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A Note on Anne Dutton, Eighteenth-Century Evangelical

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2009

Stephen J. Stein
Stephen J. Stein
Affiliation:
Associate professor of religious studies in Indiana University, Bloomington
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Extract

Anonymity, forced or voluntary, has frequently cloaked the contributions of women to the life and thought of religious movements. Such was the case with Anne Dutton (1692–1765), an English evangelical, a “gentlewoman” who appears fleetingly in the records of the eighteenth century and only momentarily in later annals of pious women. In spite of some efforts to seek her out early in this century, Dutton has remained a relatively unknown figure in the history of English evangelicalism. In fact she was a prolific though elusive writer, credited by one source with nearly fifty distinct publications—religious pieces of diverse size and character. Anne Dutton became the friend, confidant and correspondent of many evangelical leaders and on more than one occasion directly assisted them in their pastoral activities. She was also the spirited opponent of others. This obscure, talented author defied powerful social conventions in her effort to rise above the backstage role commonly assigned to and accepted by women in the religious world of the eighteenth century.

Type
Research Article
Information
Church History , Volume 44 , Issue 4 , December 1975 , pp. 485 - 491
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Church History 1975

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References

1. See Whitebrook, John Cudworth, Ann Dutton: A Life and Bibliography (London, 1921),Google Scholar and Wallington, Arthur, “Wesley and Anne Dutton,” Proceedings of The Wesley Historical Society 11, pt. 2 (1917): 43–48.Google Scholar See also Notes and Queries, 12th ser., 2 (1916): 147, 197, 215–216, 275, 338, 471–473 for a series of exchanges about Dutton initiated by Whitebrook.

2. Whitebrook, , Ann Dutton, pp. 15–20.Google Scholar Most of Dutton's works are very rare today, many existing in only one known copy and some not located at all. In America several of those located in research libraries are still catalogued anonymously.

3. Prince, Thomas Jr, ed., The Christian History, 2 vols. (Boston, 1744–1745), 1: 344.Google Scholar

4. “George Whitefield on Slavery: Some New Evidence” Church History 42 (1973): 243–256.Google Scholar

5. A Brief Account of the Gracious Dealings of God, with a Poor, Sinful, Unworthy Creature, Relating to The Work of Divine Grace on the Heart, in a saving Conversion to Christ, and to some Establishment in Him. By A. D. (London, 1743), pp. 6–8, 11.Google Scholar This is part 1 of a work written over a period of years as described in the British Museum General Catalogue of Books.

6. Ibid., pp. 34–35.

7. Burder, Samuel, ed., Memoirs of Eminently Pious Women (Philadelphia, 1836), p. 380.Google Scholar This work, the composite endeavor of Burder and two editors who preceded him, mistakenly assumes that Dutton died shortly after her first marriage.

8. A Brief Account of the Gracious Dealings of God, with a Poor, Sinful, Unworthy Creature, Relating to a Train of special Providences attending Life, by which the Work of Faith was carried on with Power, Part II. By A. D. (London, 1743), pp. 10–11.Google Scholar

9. Ibid., pp. 113–114.

10. See Benjamin Dutton's autobiography signed “B. D.”, The Superaboundings of the, Exceeding Riches of God's Free Grace, towards the Chief of Sinners. &c. (n. p., n. d). He wrote of his wife, “The first Time I was in her Company with other Friends, I was much taken with her Christian Discourse. and had this Thought pass'd through my Mind, that she would make a brave Minister's Wife” (pp. 128–129).

11. Dutton, , Brief Account, Part II, pp. 147–148.Google Scholar Dutton was also plagued by ill health. See pp. 120, 133.

12. Ibid., p. 161.

13. See Whitebrook, , Ann Dutton, pp. 15–20.Google Scholar

14. Ibid., p. 8. The work in question is A Narration of the Wonders of Grace (London, 1734).Google Scholar

15. Dutton, , A Discourse Concerning the New-Birth: To which are added, Sixty-four Hymns; Compos'd on Several Subjects (London, 1743), p. 3.Google Scholar

16. Prince, , Christian History, 2: 64.Google Scholar

17. Quoted in Wallington, , “Wesley and Dutton,” p. 47.Google Scholar

18. Burder, , Memoirs, p. 380.Google Scholar

19. Cited in Whitebrook, , Ann Dutton, p. 17.Google Scholar

20. Prince, , Christian History, 2: 62–64.Google Scholar

21. Dutton, , Brief Account, Part II, p. 163.Google Scholar

22. Some of their letters to each other are extant; others probably have been lost. See The Works of the Reverend George Whitefield, 6 vols. (London, 1771–1772), 1–2.Google Scholar Heresafter cited as Works. In the 1950s a letter book containing ninety-two previously unknown letters by Whitefield was discovered. See Christie, John W., ed., “Newly Discovered Letters of George Whitefield, 1745–46,” Journal of The Presbyterian Historical Society 32 (1954): 69–90, 159–186, 241–270.Google Scholar With respect to Dutton's letters, J. A. Jones is quoted by Wallington, , “Wesley and Dutton,” p. 44,Google Scholar as follows: “Her epistolary correspondence was most extensive, throughout England, Scotland, Wales, Holland, America, &c; so that after her death several sacks, full of letters, were found, which were all burnt.”

23. Whitebrook, John Cudworth, “Mrs. Anne Dutton,” Notes and Queries, 12th ser., 2 (1916): 471Google Scholar; and Wallington, , “Wesley and Dutton,” p. 48.Google Scholar See The Weekly History: or, An Account of the most Remarkable Particulars relating to the present Progress of the Gospel. By the Encouragement of the Rev. Mr. Whitefield (London, 1741–1742), no. 44, p. 4;Google Scholar no. 49, p. 4. Concerning this early religious newspaper, see Austin, Roland, “The Weekly History,” Proceedings of The Wesley Historical Society 11, pt. 2 (1917): 39–43.Google Scholar

24. Works, 1:277.Google Scholar

25. Ibid., p. 280.

26. Ibid., p. 250. Whitefield singled out the influence of Dutton's, A Discourse upon Walking with God: Together with Some Thoughts upon Joseph's Blessing, Deut. xxxiii. 13 &c. as also A short Account how the Author was brought into Gospel-Liberty, in a Letter to a Friend (London, 1735).Google Scholar

27. Works, 1:250.Google Scholar

28. Ibid., p. 450. In October 1743 Whitefield apologized for “the many obligations” laid on Dutton (ibid., 2:40). But Dutton pressed him at times, for in March of the next year he began a letter to her as follows: “SHALL I promise and not perform? GOD forbid! This comes in answer to your commands…” (ibid., p. 58).

29. Dutton, , Brief Account, Part II, p. 162.Google Scholar

30. Dutton, , Brief Account, Part I, p. 3.Google Scholar

31. Works, 1:277–278.Google Scholar

32. For more information on Bryan, his family, and their relationship with Whitefield, see my earlier essay “Whitefield on Slavery,” pp. 248–252.

33. Gillies, John, Memoirs of the Life of the Reverend George Whitefield, M. A. (Salem, 1801), p. 68.Google Scholar Later that year in August Whitefield wrote to Bryan expressing joy that he had “so many christian negroes” and hope that they were “only the first-fruits of a more glorious harvest” (Works, 1:425).Google Scholar

34. Dutton, , Letter to the Negroes, p. 1.Google Scholar

35. For example, see Dutton's, The Hurt that Sin doth to Believers (London, 1743),Google Scholar and her letter in Prince, , Christian History, 1:344–348.Google Scholar

36. See above, note 11. Benjamin Dutton noted his wife's ill health in the years preceding their arrival in Great Gransden. He recorded in his autobiography that because the area of Wisbich “was a Fenny Country, the Air did not suit my Wife's Constitution, she being a weakly Person; but brought on her such great Illness, that oblig'd us to return to Wellingborough.” See Superaboundings of God's Free-Grace, p. 130.

37. For example, see Dutton's, Discourse Concerning the New-Birth and A Discourse upon Justification: Shewing The Matter, Manner, Time and Effects of it. To which are added Three Poems (London, 1743).Google Scholar

38. Whitebrook's biography failed to evaluate Dutton's career and publications in the light of eighteenth-century evangelical standards, and as a result he dismissed them as strange, curious and worthless, a mere “object-lesson” useful for “persons who have to combat the dangers of ill-regulated enthusiasm.” See Whitebrook, , Ann Dutton, p. 3.Google Scholar

39. Speaking of the “kind letters” he received from Dutton, Whitefield wrote to her, “They increased that love, which I had before to the writer of them” (Works, 1: 449).Google Scholar

40. Brief Account, Part II, p. 4.

41. For example, see Dutton, , Letters To the Reverend Mr. John Wesley against Perfection As not attainable in this Life (London, 1743),Google Scholar and A Letter to the Reverend Mr. John Wesley: In Vindication of the Doctrines of Absolute, unconditional Election, Particular Redemption, Special Vocation, and Final Perseverance (London, 1743).Google Scholar In the latter Dutton speaks on behalf of Whitefield against Wesley (p. 3). See also Wallington, “Wesley and Dutton,” and Curnock, Nehemiah, ed., The Journal of the Rev. John Wesley, A. M., 8 vols. (New York, 1909), 2:299, 359, 378, 405, 409, 414, 430.Google Scholar

42. Works, 1: 328.Google Scholar

43. Ibid., 2: 444.

44. Ibid., p. 213.

45. See Stein, , “Whitefield on Slavery,” p. 256.Google Scholar For additional corroboration see Whitefield's retrospective letter of March 22, 1751 (Works, 2: 404–405).Google Scholar

46. A systematic search for more letters by Dutton remains to be carried out in the archives of Great Britain and the United States.