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Frederick Hutton (scientist)

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Frederick Hutton
FRS FGS CMZS
Born
Frederick Wollaston Hutton

(1836-11-16)16 November 1836
Gate Burton, Lincolnshire, England
Died27 October 1905(1905-10-27) (aged 68)
Died at sea
Resting placeBuried at sea off Cape Town, South Africa
Awards
Scientific career
Institutions

Captain Frederick Wollaston Hutton FRS FGS (16 November 1836 – 27 October 1905) was an English-born New Zealand scientist who applied the theory of natural selection to explain the origins and nature of the natural history of New Zealand. Whilst an army officer, he embarked on an academic career in geology and biology, to become one of the most able and prolific nineteenth century naturalists of New Zealand.

Early life

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Frederick Hutton's biographical accounts assert that he was born at Gate Burton, Lincolnshire, on 16 November 1836, and by parish records was baptised there on 27 January 1837; the second son of the Rev. Henry Frederick Hutton and his wife Louisa Wollaston, daughter of the Rev. Henry John Wollaston.[4][5][6] Paternal grandfather, William Hutton, was the owner of the Gate Burton estate.[7] His signed military statement of services, however, records that he was born at Bracknell, Berkshire, England, on 16 November 1836.[8]

He received his early education through Southwell Grammar School, Notinghamshire, and, with a view to entering the Royal Navy, the Royal Naval Academy at Gosport, Hampshire. After brief service as a midshipman in Green's Merchant Service, with three voyages to India in the Alfred, he went on to civil engineer studies at the applied science department of King's College London in 1854–55.[9][10][11]

Career

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Military

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At the age of 18.5 years, Hutton purchased a commission as ensign in the 23rd (Royal Welsh Fusiliers) Regiment of Foot on 18 May 1855.[12] Stationed at Malta, November 1855–8 March 1856, he moved on to take part in the Crimean War, 9 March–21 July 1856, and Indian Mutiny, 28 September 1857–22 May 1858.[13] Following Crimea, and having advanced to rank of lieutenant by purchase on 27 March 1857,[14] the regiment embarked for the war in China but as with other forces, was diverted at Singapore to Calcutta for the mutiny in India.[11] Joining the army at Lucknow on 14 November, Hutton was present at the second relief of Lucknow, the defeat of the Gwalior Contingent in the second battle of Cawnpore and the retaking of Lucknow in March 1858, under the command of General Sir Colin Campbell.[8] He was issued the Indian Mutiny Medal with two clasps—Relief of Lucknow, Lucknow.[1]

Transferred to 2nd Battalion of his regiment on 22 May 1858, he returned home in June 1858 to help raise it. After passing, through the School of Musketry, Hythe, Kent, he was appointed Instructor of Musketry to his battalion on 2 November 1858,[15] and accompanied his regiment to Malta.

Back in England in 1860, and having devoted some study to geology, Hutton was elected a Fellow of the Geological Society of London (FGS). Over the next few years he completed military training at Staff College, Sandhurst, and Woolwich.[9] He'd also taken a six month chemistry course in inorganic analysis with Professor George Downing Liveing, Cambridge, then teaching at Sandhurst.[16][17]

In 1862, he was attached first to the Royal Horse Artillery and thereafter to the 9th Lancers. Following elevation to rank of captain by purchase on 2 December 1862,[18][19] he married Annie Gouger Montgomerie, at Holy Trinity, Paddington, London, on 4 February 1863.[20] He re-joined his regiment at Malta but was appointed to the staff of Ireland from 11 September 1863, as Brigade Major, 2nd Infantry Brigade, at the Curragh.[21][11] That year he published the paper, The Importance of a Knowledge of Geology to Military Men, in the Journal of the Royal United Service Institution.[22] After some nine months at the Curragh, Hutton moved to head quarters in Dublin as Deputy Assistant Quarter Master General from 1 July 1864,[23] then, in November 1865, resigned and sold out of the army.[11]

During those years he had "geologised, more or less, in the British Isles, parts of Germany, France, Italy, Sicily, Crimea, Gibraltar, and Switzerland in Europe; Madeira, St. Vincent (one of the C de Verde Isls) and Cape Colony in Africa; and in some parts of the Province of Bengal as far north as Lucknow and Futteghur".[16][17] His latest work on Malta, "Sketch of the Physical Geology of the Maltese Islands", was published by The Geological Magazine in April 1866, following his service.[24]

Scientific

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The Huttons—Frederick, Annie, their children Alice and Gilbert, and two servants—left Gravesend, on the clipper Queen of the North, on 17 January 1866, bound for new opportunities in New Zealand. After a tedious voyage, passing Tristan da Cunha, Cape of Good Hope, Île Saint-Paul, South Cape of Tasmania, Three Kings and North Cape of New Zealand, the clipper came to anchor off Queen Street wharf, Auckland, on Monday, 11 June.[25]

Auckland Museum occupied the basement of the Provincial Government offices from 1867 to 1869; The Northern Club from 1869

In May 1867, Captain Hutton volunteered to take charge of Auckland Museum, articles of which had been suffering in its Grafton Road cottage, and sought to put the institution in good order with its relocation to the very large basement room of the new Provincial Government offices on the corner of Princes Street and Victoria Quadrant—The Northern Club building.[26][27] Accepted as Honorary Curator by the Superintendent of Auckland Province, John Williamson, he worked his way through arranging and classifying the confused and inconsistently recorded collections. Additionally, he prepared exhibition of the objects, received further specimens, artefacts etc. and worked towards establishing a museum library.[2][3][28] Hutton and Thomas Gillies initiated the inaugural public meeting of 6 November 1867, held in the Board Room of the Auckland Board of Commissioners, to establish the Auckland Philosophical Society; soon renamed Auckland Institute. The meeting was called immediately following a conversation they'd had in relation to the action taken by the General Assembly of New Zealand in constituting the New Zealand Institute. James Hector, manager of the Institute in Wellington, had recently suggested to Gillies the propriety of establishing branches throughout New Zealand, especially in Auckland. Auckland Institute was formally incorporated with the New Zealand Institute on 10 June 1868. Auckland Museum was transferred to the Auckland Institute in October 1869.[29][30][31][32][33]

In 1867 he was employed by the Superintendent of Auckland to carry out a geological survey of the lower Waikato.[34] On 8 June 1869, he reported the discovery of substantial coalfields between the Maramarua and Whangamarino rivers, which another settler intended to work for his flax mill.[35] Later in 1869, Hutton and family sold their Epsom home in Auckland and moved to the Waikato, where he'd erected a steam-powered flax mill at Churchill, a station on the western bank of the Waikato River, near Whangape Stream.[16][17][36] Hutton's venture, however, proved uneconomic and in consequence his flax mill with 500 acres of flax land, along with a farm of 2,000 acres situated on Lake Whangape, were put up for sale in March 1872.[37][38]

He'd joined the Geological Survey of New Zealand in 1866, becoming Provincial Geologist of Otago in 1874. At the same time, he was made lecturer in geology at the University of Otago and curator of the museum there.[39] After the 1886 eruption of Mount Tarawera he wrote one of the official reports and postulated the eruption was due to moltern material reaching the surface in a volcanic dyke.[40]: 16–18  [41] Hutton became professor of biology at Canterbury College in 1880, and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1892.[42] The following year, he also took on the curatorship of the Canterbury Museum. Towards the end of his life, Hutton was made president of the Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union. He was awarded the Clarke Medal by the Royal Society of New South Wales in 1891. He was the first President of the New Zealand Institute (which later became the Royal Society of New Zealand), from 1904 to his death in 1905; he was followed by Sir James Hector.[43] He was one of the inaugural vice-chairmen of the New Zealand Alpine Club, which was founded in July 1891.[44]

He worked successively at the Colonial Museum, Wellington (1871–1873) (now called Te Papa Tongarewa Museum of New Zealand); Otago Museum, Dunedin (1874–1879);[45] and the Canterbury Museum, Christchurch (1887–1905).[46]

Plaque to Hutton in ChristChurch Cathedral

Hutton died on the return voyage on the SS Rimutaka from England on 27 October 1905, and was buried at sea off Cape Town, South Africa.[47]

He is commemorated in the Hutton Medal and Hutton Memorial Fund, awarded for scientific works bearing on the zoology, botany or geology of New Zealand. Hutton's shearwater (Puffinus huttoni), a sea bird, was named after him and the cave wētā Neonetus huttoni.

Evolution

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In 1860, he wrote a supportive review of Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species for the journal, The Geologist.[48] In 1861, he wrote an article defending Darwinism in the same journal.[49] Hutton defended Darwin from the objections of creationist Adam Sedgwick, which he described as "gross ironical misrepresentations". He wrote that creationism was a "mere assertion, an evasion of the question, a cloak for ignorance."[48]

Throughout his life, Hutton remained a staunch exponent of Darwin's theories of natural selection, and Darwin himself expressed his appreciation in a letter to Hutton.[48]

Taxa

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Taxa described and named by Hutton include:

  • Marshall, Bruce A. (1995). "Molluscan and Brachiopod Taxa Introduced by F. W. Hutton in The New Zealand Journal of Science". Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand. 25 (4): 495–500. Bibcode:1995JRSNZ..25..495M. doi:10.1080/03014223.1995.9517499.
  • Russell, Barry C. (1996). "Type Specimens of New Zealand Fishes Described by Captain F.W. Hutton, F.R.S. (1836–1905)". Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand. 26 (2): 215–236. Bibcode:1996JRSNZ..26..215R. doi:10.1080/03014223.1996.9517511.
  • Brook, Fred J.; Kennedy, Martyn; King, Tania M.; Ridden, Johnathon; Shaw, Matthew D.; Spencer, Hamish G. (2020). "Catalogue of New Zealand land, freshwater and estuarine molluscan taxa named by Frederick Wollaston Hutton between 1879 and 1904". Zootaxa. 4865 (1). Auckland: Magnolia Press: zootaxa.4865.1.1. doi:10.11646/zootaxa.4865.1.1. ISBN 978-1-77688-071-3. PMID 33311199. S2CID 226352941.

Publications

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Family

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Hutton married Annie Gouger Montgomerie, daughter of William Montgomerie and his wife Elizabeth Graham, at Trinity Church, Paddington, London, on 4 February 1863; William had been Superintending Surgeon of the HEIC Bengal Medical Service, and had received the Gold Medal of the Society of Arts for introducing gutta percha into Europe as a general utility.[20][5] Their children included Gilbert Montgomerie Hutton (1865–1911) of the Royal Engineers.[50]

Arms of Frederick Wollaston Hutton

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Armorial bearings—Or, on a fesse sable, surmounted by a pale invected of the last, pierced of the field, three stags' heads caboshed counterchanged. Mantling sable and or. Crest—On a wreath of the colours, in front of a fern-brake proper, a stag's head caboshed or. Motto—Post tenebras spero lucem (After darkness, I hope for light)[51][4]

Crest—A stag's head caboshed or. Motto—Post tenebras spero lucem (After darkness, I hope for light).[52]

References

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  1. ^ a b "Indian Mutiny Medal Medal Roll". Noonans. Retrieved 9 April 2023.
  2. ^ a b "The Daily Southern Cross". Vol. 23, no. 3054. 10 May 1867. p. 4.
  3. ^ a b "The Auckland Museum". The New Zealand Herald. Vol. 4, no. 1112. 7 June 1867. p. 1.
  4. ^ a b Burke, Bernard (1895). Burke, Ashworth Peter (ed.). Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Colonial Gentry (PDF). Vol. 2. London: Harrison & Sons. pp. 526–528 – via Internet Archive.
  5. ^ a b Mason, Alan. "Hutton, Frederick Wollaston (1836–1905)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/34079. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  6. ^ "Frederick Wollaston Hutton, 25 January 1857. England, Lincolnshire, Parish Registers, 1538–1990", FamilySearch, 4 August 2022
  7. ^ Best, Stephen (1 June 2021). "A Church's Year: Part 2: "A Great Religious Character": Victorian Sneinton Through the Eyes of its Parish Magazine". Notinghamshire History. Retrieved 8 April 2023.
  8. ^ a b WO 76/221/145: WO 76. Royal Welch Fusiliers (1st Batn): Statement of the Services of Lieutenant F. W. Hutton of the 23" Regt. of R. W. Fusiliers with a Record of such other Particulars as may be useful in case of his Death, 1855–1858, pp. 145–146
  9. ^ a b Hamilton, A, ed. (June 1906). "In Memoriam". Transactions and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New Zealand. 38: v–vii.
  10. ^ "Frederick W Hutton. 1851 England, Scotland and Wales Census: Alverstoke, Hampshire, England". FamilySearch. 12 September 2019. Retrieved 9 April 2023.
  11. ^ a b c d Cox, Alfred, ed. (1886). Men of Mark of New Zealand (PDF). Christchurch, New Zealand: Whitcombe & Tombs (Limited). pp. 109–111 – via Internet Archive.
  12. ^ "War-Office, 18th May, 1855". The London Gazette. No. 21714. 18 May 1855. p. 1917.
  13. ^ Parton, H. N. "Hutton, Frederick Wollaston". Dictionary of New Zealand Biography. Ministry for Culture and Heritage. Retrieved 4 April 2011.
  14. ^ "War-Office, Pall-Mall, 27th March, 1857". The London Gazette. No. 21982. 27 March 1857. p. 1135.
  15. ^ Hart, Henry George (1859). The New Army List and Militia List for 1859. Vol. 20. London: John Murray. p. 227 – via NLS.
  16. ^ a b c Mildenhall, Esme; Burns, Rowan; Nathan, Simon (2013), "Transcriptions of Selected Letters from Frederick Wollaston Hutton to James Hector and Julius Haast" (PDF), Geoscience Society of New Zealand miscellaneous publication 133F (2 ed.), Geoscience Society of New Zealand Inc, ISSN 2230-4495
  17. ^ a b c Campbell, J. D. (May 1984). "F. W. Hutton: The Auckland Years, 1866–1871". Newsletter. Geological Society of New Zealand. No. 64. Geological Society of New Zealand. pp. 22–29. ISSN 0431-2163.
  18. ^ "War Office, Pall Mall, 2nd December, 1862". The London Gazette. No. 22686. 2 December 1862. p. 6147.
  19. ^ Hart, Henry George (1865). The New Army List, and Militia List, for 1865. Vol. 26. London: John Murray. p. 273.
  20. ^ a b "Parish Registers of Holy Trinity Church (Paddington, Middlesex), Marriages, 1847–1863". FamilySearch. 1863. p. 213. Retrieved 11 April 2023.
  21. ^ Hart, Henry George (1864). The New Army List, and Militia List, for 1864. Vol. 25. London: John Murray. p. 495.
  22. ^ Hutton, Frederick Wollaston (1863). "The Importance of a Knowledge of Geology to Military Men". Journal of the Royal United Service Institution. 6 (24). London: W. Mitchell and Son: 342–360. doi:10.1080/03071846209418194.
  23. ^ Hart, Henry George (1865). The New Army List, and Militia List, for 1865. Vol. 26. London: John Murray. p. 494.
  24. ^ Hutton, Frederick Wollaston (1866). "I. Sketch of the Physical Geology of the Maltese Islands". The Geological Magazine. 3 (22–April): 145–151. doi:10.1017/S0016756800162545. S2CID 128974700. Accompanied by Plates VIII and IX, Figures 1–9.
  25. ^ "Shipping Intelligence". The New Zealand Herald. Vol. 3, no. 804. 12 June 1866. p. 3.
  26. ^ "Provincial Council". The New Zealand Herald. Vol. 4, no. 1121. 18 June 1867. p. 5.
  27. ^ Stackpoole, John (2009). Beyond the Ivy Curtain: The Story of the Northern Club. Auckland: The Northern Club. p. 18.
  28. ^ Park, Stuart (1998). "John Alexander Smith and the Early History of Auckland Museum, 1852-1867". Records of the Auckland Museum. 35: 13–43. ISSN 1174-9202. JSTOR 42905832. Wikidata Q58623224.
  29. ^ "New Zealand Society". The Daily Southern Cross. Vol. 23, no. 3217. 7 November 1867. p. 3.
  30. ^ "Philosophical Society". The Daily Southern Cross. Vol. 24, no. 3295. 7 February 1868. p. 3.
  31. ^ The Annual Meeting of the Members held at the Museum Feb 15th–1869: First Annual Report (PDF), Auckland Institute, 1869
  32. ^ "Auckland Institute". The New Zealand Herald. Vol. 6, no. 1798. 19 October 1869. p. 3.
  33. ^ Annual Report: Auckland Institute (PDF), Auckland Institute, 1870
  34. ^ Hutton, Frederick Wollaston (1867), "Geological Report on the Lower Waikato District", Appendix to the Journals of the House of Representatives, 1867 Session I, D-05, Wellington
  35. ^ Hutton, Frederick Wollaston (1869), "Report of the Discovery of a Coal Field Between the Thames and Waikato, Province of Auckland", Appendix to the Journals of the House of Representatives, 1869 Session I, D-01, Wellington
  36. ^ "Death of Captain Hutton". The Otago Daily Times. No. 13428. 31 October 1905. p. 5.
  37. ^ "For Sale". The Daily Southern Cross. Vol. 28, no. 4541. 15 March 1872. p. 1.
  38. ^ "A Lady's Trip Up Waikato". The New Zealand Herald. Vol. 10, no. 3639 (Supplement). 10 July 1873. p. 2.
  39. ^ Crane, Rosi (13 May 2020). "What were they thinking? Tracing evolution in the Otago Museum, 1868–1936". Museum History Journal. 13: 61–79. doi:10.1080/19369816.2020.1759005. ISSN 1936-9816. S2CID 219420657.
  40. ^ Hutton, F.W. (1887). Report on the Tarawera Volcanic District. Wellington, New Zealand: Government Printer. Retrieved 30 August 2023.
  41. ^ Hutton, Frederick Wollaston (February 1887). "The Eruption of Mount Tarawera". Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society. 43 (1–4): 178–189. doi:10.1144/gsl.jgs.1887.043.01-04.16. S2CID 128945495. Retrieved 30 August 2023.
  42. ^ "The Royal Society – Fellow details". The Royal Society. Retrieved 4 May 2019.[permanent dead link]
  43. ^ "Royal Society Te Aparangi – Presidents". Royal Society of New Zealand. 2017. Retrieved 8 July 2017.
  44. ^ "Alpine Club". Lyttelton Times. Vol. 76, no. 9478. 29 July 1891. p. 3. Retrieved 28 December 2019.
  45. ^ Hutton, Frederick Wollaston (1874). "Otago Museum". Appendix to Votes & Proceedings of the Otago Provincial Council. Session XXXIII. 1874: 79.
  46. ^ "In the Public Eye". The New Zealand Illustrated Magazine. Vol. 6, no. 5. 1 August 1902. pp. 323–324.
  47. ^ Jenkinson, Sidney Hartley (1940). "6. Hutton". New Zealanders and Science. Wellington: Department of Internal Affairs. pp. 60–69 – via NZETC.
  48. ^ a b c Stenhouse, John. (1990). Darwin's Captain: F. W. Hutton and the Nineteenth-Century Darwinian Debates. Journal of the History of Biology 23 (3): 411–442.
  49. ^ Hutton, Frederick Wollaston (1861). "Some Remarks on Mr Darwin's Theory". The Geologist; A Popular Illustrated Monthly Magazine of Geology. 4 (4). London: "Geologist" Office: 132–136, 183–188. doi:10.1017/S1359465600004597. Retrieved 21 January 2016 – via BHL.
  50. ^ "Hutton, Major Gilbert Montgomerie". Who's Who. A & C Black. Retrieved 27 January 2022. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  51. ^ Fox-Davies, Arthur Charles, ed. (1899). Armorial Families: A Directory of Some Gentlemen of Coat-armour, Showing Which Arms in Use at the Moment are Borne by Legal Authority (PDF) (3 ed.). London: T. C. & E. C. Jack. p. 436. Public Domain This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
  52. ^ Fairbairn, James (1905). Fairbairn's Book of Crests of the Families of Great Britain and Ireland (PDF). Vol. 1 (4 ed.). London: T. C. & E. C. Jack. p. 295.
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Awards
Preceded by Clarke Medal
1891 		Succeeded by
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