Catherine Hutton

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CH was a woman of letters publishing in the early nineteenth century. She began early to write letters and journals; she edited her father's autobiography and his local history, as well as a book of travels; she projected an unprecedented illustrated history of costume and a biographical history of English queens; and she published essays and criticism for magazines. Her three novels combine fine character-drawing and observation of social nuance with the same kind of non-fictional writing that fills her periodical pieces.

Milestones

11 February 1756

CH was born, prematurely. According to her father, she was perhaps the smallest human being ever seen, and at a month old she would have fitted in his pocket.
Constantine, Mary-Ann. “’The bounds of female reach’ Catherine Hutton’s Fiction and her Tours in Wales”. Romantic Textualities: Literature and Print Culture, 1780-1840, issue 22.
Hutton, Catherine. Reminiscences of a Gentlewoman of the Last Century. Editor Beale, Catherine Hutton, Cornish Brothers.
1

By early 1805

CH was well advanced in her project for the world's first illustrated history of costume.
Beale, Catherine Hutton, editor. Catherine Hutton and Her Friends. Cornish Brothers.
133

30 March 1844

CH wrote, I have no taste for old age. I find it requires great patience to make it endurable, and I like youth much better.
Hutton, Catherine. Reminiscences of a Gentlewoman of the Last Century. Editor Beale, Catherine Hutton, Cornish Brothers.
221

13 March 1846

CH died, aged ninety, eight months after the death of her brother and three months after becoming paralysed.
Gentleman’s Magazine. Various publishers.
1 (1846): 436

Biography

Birth and Family

11 February 1756

CH was born, prematurely. According to her father, she was perhaps the smallest human being ever seen, and at a month old she would have fitted in his pocket.
Constantine, Mary-Ann. “’The bounds of female reach’ Catherine Hutton’s Fiction and her Tours in Wales”. Romantic Textualities: Literature and Print Culture, 1780-1840, issue 22.
Hutton, Catherine. Reminiscences of a Gentlewoman of the Last Century. Editor Beale, Catherine Hutton, Cornish Brothers.
1