John Hutt
Encyclopedia
Governor of Western Australia
The Governor of Western Australia is the representative in Western Australia of Australia's Monarch, Queen Elizabeth II. The Governor performs important constitutional, ceremonial and community functions, including:* presiding over the Executive Council;...
from 1839 to 1846.
Born in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
on 24 July 1795, John Hutt was the fourth of 13 children of Richard Hutt of Appley Towers, Ryde
Ryde
Ryde is a British seaside town, civil parish and the most populous town and urban area on the Isle of Wight, with a population of approximately 30,000. It is situated on the north-east coast. The town grew in size as a seaside resort following the joining of the villages of Upper Ryde and Lower...
, Isle of Wight
Isle of Wight
The Isle of Wight is a county and the largest island of England, located in the English Channel, on average about 2–4 miles off the south coast of the county of Hampshire, separated from the mainland by a strait called the Solent...
. He was educated at Christ's Hospital, and in 1815 inherited Appley Towers. He is said to have lived extravagantly, and eventually found it necessary to sell his estate and enter the Madras
Madras Presidency
The Madras Presidency , officially the Presidency of Fort St. George and also known as Madras Province, was an administrative subdivision of British India...
Civil Service. When he did so is unknown, but in about 1830 he was collector of the North Arcot
North Arcot
The Indian District of North Arcot was split on 30-09-1989 into Tiruvannamalai-Sambuvarayar and North Arcot Ambedkar .- History :...
district. He later became Governor of North Arcot.
Along with his brother William Hutt
William Hutt (British MP)
Sir William Hutt KCB, PC was a British Liberal politician who was heavily involved in the colonization of New Zealand and South Australia.-Background and education:...
, John Hutt was heavily involved in the arrangements for the establishment of the colony of South Australia
South Australia
South Australia is a state of Australia in the southern central part of the country. It covers some of the most arid parts of the continent; with a total land area of , it is the fourth largest of Australia's six states and two territories.South Australia shares borders with all of the mainland...
. He was recommended to the position of first Governor of South Australia, but was instead appointed to succeed Sir James Stirling
James Stirling (Australian governor)
Admiral Sir James Stirling RN was a British naval officer and colonial administrator. His enthusiasm and persistence persuaded the British Government to establish the Swan River Colony and he became the first Governor and Commander-in-Chief of Western Australia...
as Governor of Western Australia
Governor of Western Australia
The Governor of Western Australia is the representative in Western Australia of Australia's Monarch, Queen Elizabeth II. The Governor performs important constitutional, ceremonial and community functions, including:* presiding over the Executive Council;...
. He took office on 1 January 1839, holding the position until resigning his commission on 19 February 1846.
Politically a liberal, one of Hutt's first actions as governor was to increase the membership of the Western Australian Legislative Council
Western Australian Legislative Council
The Legislative Council, or upper house, is one of the two chambers of parliament in the Australian state of Western Australia. Its central purpose is to act as a house of review for legislation passed through the lower house, the Legislative Assembly. It sits in Parliament House in the state...
by adding four unofficial nominees. He also oversaw many changes in the colony's land regulations, especially in the enforcement of the conditions governing land grants
Land grants in the Swan River Colony
The Swan River Colony, established in June 1829, was the only British colony in Australia established on the basis of land grants to settlers. Under the conditions stipulated by the Colonial Office, settlers would be granted land in proportion to the value of assets and labour that they brought to...
. It is said that his rule "saved the infant settlement from utter disaster, even though eventually he may have erred on the side of over-caution."1
Hutt's attitude to the Aboriginal peoples of Western Australia was notably different to that of both Stirling and most of the settlers. Relations between the settlers and the natives had deteriorated badly in the final years of Stirling's reign, with natives regularly spearing stock, robbing houses, and occasionally murdering settlers. Stirling's response was to attempt to subdue the Aboriginal people through harsh punishment. In contrast, Hutt implemented a policy of protecting the rights of Aborigines, and educating them where possible. His approach made him very unpopular with frontier settlers, who thought themselves more in need of protection than the natives. Hutt developed a personal interest in the languages and culture of the Aboriginal peoples, and helped fund George Fletcher Moore
George Fletcher Moore
George Fletcher Moore was a prominent early settler in colonial Western Australia, and "one [of] the key figures in early Western Australia's ruling elite"...
's book A Descriptive Vocabulary of the Language in Common Use Amongst the Aborigines of Western Australia.
After resigning as Governor of Western Australia, Hutt returned to England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, where he apparently went through more money. For a while he lived in Chelsea Hospital. He died, unmarried, in his brother's house on 9 April 1880.