Folger Shakespeare Library
CELM

Lucy Hutchinson

1620–1681

Introduction

Lucy Hutchinson (née Apsley) is best remembered for her biography, or Memoirs, of her husband, John Hutchinson, Governor of Nottingham, who died in 1664 while under arrest for alleged treasonable conspiracy. Some of her relevant autograph papers and versions of this biography still survive (*HuL 7-10). She was, besides this, a prolific writer of verse and prose, including substantial works which have only recently been discovered or have attracted the attention of scholars, notably David Norbrook who is now editing a collected edition of her works. Those preserved in manuscripts include a series of elegies relating to her dead husband (*HuL 2); two largely autograph commonplace books (*HuL 13-14); a verse translation of Lucretius (*HuL 1); and an unfinished epic poem, Order and Disorder (HuL 3). Of her own autobiography only a fragment is known (*HuL 6), which was last recorded, however, in 1806.

Verse

De Rerum Natura

Lucy Hutchinson's verse translation from Lucretius. First published in London, 1656. Lucy Hutchinson's Translation of Lucretius: De rerum natura, ed. Hugh de Quehen (London, 1996). The Works of Lucy Hutchinson. Volume 1: The Translation of Lucretius, ed. Reid Barbour and David Norbrook (Oxford, 2012).

*HuL 1
Autograph

A fair copy, in the hand of an amanuensis with Hutchinson's autograph verse arguments, corrections and marginal notes, with a dedicatory epistle to Arthur, Earl of Anglesey, Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal, 147 quarto leaves, in contemporary black morocco gilt.

c.1675

Inscribed (f. [iv]) Given me June 11. 1675 by the worthy author Mrs Lucy Hutchinson. Acquired from Messrs Boone, 8 January 1853 (Arley Castle sale, lot 1056).

Edited from this MS in De Quehen, with a facsimile of f. 5v on p. 28. Also described in the online Perdita Project.

Elegies ('Leaue of yee pittying friends, leaue of in vaine')

A series of 24 elegies, nearly all relating to the death of her husband Colonel Hutchinson, first published in full in David Norbrook, Lucy Hutchinson's Elegies and the Situation of the Republican Woman Writer, ELR, 27/3 (Autumn 1997), 468-521 (pp. 487-521).

*HuL 2
Autograph

A fair copy of 24 elegies by Lucy Hutchinson, in a rounded italic hand, one poem added (pp. vi-vii) in the hand of her nephew Julius Hutchinson (transcribed out of my other Book), 49 quarto pages (some out of order), disbound.

c.168-71

Later owned by Julius Hutchinson (1678-1738).

Edited from this MS in Norbrook, ELR (1997), with a facsimile of MS pp. x-xi facing p. 288. Described in the online Perdita Project.

Order and Disorder ('My Ravisht soule, A pious Ardour fires')

An unfinished epic poem in twenty cantos. The first five cantos first published anonymously as Order and Disorder: or, the World Made and Undone. Being Meditations upon the Creation and the Fall (London, 1679). Attributed to Lucy Hutchinson in David Norbrook, Lucy Hutchinson and Order and Disorder: The Manuscript Evidence, EMS, 9 (2000), 257-91. The full twenty cantos first published in the edition by David Norbrook (Oxford, 2001). The attribution supported in John Burrows and Hugh Craig, Lucy Hutchinson and the Authorship of Two Seventeenth-Century Poems: A Computational Approach, The Seventeenth Century, 16/2 (Autumn 2001), 259-82.

HuL 3

Copy, in two or three hands, including revisions, untitled, beginning Genesis Chap. 1st Canto 1s, 318 folio pages, in 17th-century calf gilt.

c.1664-79

Endpapers inscribed Anne Rochester her book and Rochester 1664 [i.e. by Anne (1614-96), Countess of Rochester, mother of the poet].

This MS discussed, with facsimile examples, and the first five cantos collated against the 1679 edition, in Norbrook, EMS, 9 (2000). Cantos 6-20 edited from this MS in Norbrook's edition (2001), with facsimile examples on pp. 10, 88 and 145.

A microfilm of the MS is in the British Library, RP 547.

Yale, Osborn, others (Osborn MS fb 100)
To Mr: Waller vpon his Panegyrique to the Lord Protector ('Whilst with a smooth but yet a servile Tongue')

First published, and attributed to Lucy Hutchinson, in David Norbrook, Lucy Hutchinson versus Edmund Waller: An Unpublished Reply to Waller's A Panegyrick to My Lord Protector, The Seventeenth Century, 11/1 (Spring 1996), 61-86. The attribution supported in John Burrows and Hugh Craig, Lucy Hutchinson and the Authorship of Two Seventeenth-Century Poems: A Computational Approach, The Seventeenth Century, 16/2 (Autumn 2001), 259-82.

HuL 4

Copy, in an accomplished professional hand, with full title, on four large folio leaves, inscribed (by Rochester?, on blank f. 213) Mrs Hutchinson's Answer to Mr Waller's Panegyrique to Cromwell.

Edited from this MS in Norbrook, Seventeenth Century (1996).

A tall folio composite volume of state papers and letters relating to affairs from 1675 to 1728, in various hands, 227 leaves, in 19th-century half-leather marbled boards.

Volume I of the papers of Laurence Hyde (1642-1711), first Earl of Rochester, politician.

[1681]
Verses written by Mrs. Hutchinson ('All sorts of men though various labours presse')

First published in Lucy Hutchinson, Memoirs of the Life of Colonel Hutchinson, ed. Julius Hutchinson (London, 1806), pp. 445-6.

*HuL 5
Autograph

Autograph.

Edited from this MS as an appendix in Lucy Hutchinson, Memoirs of the Life of Colonel Hutchinson, ed. Julius Hutchinson (London, 1806), pp. 445-6.

An autograph small Book by Lucy Hutchinson.

Mid-late 17th century

Owned in 1806 by Julius Hutchinson.

Untraced, miscellaneous ([Hutchinson Autobiography] [unspecified page numbers])

Prose

Autobiography

A fragment, first published as preface to Lucy Hutchinson, Memoirs of the Life of Colonel Hutchinson, ed. Julius Hutchinson (London, 1806), pp. 1-18. Lucy Hutchinson, Memoirs of the Life of Colonel Hutchinson with the fragment of an autobiography of Mrs. Hutchinson, ed. James Sutherland (London, New York & Toronto, 1973), pp. 278-89.

*HuL 6
Autograph

Autograph fragment of an autobiography by Lucy Hutchinson.

Edited from this MS in the edition of 1806.

An autograph small Book by Lucy Hutchinson.

Mid-late 17th century

Owned in 1806 by Julius Hutchinson.

Untraced, miscellaneous ([Hutchinson Autobiography] [unspecified page numbers])
Memoirs of the Life of Colonel Hutchinson

First published, edited by Julius Hutchinson, London, 1806. Edited by James Sutherland (London, New York & Toronto, 1973). See also David Norbrook, But a Copie: Textual Authority and Gender in Editions of The Life of John Hutchinson, in New Ways of Looking at Old Texts, III, ed. W. Speed Hill (Tempe, AZ, 2004). pp. 109-30.

*HuL 7
Autograph

Autograph MS, comprising her biography of Colonel Hutchinson on pp. 1-419, headed To my Children, followed (p. 421) by an address to the reader and then (pp. 423-79) by a series of biblical quotations and references, 479 quarto pages, in contemporary vellum. boards.

c.1671

Inscriptions possibly by Lucy Hutchinson's nephew Julius Hutchinson (1678-1738).

Edited from this MS, with a facsimile example facing p. 130, in Sutherland's edition. Facsimile, with transcription, of p. 55 in Reading Early Modern Women, ed. Helen Ostovich and Elizabeth Sauer (New York & London, 2004), pp. 284-5. The MS also described in the online Perdita Project.

*HuL 8
Autograph

Autograph MS of an early version, written from both ends, including copies of Colonel Hutchinson's correspondence at Newark in 1642-3, imperfect, 96 small pages, in modern brown morocco gilt.

c.1645

Scribbling (ff. 1r-2r) sincluding Fenner a bookseller at Canterbury. Acquired from Mr Proctor, 12 November 1864.

*HuL 9
Autograph

Six quarto leaves detached from an autograph manuscript of the Memoirs, here beginning The first service mr John Hutchinson vndertooke..., a heading deleted.

An accompanying letter (ff. 40r-1v) by Charlotte Jones, from Halloway, 26 June 1824, sending this MS to Mrs [Anne. D.B.] Montagu.

A large guardbook of miscellaneous papers, in various hands and paper sizes, 146 leaves.

*HuL 10
Autograph

Four quarto leaves detached from an autograph manuscript of the Memoirs, here beginning hour he told him he came to take possession of the house....

Given by Mrs Anne. D.B. Montagu, in 1854, to Dinah Maria Mulock (later Craik) (1826-87), novelist. Afterwards in the collection of Alan Park Paton (d.1905). Formerly National Library of Scotland, MS 3218, ff. 78-81).

A large guardbook of miscellaneous letters and papers, in various hands and paper sizes, 195 leaves.

On the principles of the Christian religion

First published in London, 1817.

*HuL 12
Autograph

MS of a theological work, in a single italic hand, including a letter to Hutchinson's daughter and devotional meditations on the scriptures and principles of religion, 79 octavo leaves, in contemporary calf gilt.

A postscript to the letter from Your truly affectionate Mother declaring I haue not time to poynt yr book correct many errors of the pen and insert many scripture proofes in the margin which I desire you yourselfe to doe if you thinke it worth keeping by you, and with a comment at the end (f. [79r]), possibly in a different hand, Having read over your booke I find but short mention made of the resurrection of the body....

Inscribed on a flyleaf Mem: this Book was writ by Lucy ye wid; or Relict of Coll: John Hutchinson of owthorp & sent to her daughter Mrs orgill. J: H: 1: ap: 1731.

Edited from this MS in 1817.

Miscellaneous

Commonplace Book(s)
*HuL 13
Autograph

An autograph miscellany of religious prose and verse, closely written in Lucy Hutchinson's italic hand, from both ends, 278 octavo pages, in later calf.

Mid-late 17th century

Later probably owned by Lucy Hutchinson's nephew Julius Hutchinson (1678-1738).

*HuL 14
Autograph

Commonplace book, compiled principally by Lucy Hutchinson (née Apsley, 1620-81), whose name is inscribed on page 1 and whose cursive italic hand is responsible for pp. 5-110, 147-91, 206 rev., 207bis-235 rev., 251-258 rev.

A quarto verse miscellany, in possibly several hands, written from both ends, paginated 1-205, then from the reverse end 206-58 (plus blanks to 271), in old reversed calf (rebacked).

Mid-17th century

Later owned by Lucy Hutchinson's nephew Julius Hutchinson (1678-1738).

This MS is described in the online Perdita Project.

Nottinghamshire Archives (DD/Hu 1 The MS as a whole)

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