Hutchinson, Francis (1660–1739), bishop and author, was born 2 January 1660 in the hamlet of Carsington, Derbyshire, into the middling orders. Third among four children of Edward Hutchinson and his wife Mary Tallents, he entered Catherine Hall, Cambridge (1677), graduating BA (1680), MA (1684), and DD (3 July 1698). He was ordained deacon (23 September 1683) and priest (24 February 1684) by the bishop of London, Henry Compton. He gained a lecturer's position in the parish of Widdington, Essex, on 7 May 1684, which he relinquished in 1690 to become vicar of Hoxne, Suffolk. He was made perpetual curate of St James's, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, in late 1692 and, on his resignation of Hoxne, rector of Passenham, Northamptonshire, on 13 November 1706.
Hutchinson's low church latitudinarianism appears in his attitude to protestant dissent, his chosen brand of theology, and the part he played, while diocesan proctor for the archdeaconry of Suffolk and Sudbury, in the politically charged 1701–2 session of the convocation of Canterbury. In his main parish of residence, St James's, he was a model pastor, initiating a programme of pastoral improvement there in conjunction with the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, for whom he was the corresponding member for the county of Suffolk, 1700–21. After the Hanoverian succession, his reputation as a dependable whig and the patronage of the influential ensured his swift rise through the ranks of the clergy. The patronage of Francis, 2nd earl of Godolphin (1678–1766), gained him a royal chaplaincy on 17 March 1715, while he was elevated to the episcopate on the recommendation of two leading whigs: Lord Chancellor Thomas Parker (1667–1732), 1st earl of Macclesfield, and William Wake (1657–1737), archbishop of Canterbury and chief ecclesiastical advisor to the whig ministry. Hutchinson was consecrated bishop of Down and Connor on 22 January 1721.
Hutchinson's first few years in Ireland proved troublesome. He was not only denounced by his largely tory clergy for an apparent lack of concern with the large numbers of presbyterians in his diocese, but also universally disliked by an Irish episcopate polarised on English–Irish lines. Bishops born in England or Wales, such as John Evans (d. 1724) of Meath, were concerned by his lack of social skill and reluctance to socialise with them, while Irish-born bishops regarded him as another political appointee, eager to collect the revenue of his see but indifferent to its spiritual needs. One of the leaders of this Irish ‘interest’, Archbishop William King (qv), even refused to consecrate Hutchinson, leaving the task to a commission formed mainly of English bishops. Despite this hostile reception, Hutchinson remained in the diocese (residing first in Lisburn and from 1730 at his newly purchased estate in Portglenone, Co. Antrim), till his death. He generally proved more concerned with his temporal duties in the house of lords than with his spiritual duties.
Hutchinson was both a prolific and accomplished author. In England his pen was mainly utilised in defence of the whig party, a fact he brought to the attention of Archbishop Wake when asking for his patronage in April 1720. He had not only supported the whig stance on the great issues of the day, such as the war of Spanish succession, in his popular sermons, but used his longer tracts to promulgate mainstream whig ideology and anti-catholic propaganda. His most famous work, An historical essay concerning witchcraft (1718), for example, was in part a defence of the whiggish social and cultural ideology of ‘politeness,‘ which envisioned a polite, civil and ordered society, nurtured on the one hand by sociable forms of religion and threatened on the other by unsociable forms of religion such as traditional witchcraft beliefs.
In Ireland, he continued to be a vocal supporter of the whig and Hanoverian regime, but most of his literary output was concerned with matters religious and economic. In an attempt to convert the Irish-speaking catholic population of Rathlin Island, Co. Antrim, to protestantism, he built a charity school and church and printed a bilingual catechism, written in a new, easy-to-read, phonetic form of Irish. Hutchinson was also among a small group of projecting and pamphleteering clergy and landowners dedicated to the social, cultural, and economic ‘improvement’ of Ireland. He published pamphlets suggesting ways in which Ireland could develop her sea and inland fisheries, find employment for her large numbers of poor, make the River Bann more navigable, and drain the bogs surrounding Lough Neagh. He was also an active and committed member of the newly formed Dublin Society for the Improvement of Husbandry and Other Useful Arts, as well as being an eager exponent of agricultural and estate improvement. Hutchinson died 23 June 1739 at Portglenone, and was buried in the private chapel he built there in 1737.
Hutchinson married first Dame Mary Crofts Read, although the marriage date and the date of Mary's death remains unclear. He married secondly (15 April 1707) Peregrine, or Anne, North (d. 14 September 1758), who bore him a son, Thomas (d. 1737) and a daughter, Frances. Frances married first (1722) John Hamilton (d. 1729), dean of Dromore; secondly (1732) Col. Henry O'Hara (d. 1745) of Crebilly, Co. Antrim; and thirdly (1748) John Ryder (c.1697–1775), who later became archbishop of Tuam. Hutchinson left the bulk of his estate to Frances's eldest son, the Rev. John Hutchinson Hamilton (d. 1778). An annotated sale catalogue of Hutchinson's library, dated 26 April 1756, is in the library of QUB, while a manuscript version of his catechism, along with his will, notebooks, and account books, is held by the PRONI. Correspondence is held in TCD, the BL, and Christ Church, Oxford (Wake Letters).
Hutchinson's eldest brother died young, while his sister, a Mrs Carpenter (d. 1723), and younger brother Samuel (c.1666–1748), an ensign in the regiment of Lord Forbes at the battle of the Boyne, came to live in Ireland. Samuel managed Hutchinson's estate in Portglenone and three of his four sons enjoyed preferment in his brother's diocese: Samuel (d. 1780) was dean of Dromore (1729–59), archdeacon of Connor (1736–59), and bishop of Killala (1759–80); Francis (c.1704–1768) was archdeacon of Down (1733–68); and James was vicar of Killead from about 1737.