'The fire of patriotism': the historiographical success of Lucy Hutchinson's Memoirs in the nineteenth century1

• Published in: The Seventeenth century Vol. 38; no. 3; pp. 515 - 525
• Main Author: Gheeraert-Graffeuille, Claire
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Durham Routledge 04.05.2023; Taylor & Francis Ltd
• Subjects: 17th century; 19th century; anti-catholicism; Autobiographical literature; Historiography; Hutchinson, Lucy (1620-1681); Julius Hutchinson; Lucy Hutchinson; nineteenth-century; patriotism; puritanism; Readership
• ISSN: 0268-117X; 2050-4616
• DOI: 10.1080/0268117X.2023.2195764

When The Memoirs of the Life of Colonel Hutchinson were published in 1806 by Julius Hutchinson, they met with immediate and enduring success. The Memoirs' instant popularity was indeed all the more paradoxical as neither Puritanism nor republicanism, which are both central to Lucy Hutchinson's work, appealed to the general readership at the beginning of the nineteenth century. This article argues that the Memoirs owe their success to their forceful defence of England as a Protestant nation, as well as to Julius Hutchinson's editorial choices and interventions. Lucy Hutchinson's patriotism, copiously praised by the editor and reviewers, could ultimately explain why the Memoirs eventually became a nineteenth-century best-seller, capable of overcoming the Tory/Whig divide.