Everything about Francis Hutchinson totally explained
Francis Hutchinson (
January 2 1660-
1739) was a
British clergyman and an opponent of witch-hunting.
Hutchinson was born in
Carsington,
Derbyshire, the second son of Mary and Edward Hutchinson or Hitchinson (a family of the lesser landed gentry). He was taught history by his uncle, Francis Tallents, a
Puritan clergyman, before beginning his studies at
Katharine Hall, Cambridge at the age of 18. He graduated
B.A. in 1681 and
M.A. in 1684, a year after he was ordained by the bishop of
London and was appointed Lecturer at the rectory of
Widdington,
Essex. This living represented the lowest rung of the career ladder of the
Church of England and Hutchinson remained there until appointed vicar of
Hoxne,
Suffolk in early
1690 by local
Whig magnate,
William Maynard.
He studied several cases of
witchcraft and
witch trials, criticising some procedures. For example, he opposed the idea that children and young teenagers acted as accusers in cases of bewitching after having reached the conclusion that they feigned
demon possession and several innocents had died for that reason, and wrote a book that ended the persecution of
witches in
England.
Hutchinson was later named
bishop in
Scotland and continued writing on the subject, and criticised severely the works of
Jean Bodin, whom he considered a very foolish man.
Note
This Francis Hutchinson shouldn't be confused with the Francis Hutchinson who was connected with
John Nelson Darby, Edward Cronin, and John Bellett in the movement of the late
1820s later known as "
Plymouth Brethren".
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