John Hely-Hutchinson

John Hely-Hutchinson was born in Gortroe, County Cork in 1724 as John Hely.¹ He assumed the double-barrelled name in 1757 when he inherited, through his wife, the estates of Richard Hutchinson, Co Tipperary. He graduated from Trinity College in 1744, and soon built up a good practice at the Bar.²  From 1760 until his death he represented Cork in Parliament. Promotion to the post of Prime Serjeant followed in 1761.³ On most issues he supported the Government, and acquired several lucrative offices. The provostship was effectively the gift of the Viceroy and Chief Secretary and when it became vacant on Provost Andrew’s death they induced Hely-Hutchinson to resign his Prime Serjeant post, which was needed to oblige another claimant, and compensated him with the provostship. His appointment traversed the statutes and previous practice in three respects: he was a layman, he was married, and he had not been a Fellow of any College. The latter was a continued source of friction since the Fellows resented the imposition of a career politician with no pretensions to scholarship. Provost Hely-Hutchinson was sympathetic to Catholic Emancipation and advocated the end of educational discrimination against Catholics. Although he introduced some useful educational reforms, his determination to turn the University’s parliamentary representation into a pocket borough for his family meant that the College spent much of his provostship in a state of simmering discontent. ⁴

Painting Details

By Joseph Peacock, after Sir Joshua Reynolds
Oil on canvas

1. J.V. Luce, Trinity College Dublin, The First 400 Years (Dublin, 1992), pp 56-61.
2. Anne Crookshank and David Webb, Paintings and Sculptures in Trinity College Dublin (Dublin, 1990), p. 70.
3. J.V. Luce, Trinity College Dublin, The First 400 Years (Dublin, 1992), pp 56-61.
4. Anne Crookshank and David Webb, Paintings and Sculptures in Trinity College Dublin (Dublin, 1990), p. 70.