Anne Dutton

Name(s):

Anne (née Williams) Dutton

Date and place of birth:

Northampton, England. Baptised on December 11, 1692, All Saints Parish Church, Northampton, England.

Death and place of death:

November 18, 1765, Great Gransden, Huntingdonshire, England. Buried in the churchyard of the Baptist Church, Great Gransden.

Family: 

Father

Thomas Williams of Northampton; he was listed as a “gardiner” on the birth record for Anne in 1692. He appears as a testator on the will of her husband, Benjamin Dutton (proved 1748). 

Mother

Mrs. Thomas Williams of Northampton. Nothing is known of her except that she and her husband attended the Independent meeting in Castle Street, Northampton, probably beginning in the 1690s and continuing thereafter. They may have previously been Anglicans, since Anne was baptized in the parish church, but that does not preclude them from being Dissenters even at that time.

Siblings  

In some of her published letters, Anne Dutton addressed at least two siblings, a brother and a sister. One appears to be Thomas Williams, Jr; and Elizabeth Williams may have been her sister. Her father, Thomas Williams the Elder, was a witness to her husband’s will, as was Elizabeth Williams, though it is possible that Elizabeth was her mother, not her sister, but it is more likely that Elizabeth was her sister. Another letter was addressed to a “P. W.,” who was most likely another brother. 

Marriage and Family Life: 

On January 4, 1715, Anne Williams married Thomas Cattle (Cattel) (b. January 7, 1691), a merchant originally from nearby Harlestone; he was also a member at the Baptist congregation that met in College Street, Northampton. Anne and her new husband settled shortly after their marriage in London. She joined the Baptist congregation at Curriers’ Hall, Cripplegate, but her husband did not.  She has very little to say about him in her Brief Account. At some point his business took him to Warwick, where she felt her spiritual situation decline. Not long after their return to London, her husband died, though no death record has yet surfaced. 

By the summer of 1719 she had returned to Northampton to live with her parents. On November 2, 1719 she married Benjamin Brown Dutton (1691-1747) at the All Saints Parish Church in Northampton, most likely less than a year after the death of her first husband. Benjamin Dutton was the son of the Baptist minister at Eversholt (at that time spelled Evershalt), Bedfordshire. Before meeting Anne, he was apprenticed to a draper and clothier in Newbury and during his time there, he was converted–an event that led to his call to the ministry in 1709. He spent much of the next decade studying under ministers in Buckinghamshire, Westmoreland, Scotland, and London; he also fought a life-long problem with alcohol. A few weeks after the death of his father on August 11, 1719, he moved to Northampton to continue his preparations for the ministry under the Revd Moore at College Street. He met Anne shortly thereafter and in less than three months they were married. He has little to say about her in his spiritual autobiography, The Superaboundings of the Exceeding Riches of God’s Free-Grace, towards the Chief of the Chief of Sinners (1743), but his statement upon first seeing her would prove prophetic: “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” (129). She did indeed possess both qualities and would demonstrate them fully in the 1740s.  

They lived for a time in Northampton and then at Wellingborough, Arnsby, and Cambridgeshire, where Benjamin preached in small congregations before settling at the Baptist church in Great Gransden in the summer of 1731. He was ordained there in 1732 and remained the church’s pastor until his death in 1747. In 1743, he sailed for America on a preaching tour to raise funds for an addition to the chapel as well as to promote his wife’s writings, but he drowned when the ship sank upon his return to England in 1747. Despite Anne Dutton’s voluminous writings, she had little to say in print about her husband. Dutton remained at Great Gransden, publishing into the last year of her life; after her death on Monday, November 18, 1765, she bequeathed her husband’s library and her own books to the church. 

Education:

The details of Anne Dutton’s education are not known. Most likely she was educated in her home by her parents and, like Mary Hays and many other Dissenting young women, became an avid reader and autodidact, reading primarily religious texts widely.

Religion:

She spent her early years in the Independent meeting in Castle Street, Northampton, during the ministries of Thomas Shepherd, John Hunt, and Thomas Tingey. Upon Tingey’s arrival in 1709, Anne found his ministry unprofitable and began worshiping with the Particular Baptists meeting at what was then called “the Watering Place” and later became the congregation in College Lane. She joined that congregation in 1710 and was later baptized by immersion. After her first marriage in 1715, she moved to London and joined the Baptist meeting at Curriers’ Hall, Cripplegate, led by the High Calvinist minister, John Skepp. She joined the congregation on March 31, 1718, and was received into full communion on April 6, 1718. Upon her husband’s death, she returned to Northampton and remarried, attending for a time at College Street then at the Baptist meeting in Wellingborough under William Grant. She finally joined there in 1728. In 1731, she and her second husband, Benjamin Dutton (1691-1747), moved to Great Gransden where he became pastor of the local Particular Baptist congregation. She joined there on December 3, 1732, and remained a member of the church until her death in 1765. Dutton was steeped from her youth in the tenets of High Calvinism, yet by the late 1730s and through the 1740s, she was an influential figure and writer within the Evangelical movement in England, Wales, Scotland, and America. Among her many ministerial protégées was the Baptist minister at Cambridge, Robert Robinson (1735-90). Her writings were popular for more than three decades for their ministerial advice, theological discourse, and practical guides to spiritual living for laypersons of both sexes.

Transformation(s):

Though Dutton’s theological beliefs were well established by her twenties, she did not emerge as a writer until her early thirties. Following  her initial publication in 1734, no other woman writer engaged the public so frequently or with such variety as she did over the subsequent decades. She published works grounded in the personal diary, spiritual autobiography, hymns, long narrative poems, letters, and formal religious discourse and treatises. In 1743, she defended her right to publish as a Baptist woman on matters of religion in A Letter to such of the Servants of Christ, who may have any Scruple about the Lawfulness of Printing any thing written by a Woman, one of the most important and clever defences of its kind in the eighteenth century. Many years later she defended herself once again as a religious woman writer in Thoughts on Pens (1762). Dutton’s defences not only exhibit her right and privilege to be God’s “pen,” even as a woman writer, but also her subtle redefining of public and private spheres for women writers. In her Letter, she argued that she had a right to publish as a woman because her works were read in private and were not thus not a public act and, by default, not a violation of the rule that women should remain silent and submissive within their private sphere. In so doing, she carved out a public space for herself as a woman writer and gained extensive influence and admiration through her published writings within a culture that, in its official tenets, forbade such actions, achieving a position as a woman writer unequalled by any of her contemporaries among the Baptists and other Dissenting sects.   

Though she never delivered a sermon from the pulpit like her Methodist or Quaker counterparts, she nevertheless experienced a vicarious pastoral ministry through her unprecedented role in the Great Gransden church; she also engaged in voluminous private correspondences addressed to prominent ministers and laypersons and read by Particular Baptists, Independents, Calvinistic Methodists,  Moravians, and Evangelical Anglicans. She spoke in a pastoral manner through her printed letters, which were addressed to ministers and local congregations in England and America, and through her religious tracts and doctrinal discourses that were promoted from the pulpit and the press. In all these forms, Dutton’s writings laid the groundwork upon which Dissenting women writers like Maria de Fleury, Mary Hays, and Elizabeth Coltman continued to build in the following decades. Though she never sought the pulpit for herself, Anne Dutton’s vicarious experience with pastoral ministry would eventually give way to women speaking in their own voices in fully sanctioned pastoral roles in Baptist congregations, a transformative epoch in Baptist history that owes a great debt to the life and legacy of Anne Dutton.

Contemporaneous Network(s):

Dutton was aided by her connections with a select coterie of dissenting printers and booksellers, which included John Oswald (Independent), Ebenezer Gardner (Baptist), John Hart (either a Baptist or an Independent), John Lewis (Moravian), Samuel Mason (Calvinistic Methodist), and George Keith (Baptist). Hart was Dutton’s sole printer from 1742 through 1762, and Lewis was her primary seller from 1743 to 1754. Lewis (1697-1755) corresponded with Dutton in the 1740s and was instrumental in presenting her works to the public and to the followers of George Whitefield in England, Wales, Scotland, and America through his work as editor, printer, and seller of The Christian Amusement (1740-41), The Weekly History (1741-42), An Account of the Most Remarkable Particulars relating to the Present Progress of the Gospel (1742-43), and The Christian History (1743-48). Lewis inserted letters by Dutton in many of the issues of these periodicals, some of which passed between her and Lewis and others between her and Whitefield, Howell Harris, and various leaders and laypersons within the evangelical movement at that time. All of Dutton’s publications, from the 1730s through the end of the 19th century, were published or edited solely by dissenting or evangelical printers and booksellers in England, Scotland, and America. Beginning in the 1720s, Dutton laboriously copied and then published her letters in 13 volumes (generally in chronological order between 1740 and 1765) under the title Letters on Spiritual Subjects, and Divers Occasions. She also published a three-volume set of letters to the Scottish MP James Erskine (1743, 1749, 1761), another significant figure within the Evangelical Movement of the 1740s.

Contemporary Identifications:

Anne Dutton revealed herself as a writer on her first title page in 1734, but after that, she used various appellations, including her initials (A. D.). Her name did not appear on another title page until the posthumous edition of a volume of her Letters in 1769. She was widely known, however, within the Evangelical movement in England and American in the 1740s; she corresponded with many of its leaders and played a significant role as an advisor, counsellor, and mediator for the issues that arose among the various groups involved with the movement, which included Anglicans and Methodists, as well as Baptists, Independents, and Moravians. Some of her letters to churches and ministers were published in The Christian Amusement (1740-41), The Weekly History (1741-42), and An Account of the Most Remarkable Particulars relating to the Present Progress of the Gospel (1742-43).

Referenced in other female biographies: 

A selection from A Brief Account appeared in five successive editions of Memoirs of Eminently Pious Women between 1804 and 1836. The entry on Dutton, unfortunately, made no mention of her other titles and was guilty of several biographical inaccuracies, including the bizarre suggestion in the later editions that she may have died shortly after her marriage at the age of 22. She was also thought to have had a relationship with the hymn writer Anne Steele of Broughton, bequeathing her bible to her, but that is not true. However, it seems likely that Dutton’s work was known to many women writers among the Baptists and Calvinistic sects in the eighteenth century, such as Steele, as well as Maria de Fleury and Mary Hays.

Works/Agency:

1. Dutton, Anne. A Narration of the Wonders of Grace, in Verse.... London: Printed for, and sold by the author, in the year 1734. 
2. [Dutton, Anne]. A Narration of the Wonders of Grace. In Verse…. The second edition, corrected by the author, with additions. London: Printed for the author, and sold by John Oswald, at the Rose and Crown in the Poultry, near Stock’s-Market, 1734. 
3. A. D. [Anne Dutton]. A Discourse upon Walking with God: in a Letter to a Friend…. As also a Brief Account how the Author was brought into Gospel-Liberty. By A.D. London: Printed for the Author: and sold by E. Gardner, in Bartholomew-Close, near West-Smithfield, 1735. 
4. [Dutton, Anne].  A Discourse Concerning God’s Act of Adoption. To which is added, a Discourse upon the Inheritance of the Adopted Sons of God. London: Printed for the author: and sold by E. Gardner in Coleman-Street near the Old Jewry, 1737. 
5. A. D. [Anne Dutton].  A Sight of Christ, Absolutely Necessary for all True Christians, and Gospel Ministers. London: Printed for the Author, and sold by E. Gardner at Milton’s Head in Gracechurch-Street, 1740. 
6. [Dutton, Anne]. A Discourse upon Justification: Shewing the Matter, Manner, Time and Effects of it. By the author of The Discourse Concerning the New-Birth. London: Printed; and sold by John Oswald at the Rose and Crown in the Poultry, near Stocks-Market; and Ebenezer Gardner, at Milton’s Head in Grace-Church-Street, 1740. 
7. [Dutton, Anne]. A Discourse Concerning the New-Birth: to which are added Two Poems; the one on Salvation in Christ, by Free-Grace, for the Chief of Sinners: the Other on a Believer’s Safety and Duty. London: Printed; and sold by John Oswald at the Rose and Crown in the Poultry, near Stocks-Market; and Ebenezer Gardner, at Milton’s Head in Grace-Church-Street, 1740.  
8. [Dutton, Anne]. Letters on Spiritual Subjects, and Divers Occasions; sent to Relations and Friends. By One who has Tasted that the Lord is Gracious. Vol. 1. London: Printed; and sold by John Oswald, at the Rose and Crown in the Poultry, near the Mansion House; and Ebenezer Gardner, at Milton’s Head in Grace-church-street, 1740.  
9. [Dutton, Anne]. A Letter to all the Saints, on the General Duty of Love: Humbly Presented, by One that is less than the Least of them All, and Unworthy to be of their Happy Number. London: Printed by J. Hart: and sold by Samuel Mason, Bookseller, over-against Love-Lane, Woodstreet, 1742.  
10. [Dutton, Anne]. 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: Printed by John Hart: and sold by Samuel Mason, Bookseller, over-against Love-Lane, in Wood-Street, 1742. 
11. [Dutton, Anne.] Some Thoughts about Faith in Christ: Whether it be Required of all Men under the Gospel? To prove that it is. Being an Answer to the chief Objections advanc’d against it: With Brief Hints of the Great Ends of God in this Requirement. Wrote for the Perusal of a Friend. And now Humbly offer’d to the Consideration of All. London: Printed for E. Gardner, at Milton’s-Head, in Gracechurch-Street, 1742. 
12. [Dutton, Anne.] A Letter to the Negroes lately Converted to Christ in America. And Particularly to those, lately called out of Darkness, into God’s Marvellous Light, at Mr. Jonathan Bryan’s in South Carolina. Or a Welcome to the Believing Negroes, into the Houshold of God. By a Friend and Servant of theirs in England. London: Printed by J. Hart, in Poppings-Court, Fleet-Street: And sold by J. Lewis, in Bartholomew-Close, near West-Smithfield; and E. Gardner, at Milton’s Head, in Gracechurch-Street, MDCCXLIII [1743].
13. [Dutton, Anne]. Letters on Spiritual Subjects, and Divers Occasions, sent to Relations and Friends. By One who has Tasted that the Lord is Gracious. London: Printed by J. Hart, in Poppings-Court, Fleet-street: and sold by J. Lewis, in Bartholomew-Close, near West-Smithfield; and E. Gardner at Milton’s Head in Grace-Church-street, MDCCXLIII [1743]. 
14. [Dutton, Anne]. Letters sent to an Honourable Gentleman, for the Encouragement of Faith. By One who has Tasted that the Lord is Gracious. London: Printed by J. Hart, in Poppings-Court, Fleet Street: and sold by J. Lewis, in Bartholomew-Close, near West-Smithfield; and E. Gardner, at Milton’s-Head, in Gracechurch-Street, 1743.
15. A. D. [Anne Dutton]. A Letter to such of the Servants of Christ, who may have any Scruple about the Lawfulness of Printing any thing written by a Woman: to shew, that Book-teaching is Private, with respect to the Church, and permitted to private Christians; yea, commanded to those, of either sex, who are gifted for, and inclin’d to engage in this Service. By A.D. London: Printed by J. Hart in Poppings-court, Fleetstreet; and sold by J. Lewis, in Bartholomew-Close, near West-Smithfield; and E. Gardner, at Milton’s-Head, in Gracechurch-Street, 1743. 
16. [Dutton, Anne.] Letters to the Reverend Mr. John Westley [sic]: Against Perfection: As not Attainable in this Life. London: Printed by J. Hart, in Popping’s Court, Fleet-Street: and sold by J. Lewis, in Bartholomew-Close, near West-Smithfield; and E. Gardner, at Milton’s-Head, in Gracechurch-Street, 1743. 
17. [Dutton, Anne.] Meditations and Observations upon the Eleventh and Twelfth Verses of the Sixth Chapter of Solomon’s Song. ... To which are added, Motives offer’d to the Consideration of a Believer, to deter him from Sin. ... And Some Thoughts about Sin and Holiness: ... By a Sinner sav’d to be an Heir of Heaven, that deserves to be a Firebrand of Hell. London: Printed by J. Hart: and sold by J. Lewis; and E. Gardner, 1743. 
18. [Dutton, Anne.] Brief Hints concerning God’s Fatherly Chastisements, Showing Their Nature, Necessity and Usefulness, and the Saints’ Duty to Wait upon God for Deliverance when under His Fatherly Corrections. London: Printed by J. Hart, in Poppings-Court, Fleet-street; and sold by J. Lewis, in Bartholomew-Close, near West-Smithfield; and E. Gardner, at Milton’s-Head, in Gracechurch-street, 1743.  
19. [Dutton, Anne.] The Hurt that Sin doth to Believers. To which is added, A Word of Intreaty, to all those that name the Name of Christ, to Depart from Iniquity. London: Printed by J. Hart, in Poppings-Court, Fleet Street: and sold by J. Lewis, in Bartholomew-Close, near West-Smithfield; and E. Gardner, at Milton’s-Head, in Gracechurch-Street, 1743. 
20. A. D. [Anne Dutton]. 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 in some Establishment in Him. Part I. By A. D. [Anne Dutton].  London: Printed by J. Hart: and sold by J. Lewis; and E. Gardner, 1743.
21. A. D. [Anne Dutton]. 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, ... Part II. By A. D. London: Printed by J. Hart: and sold by J. Lewis; and E. Gardner, 1743. 
22. [Dutton, Anne]. A Letter to All Those that Love the Lord Jesus Christ, in Philadelphia: to Excite them to Adhere to, and Appear for, the Truths of the Gospel; by a Friend in England. London: Printed by J. Hart, in Poppings-Court, Fleetstreet; And sold by J. Lewis, in Bartholmew-Close, near West-Smithfield; and E. Gardner, at Milton’s-Head, within Aldgate, 1743.
23. [Dutton, Anne]. A Letter to all the Saints, on the General Duty of Love: Humbly Presented, by One that is less than the Least of them All, and Unworthy to be of their Happy Number. London: Printed by J. Hart, in Poppings-Court, Fleet-Street: and sold by J. Lewis, in Bartholomew-Close, near West-Smithfield; and E. Gardner, at Milton’s Head, in Gracechurch-Street, 1743.
24. [Dutton, Anne]. A Discourse Concerning the New-Birth: to which are added, Sixty-four Hymns; Compos’d on Several Subjects. With an Epistle Recommendatory, by the Reverend Mr. Jacob Rogers, A.B. London: Printed by J. Hart: and sold by J. Lewis; and E. Gardner, 1743. 
25. [Dutton, Anne]. A Discourse upon Justification: Shewing the Matter, Manner, Time and Effects of it. To which are added Three Poems: I. On the Special Work of the Spirit in the Hearts of the Elect. II. On Salvation in Christ, by Free-Grace, for the Chief of Sinners. III. On a Believer’s Safety and Duty. London: Printed by J. Hart, in Poppings-Court, Fleet-Street: and sold by J. Lewis, in Bartholomew-Close, near West-Smithfield; and E. Gardner, at Milton’s-Head, in Gracechurch-Street, MDCCXLIII [1743].  
26. [Dutton, Anne]. 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. To which are added, Brief Hints concerning God’s Fatherly Chastisements; shewing their Nature, Necessity, and Usefulness; and the Saints Duty to Wait upon God for Deliverance, when under his Fatherly Corrections. London: Printed by J. Hart, in Poppings-Court, Fleet-Street: and sold by J. Lewis, in Bartholomew-Close, near West-Smithfield; and E. Gardner, at Milton’s-Head, in Gracechurch-Street, 1743. 
27. [Dutton, Anne]. A Letter to the Reverend Mr. John Wesley: In Vindication of the Doctrines of Absolute, Unconditional Election, Particular Redemption, Special Vocation, and Final Perseverance. Occasioned chiefly by some things in his Dialogue between a Predestinarian and his Friend; and in his Hymns on God’s Everlasting Love. London: Printed by J. Hart, in Poppings-Court, Fleet-Street: and sold by J. Lewis, in Bartholomew-Close, near West-Smithfield; and E. Gardner, at Milton’s-Head, in Gracechurch-Street, 1743. 
28. Dutton, Anne. A Letter from Mrs. Anne Dutton, to the Reverend Mr. G. Whitefield. Philadelphia: Printed and sold by William Bradford, at the Sign of the Bible in Second-Street, [undated] [attributed in the microfilm copy as 1743].  
29. [Dutton, Anne]. Letters on Spiritual Subjects, and Divers Occasions, sent to the Reverend Mr. George Whitefield, and others of his Friends and Acquaintance. [Vol. 3]. London: printed by J. Hart, in Poppings-Court, Fleet-street: and sold by J. Lewis, in Bartholomew-Close, near West-Smithfield; and E. Gardner, at Milton’s-Head, near Aldgate, 1745.
30. [Dutton, Anne]. A Letter on the Duty and Privilege of a Believer, to Live by Faith, and to Improve his Faith unto Holiness. To the Society at the Tabernacle, in London, a Friend and Servant of theirs, wisheth Grace and Peace, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ. 1745.
31. [Dutton, Anne]. A Letter on the Being and Working of Sin, in the Soul of a Justify’d Man, as Consistent with his State of Justification in Christ, and Sanctification through Him: with the Nature of his Obedience, and of his Comfort, consider’d: as the one is from God, and the other to Him; notwithstanding his Corruptions may be great, and his Graces small in his own Sight.
32. [Dutton, Anne]. A Postscript to a Letter lately Published, on the Duty and Privilege of a Believer, to live by Faith, and to improve his Faith unto Holiness: directed to the Society at the Tabernacle in London. To make the Author’s Sense of some Words and Phrases in that Letter, more plain to the Persons to whom That was sent, and This is addressed.  To which is added, A Caution against Error, when it springs up together with Truth: in a Letter to a Friend: as also, Some of the Mistakes of the Moravian Brethren: in a Letter to another Friend: with Postscripts to the Letters added. By One who has tasted that the Lord is Gracious. London: Printed by J. Hart; and sold by J. Lewis; and E. Gardner, 1746. [Price stitch’d Nine-pence.] 
33. [Dutton, Anne]. Letters on Spiritual Subjects, and Divers Occasions; sent to Relations and Friends. By One who has Tasted that the Lord is Gracious. Vol. 4. London: Printed by J. Hart, in Poppings-Court, Fleet-Street: and sold by J. Lewis, in Bartholomew Close, near West Smithfield; and E. Gardner, at Milton’s Head, near Aldgate, 1746. 
34. [Dutton, Anne.] Brief Hints concerning Baptism: of the Subject, Mode, and End of this Solemn Ordinance. In a Letter to a Friend. To which is added, A short account, how the author was brought to follow the Lord in his Ordinance of Baptism. In a Letter to another Friend. London: Printed by J. Hart, in Popping’s Court, Fleet-Street: And sold by E. Gardner, at Milton’s Head, near Aldgate, 1746. 
35. A. D. [Anne Dutton].  A Letter to Mr. William Cudworth: In Vindication of the Truth, from his Misrepresentations: with Respect to the Work of the Spirit in Faith, Holiness, the New-Birth, &c. being a Reply to his  Answer to the Postscript of a Letter late published, To which is added, A Letter to a Friend, on Inherent and Personal Holiness. By A. D. London: Printed by J. Hart, in Popping’s Court, Fleet-street; and sold by J. Lewis, in Bartholomew-Close, near West Smithfield; and E. Gardner, at the Ship, in Lombard-Street, near Gracechurch-Street, 1747.
36. [Dutton, Anne]. Letters on Spiritual Subjects, and Divers Occasions, sent to Relations and Friends. By One who has Tasted that the Lord is Gracious. Vol. 5. London: Printed by J. Hart, in Poppings-Court, Fleet-Street: and sold by J. Lewis, in Bartholomew Close, near West Smithfield; and E. Gardner, at the Ship, in Lombard-Street, near Gracechurch-Street, 1747. 
37. A. D. [Anne Dutton]. Hints of the Glory of Christ; as the Friend and Bridegroom of the Church: From the Seven last Verses of the Fifth Chapter of Solomon’s Song. In a Letter to a Friend. By A. D. London: Printed by J. Hart, in Popping’s-Court, Fleet Street: and sold by J. Lewis, in Bartholomew-Close, near West-Smithfield, 1748. 
38. [Dutton, Anne]. Thoughts on the Lord’s Supper, relating to the Nature, Subjects, and Right Partaking of this Solemn Ordinance. Written at the Request of a Friend, And address’d by Letter to the tender Lambs of Christ. With a Short Letter relating to it prefixed. By One who is less than the least of all Saints. London: Printed by J. Hart, in Popping’s Court, Fleet Street: and sold by J. Lewis, in Bartholomew-Close, near West-Smithfield, 1748. 
39. [Dutton, Anne]. Letters on Spiritual Subjects, and Divers Occasions, sent to Relations and Friends. By One who has Tasted that the Lord is Gracious. Vol. 6. London: Printed by J. Hart, in Popping’s-Court, Fleet Street: and sold by J. Lewis, in Bartholomew-Close, near West-Smithfield, 1748.
40. [Dutton, Anne.] An Appendix to a Pamphlet, entitled, Some Thoughts about Faith in Christ: Whether it be Required of all Men under the Gospel. To prove that it is. London: Printed by J. Hart, in Popping’s Cout, Fleet Street: and sold by J. Lewis, in Bartholomew Close, near West Smithfield, 1748. 
41. [Dutton, Anne]. Letters on Spiritual Subjects, and Divers Occasions; Sent to Relations and Friends. By One who has Tasted that the Lord is Gracious. Vol. 7. London: printed by J. Hart, in Poppings-Court, Fleet-Street: and sold by J. Lewis, in Paternoster Row, near Cheapside, 1749. 
42. Letters Sent to an Honourable Gentleman, for the Encouragement of Faith. By One Who Has Tasted that the Lord is Gracious, Volume II. London: Printed by J. Hart in Popping's Court, Fleet Street; And sold by J. Lewis in Paternoster Row, near Cheapside, 1749. 
43. [Dutton, Anne]. Letters on Spiritual Subjects, and Divers Occasions; Sent to Relations and Friends. By One who has Tasted that the Lord is Gracious. Vol. 8. London: Printed by J. Hart, in Popping’s-Court, Fleet-Street: And sold by J. Lewis, in Paternoster Row; and G. Keith, at Mercers-Chapel, Cheapside, 1750.
44. A. D. [Anne Dutton]. A Brief Account of the Gracious Dealings of God, with a Poor, Sinful, Unworthy Creature, in Three Parts. Relating to Part I. The Work of Divine Grace on the Heart, in a Saving Conversion to Christ, and to some Establishment in Him. Part II. A Train of Special Providences attending Life, by which the Work of Faith was carried on with Power. Part III. Some Particular Experiences of the Lord’s Goodness in bringing out several little Tracts, to the Furtherance and Joy of Faith. With an Appendix. And a letter prefixed, on the Lawfulness of a Woman’s Appearing in Print. By A.D. London: Printed by J. Hart in Popping’s-Court, Fleet-Street. and sold by J. Lewis, in Pater-Noster-Row, near Cheapside, 1750.  
45. [Dutton, Anne]. A Letter on Justification: or, The Justification of Law-Condemned Sinners. London: J. Hart, 1753. 24 pp. 
46. [Dutton, Anne.] Five Letters of Advice: Humbly Offered: The I. To Parents: Concerning the Education of their Children, in the Fear of God. II. To Children: To excite them to Remember their Creator in the Days of their Youth. III. To the Young and Middle-Aged: To warn them of some of the Snares of Life. IV. To the Aged: To [interest] them to improve their present Time, for a blest Eternity. And the V. To All Thirsty Souls: To invite them to come to Christ, and to take the Water of Life; which He hath promised to give them freely. By a Well-Wisher to the Souls of Men. London: Printed by J. Hart in Popping’s-Court, Fleet-Street: and sold by J. Lewis, in Pater-Noster-Row; and G. Keith at the Bible and Crown in Grace-Church-Street, MDCCLIV [1754]. 
47. [Dutton, Anne]. A Letter on the Application of the Holy Scriptures: shewing how the People of God may know, when words of Scripture come into their minds, on any account, whether they are from the Lord or not. London: J. Hart, Popping’s Court. Sold by J. Lewis, Paternoster Row, 1754. 
48. [Dutton, Anne]. A Letter on the Divine Eternal Sonship of Jesus Christ: As the Second Person in the Ever-Blessed Three-One God. occasioned by the Perusal of Mr. Romaine’s Sermon on John viii. 24. entitled, A Discourse upon the Self-existence of Jesus Christ. With three letters on assurance of interest in Christ: As that which belongs unto the Reflex, and not to the Direct Act of Faith; and rather unto the Spirit’s Sealing, than to the Soul’s first Act of Believing. Written as the author’s thoughts, on part of Mr. Marshal’s Book, Entitled, The gospel-mystery of sanctification. And two letters on the gift of the Holy Spirit to believers, as a Sealer, and his being to them as such, the Earnest of their Inheritance. By one who has tasted that the Lord is gracious. London: Printed by J. Hart, in Popping’s Court, Fleet-Street: and sold by G. Keith, at the Bible and Crown in Gracechurch-Street, M.DCC.LVII [1757]. 
49. [Dutton, Anne.] Five Letters to a New-Married Pair. [1759?]. 
50. [Dutton, Anne]. Three Letters on I. The Marks of a Child of God. II. The Soul-Diseases of God’s Children; and their Soul-Remedies. And III. God’s Prohibition of his Peoples unbelieving Fear; and his great Promise given for the Support of their Faith, unto their Time-Joy, and Eternal Glory. By one who has tasted that the Lord is gracious. London: Printed by J. Hart, in Popping’s-Court, Fleet-Street: and sold by G. Keith, at the Bible and Crown, in Grace-Church-Street; and J. Fuller, in Blow-Bladder-Street, near Cheapside, M.DCC.LXI. [1761].
51. [Dutton, Anne.] Mr. Sanddeman refuted by an old Woman: or, Thoughts on his Letters to the Author of Theron and Aspasio. In a Letter from a Friend in the Country to a Friend in Town. London: printed by J. Hart, in Popping’s-Court, Fleet-Street: and sold by G. Keith, at the Bible and Crown, in Grace-Church-Street; T. Field, Cheapside; E. Dilly, in the Poultry; and E. Mason, in Fore-Street, M.DCC.LXI [1761]. 
52. [Dutton, Anne]. Divine, Moral, and Historical Miscellanies, in Prose and Verse. Containing many valuable originals, communicated by various correspondents, and other pieces extracted from different authors, and antient manuscripts. The Whole being such a Collection of Miscellaneous Thoughts, as will tend not only to please, but enlighten and profit the Reader. … Volume the First. London: printed for J. Fuller, in Newgate-Street, London; and T. Luckman, in Coventry, M,DCC,LXI [1761]. 
53. At some point between 1750 and 1762, a Volume IX of Letters on Spiritual Subjects appeared in London, but no extant copy of this edition has been located at present. No record of the volume appears in the ESTC.
54. Letters Sent to an Honourable Gentleman, for the Encouragement of Faith. By One Who Has Tasted that the Lord is Gracious. Vol. 3 (London, 1761). See above, nos. 17 and 42. 
55. [Dutton, Anne]. Letters on Spiritual Subjects, and Divers Occasions; sent to Relations and Friends. By one who has tasted that the Lord is gracious. Vol. X. To which is added Thoughts on Pens. London: Printed by J. Hart, in Popping’s-Court, Fleet-Street; and sold by G. Keith, at the Bible and Crown, in Grace-church-street; and J. Fuller, in Blow-bladder-street, near Cheapside. M.DCC.LXII [1762]. 
56. [Dutton, Anne]. Divine, Moral, and Historical Miscellanies, in Prose and Verse. Containing many valuable originals, communicated by various correspondents, and other pieces extracted from different authors, and antient manuscripts. The Whole being such a Collection of Miscellaneous Thoughts, as will tend not only to please, but enlighten and profit the Reader. … Volume the Second. London: Printed for J. Fuller, in Newgate-Street, London; and T. Luckman, in Coventry, M,DCC,LXII [1762]. 
57. At some point during this year it is likely Vol. XI of Letters on Spiritual. Subjects appeared, but no extant copy d of this imprint has been found nor does it appear in the ESTC.
58. [Dutton, Anne]. Divine, Moral, and Historical Miscellanies, in Prose and Verse. Containing many valuable originals, communicated by various correspondents, and other pieces extracted from different authors, and antient manuscripts. The Whole being such a Collection of Miscellaneous Thoughts, as will tend not only to please, but enlighten and profit the Reader. … Volume the Third. London: Printed for J. Fuller, in Newgate-Street, London; and T. Luckman, in Coventry, M,DCC,LXIII.
59. [Dutton, Anne.] Letters to the Reverend Mr. John Westley: Against Perfection: as not Attainable in this Life: Reprinted at the Request of a Friend.  London: Printed by H. Hart, in Popping’s Court, Fleet-Street,. MDCCLXIV [1764].
60. [Dutton, Anne.] A Letter against Sabellianism: Re-printed at the Request of a Friend. To which is added, Another on the Same Subject. By One that Believes, that Jesus Christ, is the Son of God. London: Printed by H. Hart, in Popping’s Court, Fleet-Street, MDCCLXIV [1764]. 
61. [Dutton, Anne.] Letters on Spiritual Subjects, and Divers Occasions; sent to Relations and Friends. By one who has tasted that the Lord is gracious. Vol. XII. London: Printed by H. Hart, in Popping’s-Court, Fleet-Street; and sold by G. Keith, at the Bible and Crown, in Grace-church-street. M.DCC.LXIV [1764]. 
62. [Dutton, Anne]. Letters on Spiritual Subjects, and Divers Occasions; Sent to Relations and Friends. Vol. XIII. London: Printed by H. Hart, in Popping’s Court, Fleet-Street: and sold by G. Keith, at the Bible and Crown, in Grace-church-Street, MDCCLXV [1765]. 
63. [Dutton, Anne.] An Attempt to prove that Saving Faith, is more than a Bare Assent, to Gospel Truth. In a Letter to a Friend. With another Letter on Reconciliation. To which is added, A Letter against Sandimanian Opinions. By one who has tasted, that the Lord is Gracious.  London: Printed by H. Hart, in Popping’s-Court, Fleet-Street; and sold by G. Keith, at the Bible and Crown, in Grace-church Street. M. DCC.LXV [1765]. 
64. Dutton, Anne. Letters on Spiritual Subjects, and Divers Occasions: Sent to Relations and Friends. By Mrs. Anne Dutton, Prepared for the Press by the Author, before her death, and now Published at her Desire; to which are Prefixed, Memoirs of the Dealings of God with her, in her last Sickness. Vol. 1. London: Printed for G. Keith, in Gracechurch-Street, MDCCLXIX [1769].  
65. Dutton, Anne. Letters on Spiritual Subjects, and Divers Occasions: Sent to Relations and Friends. By Mrs. Anne Dutton, Prepared for the Press by the Author, before her death, and now Published at her Desire; to which are Prefixed, Memoirs of the Dealings of God with her, in her last Sickness. Vol. 2. London: Printed for G. Keith, in Gracechurch-Street, MDCCLXIX [1769].

     

    Four more titles by Dutton were published and sold by George Keith according to his 1769 catalogue of works by Dutton which appeared in no. 65 above, but no extant copies exist today:

66. [Dutton, Anne.]  A Letter on Perseverance, against Mr. Wesley.  
67. [Dutton, Anne.] A Letter on the Dominion of Sin and Grace.  
68. [Dutton, Anne.] Letters on the Chambers of Security for God’s People and on the Duty of Prayer.
69. [Dutton, Anne.] A Letter on the Saviour’s Willingness to Receive and Save all who come to Him. 

Reputation: 

The fact that she composed some 70 works between 1734 and 1765 (of which seventeen appeared in 1743), with an additional 25 separate short works embedded within her published volumes, makes Dutton a phenomenon among women writers prior to 1800. Yet, even today, she is not well known to literary historians and specialists in women’s studies of the long 18th century. Though reprinted often in the nineteenth century, by the early 20th century Dutton’s reputation had diminished significantly after some scathing critiques of her work (and even her person) by Dutton’s first biographer, J. C. Whitebrook, and two prominent Baptist historians of the early 20th century, W. T. Whitley and H. Wheeler Robinson. They viewed her as a pretentious and vain woman committed to outworn tenets of strict Calvinism and an extreme form of conversion experience that, as portrayed in her autobiographical writings, her critics claimed presented her as egotistical, overly emotional, and a hindrance to mid-century Baptist evangelical efforts. Her portraits, which appeared posthumously in editions of Memoirs of Eminently Pious Women and in a few reprints of her writings in the first half of the 19th century, were criticised by these men as depicting a “Court beauty” rather than a Baptist minister’s wife; they were especially piqued by her “shapely little head,” “large curly ringlets,” and “well-poised neck.” In 1961, Hugh Martin, in his review of Baptist hymnody, continued these criticisms, not only dismissing her efforts as a hymnodist but also ridiculing her as a woman who was “[e]gotistical in the extreme and given to dressing in the most ostentatious way.” Similar criticisms of her vanity and extreme High Calvinist opinions were later repeated by Peter Toon, Raymond Brown, and Peter Naylor in their historical surveys of 18th century Particular Baptists. Since the 1990s, however, Dutton’s reputation as a theological writer and prominent figure in the Evangelical movement in the 1740s has significantly improved among Baptist historians, though she still remains relatively unknown in the field of women’s literary studies.

Legacy and Influence:

Dutton’s popularity remained strong after her death. In 1769 George Keith published a collection of some unpublished letters by Dutton found among her papers at Great Gransden. Other works by Dutton were republished in Scotland in 1778 and 1803 and in England throughout the 19th century. By the early decades of the 20th century,  however, she had fallen out of favour with Baptist historians. Since the mid-1970s Dutton’s stature has risen due to the work of Stephen Stein, Susan Durden, Susan O’Brien, Michael Haykin, JoAnn Ford Watson, Michael Sciretti, Huafang Xu, and Timothy Whelan (see bibliography below). These scholars have done much to rehabilitate Dutton as a woman who viewed herself as having a “calling” to a ministry. Sciretti even describes Dutton as being a “spiritual director” to numerous ministers, lay persons, and family members through her voluminous publications, especially her many volumes of letters. She has also gained attention among Baptist historians for her theological writings on doctrines associated with Calvinism and the Particular Baptists, as well as her use of public discourse in the eighteenth century. All of these efforts have helped establish recognition, at least among Baptists, that her legacy, although only known in a fragmentary way, deserves to be noted and preserved. Today she stands, alongside the hymn writer Anne Steele and the polemicist and poet Maria de Fleury, as one of the foremost Baptist women writers of the 18th and 19th centuries. 

Controversy:

At a time when Dissenting women were commanded to be “silent” in the church and keep to their proper “sphere,” the privacy of the home, Anne Dutton boldly asserted her right to speak and publish to readers of both sexes on matters of religion. She argued in her Letter to such of the Servants of Christ (1743) that women, just like men, were designed to be vessels for the edification of the church body, “whether it be in speaking, writing, or printing: Since all these are private, and proper to the Sphere which the Lord has allotted them” (5). Dutton became the first Baptist woman writer to engage with ministers in public discourse, sometimes praising their ministries and at other times offering stern critiques of their doctrinal positions. Between 1742 and 1765 Dutton used formal letters to engage in a public argument over doctrinal differences with the Methodist leader John Wesley (1742, 1743, and c. late 1740s), the Moravian William Cudworth (1747), the Evangelical Anglican William Romaine (1757), and Robert Sandeman (the founder of Sandemanianism) (1761, 1765). One letter addressed to Whitefield concerns her critique of Wesley’s doctrine of sinless perfection which she thought might be helpful to Whitefield in his work at Bristol, an early stronghold of the Wesleyans. Other letters are addressed not to individuals but rather to specific groups, such as the congregation at Whitefield’s Tabernacle at the Moorfields in London, a congregation of believers in Philadelphia, and a group of converted enslaved persons on Jonathan Bryan’s plantation in South Carolina, all concerning matters of church doctrine and practise that Dutton felt both compelled and competent as a woman to comment upon in public discourse, a rare moment in the history of Baptists and Evangelicals during the 18th century. 

Feminism/Social Activism:

Between 1743 and 1747, during the time her husband was travelling in America and after his death, Anne Dutton elevated her ministry considerably beyond the role of a published writer and correspondent to ministers and churches by assuming several important pastoral duties her husband had previously performed in the church at Great Gransden. Though she never preached from his pulpit, she monitored the church meetings in his place and composed all the entries in the Great Gransden Church Book between 1743 and 1759, actions restricted to the male leaders of the church and not performed by any other Baptist woman of the eighteenth century. Women were commanded to be silent in the church and not to usurp authority over men, both of which many believed Dutton violated by her numerous writings on matters of theology and church issues, an attack she vigorously rejected in her 1743 Letter to such of the Servants of Christ, who may have any Scruple about the Lawfulness of Printing any thing written by a Woman. Dutton even played a key role in the procurement of three ministers for the congregation at Great Gransden. All of these actions furthered Dutton’s sense of her own special calling from God. Despite her protestations of incompetence and likening herself to a child (not atypical for women writers at this time), Dutton projected an unprecedented authorial power as a woman writer across three decades and nearly seventy volumes of printed letters and religious treatises on topics that few women of her day dared to approach in private or public.

Issues with the sources:

The primary issue with sources relating to Anne Dutton is that most have serious biographical errors in them, beginning with comments on Dutton that appeared in Memoirs of Eminently Pious Women in the 19th century, as well as accounts by early Baptist historians, the latter revealing a distinct bias toward her as a woman writing to ministers and congregations on topics of doctrine and church polity. Even recent accounts of her life and writings are not entirely accurate, nor do they provide a complete bibliography of her publications. A more correct biographical account of the particular details of Dutton’s life and career can be found at Nonconformist and Dissenting Women’s Studies, 1650-1850 (www.nonconformistwomenwriters1650-1850.com.)

Primary:

Brown, Raymond. The English Baptists of the Eighteenth Century. London: Baptist Historical Society, 1986.

Bullock, Karen O’Dell, “Anne Dutton.” Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004. 

Durden, Susan. “A Study of the First Evangelical Magazines, 1740-1748.” Journal of Ecclesiastical History 27, no. 3 (July 1976), 255-75.

Haykin, Michael A. G. “Anne Dutton and Calvinistic Spirituality in the Eighteenth Century.” The Banner of Sovereign Grace Truth (July/August 2002), 156-57.

MacHaffie, Barbara J. Her Story: Women in Christian Tradition. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1986.

Naylor, Peter. Picking up a Pin for the Lord: English Particular Baptists from 1688 to the Early Nineteenth Century. London: Grace Publications, 1992.

O’Brien, Susan. “A Transatlantic Community of Saints: The Great Awakening and the First Evangelical Network, 1735-1755.” American Historical Review 91 (1986), 811-32.

Robinson, H. Wheeler. The Life and Faith of the Baptists, rev. ed. London: Kingsgate Press, 1946; orig. ed., 1927.

Sciretti, Michael D. “‘Feed My Lambs’: The Spiritual Direction Ministry of Calvinistic British Baptist Anne Dutton During the Early Years of the Evangelical Revival.” Ph.D. Diss., Baylor University, 2009.

Stein, Stephen. “Note on Anne Dutton, Eighteenth-Century Evangelical.” Church History 44.4 (December 1975), 485-491.

Toon, Peter. The Emergence of Hyper-Calvinism in English Nonconformity, 1689– 1765. London, England: Olive Tree, 1967.

Watson, JoAnn Ford. “Anne Dutton: An Eighteenth Century British Evangelical Woman Writer.” Ashland Theological Journal 30 (1998), 51-56.

Watson, JoAnn Ford. Selected Spiritual Writings of Anne Dutton: Eighteenth-Century, British-Baptist, Woman Theologian, 7 vols. Macon: Mercer University Press, 2003-15.

Whitebrook, John Cudworth. “A Bibliography of Mrs. Anne Dutton.” Notes and Queries (December 1916), 471-73.

Whitebrook, John Cudworth. “The Life and Works of Mrs. Ann Dutton.” Transactions of the Baptist Historical Society 7 (1921), 129-46.

Whitebrook, John Cudworth. Ann Dutton: A Life and Bibliography. London: A. W. Cannon, 1921.

Whitley, W. T. A History of British Baptists. London: Kingsgate Press, 1932.

Xu, Huafang. “Communion with God and Comfortable Dependence on Him: Anne Dutton’s Trinitarian Spirituality.” Ph.D. Diss., Southern Seminary, Louisville, 2018.

Archival resources:

Three letters by Dutton to Philip Doddridge from the 1740s can be found at Dr. Williams’s Library, London (London New College Collection, MS L1/5/65-66.). Another letter by Dutton to Doddridge, c. 1750, can be found in the Bridwell Library Special Collections, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, TX. A letter by Dutton to George Whitefield (and his wife), dated 20 June 1752, can be found in the Methodist Archives, John Rylands University Library of Manchester, MAM. PLP. 36.51. A fully annotated text of this letter can be found in Timothy Whelan, ed., Baptist Autographs in the John Rylands University Library of Manchester, 1741-1845 (Macon: Baptist History Series, Mercer University Press, 2009), pp. 3-5. Letters to Dutton by Howell Harris, an early Welsh leader among the Calvinistic Methodist Movement in the late 1730s and early 1740s, can be found in the Trevecca Letters Collection at the National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth. See “Will of Benjamin Dutton, of Great Gransden” (26 January 1748), Huntingdonshire County Record Office, Huntingdon, UK, where the Great Gransden Church Book can also be found. See also the College Street Church Book, Northampton, 1698-1737, and the Cripplegate Church Book, London, 1692-1723, both volumes at the Angus Library, Regent’s Park College, Oxford. 

Web resources:

The most complete account of Anne Dutton and her works can be found at Timothy Whelan, ed., Nonconformist and Dissenting Women’s Studies, 1650-1850 (www.nonconformistwomenwriters1650-1850.com.)