpturis, Monumentis Sepulturis, omnique Supellectile, modeste ut decet virtutis observantia, consuetis differentiis, secundum consuetudinem, uti posse aut velle permittitur. Denique, ut illi, et illorum quilibet, omnes rei militaris exercitationes, Hastiludia, Torneamenta, Duella, aut hujusmodi belli præludia ingredi et exercere, ut virtute militaris disciplinæ ad honoris gradus pervenire valeant, absque molestatione aut perturbatione quacunque. Quamobrem, ut præmissarum memoria promulgata permanere reique certitudo apparere possit, quoscunque de hoc illustri et venerando Matthæo Hutton legitime procreatos, aut imposterum legitime descendentes, devotionibus et dilectionibus vestris benevole et gratiose commendamus, et ut preheminenciis, privilegiis, et libertatibus Nobilium Generosorum hiis in omnibus secundetis et frui sinatis. In cujus rei testimonium has præsentes fieri fecimus, manu propria subscripsimus, et sigillis consignavimus. Datum Londini in Collegio Officii Armorum, xx° die Julii, 1584, anno regni Augustissimæ Elizabethæ, Angliæ, Ffranciæ, et Hiberniæ Reginæ, fidei defensatricis vicesimo sexto.-From Vinc. 157; and Register of Nobility and Gentry, vol. i. p. 171, in the College of Arms. 16 See the Pedigree which we have prefixed to Dr. Ducarell's Memoir, in which this mistake is corrected. 17 Houghton, are the plainest and strongest confutation that can be of this ill-contrived fable. We may close this introduction, by remarking, that this imputation is what hath been common to our worthy prelate with some of the best and greatest of men. For instance, Robert Grosthead, Bishop of Lincoln, is said to have been born in Suffolk of very mean, or "rather base parentage:" natalibus obscuris, ne dicam pudendis.18 Whereas Mr. Thoresby has made it appear 19 that he was of the ancient families of the Copleys, of Copley and Batley, in Yorkshire, by the father's side; and of the knightly family of Walsingham, in Suffolk, by the mother's. Not to dwell upon many other instances of the like nature. A SYNOPTICAL VIEW OF ARCHBISHOP HUTTON'S Matthew Hutton, of Priest Hutton, com. Lancast. had three sons. 17 See Dr. Browne Willis's Survey of the Cathedrals, vol. i. p. 266, and Epitaphium Rob. Hutton, olim Academiæ Cantab. Theologiæ Professoris, Ecclesiæ Dunelm. prebendarii, atque hujus parochiæ Haughtonensis pastoris celeberrimi, Memoriæ Sacrum ; Qui docuit templo morituros vivere vivus Deflevit Sa. Hutton.21 See (mortall) here enclos'd a Levit's shrine, A perfect pastor, rich and poore both feeding, At church theyr soules, at home theyr bodies needinge; May his example in eche Levite dwell For all men's good, and laud to God. Farewell. 18 Godwin de præsulibus inter Episc. Lincoln; and the English. 19 Thoresby's Ducatus Leod. pp. 9. 106. 20 [See this mistake corrected in the general Pedigree of the Family.] 21 See the next page. |