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Blogpost started but not finished on Francis Hutcheson, who 300 years ago may well have been celebrating his 26th birthday in Dublin as he set up his school.
So a quick jaunt through Hutcheson's Dublin is called for! If he came to Dublin by road this is more or less what he would have seen (wider version http://www.dublin1850.com/brooking_skyline1.jpg )
That image is from the 1720s and as you can see is not of the Georgian city we know, but looks almost Dutch, with windmills and gable-fronted houses now called "Dutch Billies".
Another vista, from the west (Phoenix Park) https://www.europeana.eu/en/item/90402/RP_P_1932_413
Another vista, from the west (Phoenix Park) https://www.europeana.eu/en/item/90402/RP_P_1932_413
Hutcheson probably knew few in the city when he came. Some relatives of his father's second wife lived there, and ministers (such as Boyse of Wood St) may well have known his grandfather who was minister near Mary's Abbey (A) for a few years.
The school (B) Hutcheson set up was on the corner of Dominic St and Dorset St (we know this from letters between William Drennan and his sister). As you can see there were still orchards on Dominic St on this map from 1757! Site is now a car park. https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b530637730/f1.item.r=Dublin%20rocque.zoom
Teaching texts belonging to Hutcheson were published in Glasgow in 1740s; it's likely these were what he taught in Dublin. Essentially the course was that in Glasgow though Hutcheson's school didn't award degrees. You had to go to a full uni for that. https://www.irishphilosophy.com/2016/08/08/hutchesons-schooldays/
Not Trinity though. To graduate from Trinity then you had to conform ie join the Church of Ireland. The frontage (from Brooking, 1728) was red brick, not the classical frontage we see today. The huge chapel loomed behind, very visible on the skyline.
The Library (now the Old Library) was being built in the most up-to-date style. Not that Hutcheson had much chance to see. The TCD libraries were closed to others, which is why Narcissus Marsh created @MarshsLibrary
https://www.europeana.eu/en/item/90402/RP_P_1932_429
https://www.europeana.eu/en/item/90402/RP_P_1932_429
But Hutcheson could have looked at the frontage, and then turned to look down Dame St towards Dublin Castle, with the Irish Parliament in Chichester house to his right (swept away for an exciting new building at the end of the decade) https://www.europeana.eu/en/item/90402/RP_P_1932_393
Michael Brown called this the axis of power: from TCD past the statue of William III to Dublin Castle, then on to Christchurch and the Tholsel where the merchants met, and down to the other Cathedral, St Patrick's.
But Hutcheson's life was more centred on the side streets: the meeting houses of Wood St and Eustace St, the bookshops (and coffee shops and taverns) behind the Custom House, where the papers and ideas arrived earliest.
This was the view Hutcheson may have seen, walking down Swift's Row to head for the first crossing on the river: Essex Bridge (sporting a golden equestrian George l).
Maybe it was here that Hutcheson met acquaintance from Glasgow, in late 1722 or 1723. An ongoing dispute over the selection of the rector had seen John Smith expelled, and James Arbuckle went to Dublin to print a pamphlet defending the student position. https://www.irishphilosophy.com/2017/02/28/student-politics/
It is plausible that this is how Hutcheson came to know Robert Molesworth (born in Fishamble St). A supporter of the Glasgow students, a patron to John Toland, an advocate of republican theory and a friend of Shaftesbury, Molesworth introduced a world of new ideas.
The Molesworth Circle (as it's now known) included the son of Bishop Edward Synge, also Edward. Hutcheson and Synge became lifelong friends. Their discussions informed Hutcheson's first work "An Inquiry into the Original of Our Ideas of Beauty and Virtue" https://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/hutcheson-an-inquiry-into-the-original-of-our-ideas-of-beauty-and-virtue-1726-2004
Arbuckle was another member of the Molesworth Circle. John Smith was also now in Dublin, a printer in partnership with William Smith on Blind Quay (1724), at the sign of the Philosophers Head. The first book they published was...Hutcheson's "An Inquiry" #GlasgowGang
It was anonymous. It was also an incredible hit. So much so the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Lord Carteret, took a break from hunting the Drapier (Jonathan Swift) to send word down the road to Blind Quay of his approval of the work. https://www.europeana.eu/en/item/90402/RP_P_1932_459
Molesworth had died soon after the printing. One of his last acts was writing to Archbishop Hoadly in England in support of the latest student to fall foul of the Glasgow bother, Hutcheson's student Robertson. It was a good time to become popular.
As if 1725 was not busy enough, this was the year Francis Hutcheson got married. Mary Wilson was the cousin of his father's second wife, hailing originally from Tully (near Granard) Co. Longford, who had been married in Dublin to a merchant named Thomas Kennedy and widowed 1722.
Thomas Drennan, another friend from Glasgow probably arrived before the wedding to help in the school (Hutcheson's teasing many years later suggests Drennan complained Hutcheson stayed home too much!) Hutcheson's cousin William Bruce replaced William Smith in Blind Quay.
The following year saw Arbuckle (supported by Molesworths son) publishing a newspaper, The Dublin Weekly Journal, featuring work by members of the Molesworth Circle including two essays by Hutcheson, one on laughter and one against Mandeville.
Hutcheson found a new patron in (of all people) the Archbishop of Dublin, William King. Leech reports King protected Hutcheson from attempts to bring legal actions against his school. The downside - lots of pressure to join the Established Church.
In 1728, Hutcheson saw his second and last major Dublin work, "An Essay on the Nature and Conduct of the Passions and Affections" published by Smith and Bruce. The intervening year had seen two of his children, John & Martha die.
https://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/hutcheson-an-essay-on-the-nature-and-conduct-of-the-passions-and-affections-1742-2002
https://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/hutcheson-an-essay-on-the-nature-and-conduct-of-the-passions-and-affections-1742-2002
Hutcheson's deathbed argument from "An Essay" https://www.irishphilosophy.com/2017/01/14/deathbed/
In 1729 he was offered the Chair of Moral Philosophy. His patron Archbishop King had died; so had his father. It probably seemed like a good time for a new start. Hutcheson left Dublin for Glasgow with his wife and son.
But that was not the end of Francis Hutcheson in Dublin. He returned regularly, to visit his friends and the town he knew so well. He died in Dublin of a fever on 8th August 1746.
A shame we cannot walk those streets
@scotushibernus @FergusWhelan5
- another time maybe.
@quiteclare @PeterWest23
Berkeley's Dublin too (even if they had nothing in common except Edward Synge!)
@scotushibernus @FergusWhelan5
- another time maybe.
@quiteclare @PeterWest23
Berkeley's Dublin too (even if they had nothing in common except Edward Synge!)
