REV. RICHARD HUTCHINS, D.D.
It has been already stated, that, Dr. Hutchins was Hervey’s tutor. We have no further information concerning him, except the following, kindly supplied, from the Register of Lincoln College, Oxford, by the present Rector:—
“1720. December 8. Richard Hutchins, B.A., was admitted to the rights and privileges of a Fellow of Lincoln College.”
“1739. November 6. Mr. Hutchins was chosen Sub-Rector.”
“1742. November 6. Mr. Hutchins was chosen Bursar and Librarian.”
“1755. July 9. Richard Hutchins, D.D., Fellow in one of the Founder’s Fellowships for the Diocese of Lincoln, was, on this day, unanimously elected Rector of this College. And straightway a letter was drawn up, in the very words prescribed by the College Statutes, in order to its being sent to the Lord Bishop of Lincoln, sealed with the college seal, and subscribed by all the electors present, certifying their said election to his lordship, and praying him to admit to the Rectorship of this College the said Richard Hutchins, Sub-Rector.”
“Dr. Richard Hutchins, our late worthy Rector, departed this life, on Friday, 10th August, 1781.”
The only publication by Dr. Hutchins, which we have seen, is a Latin sermon, delivered at the time of his being made Doctor of Divinity, in 1747, and with the following title,—“Elucidatio Sexti Capitis Evangelii secundem Johannem, in solenni Praelectione habita in Schola Theologica Oxon, pro Gradu Doctoris in Theologia. A. Ric. Hutchins, S. T. B. Colleg. Lincoln Socio., 1747,” 8 vol. 51 pp. The sermon is learned and spiritual; and the reader may infer what were the views and sympathies of its author, when it is stated, that, the third and principal division, is, that, the body and blood of Christ are communicated to the faithful in the Eucharist. In more respects than one, Dr. Hutchins continued an Oxford Methodist long after all his old friends had been dispersed.