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This book was written by William Hutton and published after his death by his daughter, Catherine Hutton (1756-1846), in 1817. It contains a brief history of his family, an account of the riots of Birmingham and his memoirs until the year 1812. His daughter Catherine wrote a conclusion with thoughts about her father's old age and a summary of his years from 1813 until his death in 1815.
His family history very briefly covers the period from 1586 to 1656 with more detail from his grandfather's day to William's siblings.
The riots of Birmingham are covered "particularly as they affected the author", as he put it. It includes accounts of the burning down of his two houses and his struggle to gain adequate compensation for his losses.
His memoirs paint a brief picture of the highlights of each year of his life from 1725, where he writes that "memory now comes to the aid the pen", to 1812, when he becomes too old to continue. An example of his prodigious memory was the way he was able to recall, when he was in his eighties,at least one trivial anecdote for every day of his life from the age of 10, apart from thirteen days.
This is an absorbing work which gives a first-hand account of life in the eighteenth century and the way he progressed from the being the child of an alcoholic father with nothing in the world to being a wealthy and notable businessman, author and antiquarian.
A sample chapter of The life of William Hutton is available on this website.
The full text can also be read online or downloaded free of charge. It is in XHTML format, like this page. Please note the file size is 471kb and it may take some time to open-up if you choose to read it online. Downloading for reading later may be the preferred option and this can be typically achieved by calling up an option box. If you have a mouse and it is configured for left click to select, right clicking the link may give you this option. Link to the full text of The life of William Hutton.
Page created 19 November 2002 and last
updated 29 November 2003
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