Lucy Hutchinson

Biography

Lucy Hutchinson, born Lucy Apsley on January 29, 1620, in the Tower of London, where her father Sir Allen Apsley was Lieutenant, was one of the most intelligent women of seventeenth-century England. She showed remarkable talent from a young age, learning to read early and becoming fluent in Latin, Greek, French, and other languages at a time when women were generally not encouraged to pursue formal education. Growing up in a well-connected household, she had access to books and tutors that were rare for women, and she took full advantage of these opportunities throughout her life.

In 1638, Lucy Apsley married John Hutchinson, a Parliamentarian military officer who later signed the death warrant of King Charles I. Their marriage was a close intellectual and personal partnership. John Hutchinson was the Governor of Nottingham Castle during the English Civil War, and Lucy was actively involved in his military and political career, often handling administrative tasks during the siege and defense of the castle. Her later writings drew heavily on this period of active involvement in significant events of the war.

After Charles II was restored to the throne in 1660, John Hutchinson was arrested for allegedly plotting against the Crown and was imprisoned in Sandown Castle, Kent, where he died in 1664. Lucy Hutchinson spent her widowhood writing and translating. Her most notable work was translating Lucretius's De rerum natura, making her the first person to translate the full Latin philosophical poem into English verse. This translation, done during the Interregnum, shows her interest in both classical studies and the controversial natural philosophy of her time.

Hutchinson is also well-known for her Memoirs of the Life of Colonel Hutchinson, a biography of her husband written mainly for her children. The work is one of the most important pieces of seventeenth-century English prose biography, offering both an intimate look at a Puritan gentleman and a detailed account of the Civil War period. She also wrote an autobiographical fragment, a long religious poem called Order and Disorder, and various other verse and prose works that show her wide range of interests, from theology to natural philosophy.

Lucy Hutchinson died in October 1681. Although much of her writing was shared in manuscript form during her lifetime and wasn't published until long after her death, her works have since been acknowledged as key contributions to English biography, translation history, and women's literary history.