One of the most prevalent themes in her writings is her Trinitarian understanding of the Christian life and faith. Her work in this respect is both similar and complementary to John Owen’s On Communion with the Triune God, which she knew and quoted. Her strength lies in her ability to communicate in practical and vibrant terms the ways in which each Person of the Trinity works in the great work of redemption, and the ways in which this understanding enriches a Christian’s daily life.

From the time of her youth in 17^th-century Northampton, England, Anne was described as a lively and outspoken girl. Over the course of her life, she combined this zeal and candor with her natural clarity of thought and expression in order to provide Scriptural encouragement and advice.

Her endeavors rose quite a few eyebrows. Was it proper for a woman to provide counsel to others – men included – especially when this counsel was published for all to read? Anne offered a well-thought and coherent reply.

A Life Moved With Passion for the Gospel

Anne Dutton was born in Northampton, probably in 1695. Raised in a Baptist family, she blossomed under the ministry of John Moore, where she found “fat, green pastures. The doctrines of the Gospel were clearly stated,” she said, “and much insisted on in his ministry.”[1]

After marrying in 1714 (the name of the husband is unclear), she moved to London and joined the Baptist church in Cripplegate, where the minister, John Skepp, continued to preach the same “free grace,” “with abundance of glory, life, and power.”[2]

When her husband died in 1720, she returned to her family in Northampton. The next year, she married a lay Baptist preacher, Benjamin Dutton, a clothier who had studied for the ministry in different places, including Glasgow University.

Skepp’s death, the same year, marked a season of trials for Dutton, who felt she was not being spiritually fed by the new minister. She longed to move to Wellingborough, under the ministry of William Grant, but had to wait for a while. Her diary reveals the priority the ministry of God’s Word had in her life.

After spending two years in Wellingborough, Dutton was called to be the pastor of the Baptist Chapel in Great Gransden, Huntingdonshire, where the couple stayed for the rest of their lives. Anne, who continued to be childless, devoted much time to writing letters and essays, with the encouragement of her husband (her “dear Yokefellow,” as she called him).

It was Benjamin who, in 1740, urged her to publish these writings. She agreed, seeing her writing as a ministry to others and a way to use her God-given talents for His glory. In the meantime, the church in Great Gransden was growing, so much that in 1743 they built a new meeting-house and minister’s house.

The same year, Benjamin travelled to America to raise funds for the building, and took Anne’s books with him as tools for the encouragement of others. He stayed there until 1747. Anne was encouraged by his success, but missed him terribly and was concerned for their pastorless church. They expected him back every year, but each time there was some impediment.

In 1747, she heard that a ship carrying her husband had finally returned, but she didn’t hear from him for six months. “This tried me exceedingly,” she said. Finally, a letter came, but it didn’t bring good news. “Instead of my husband’s safe return, I heard of his Death, and that he was cast away on his Passage home, by the foundering of the Ship! How grieving was this to Nature! How trying to my Faith and Hope! The real loss of my dear Yokefellow; the seeming Denial of my earnest Prayers; and the Failure of my Expectation, as to his Return.”[3]

Anne stayed in Grand Gransden, where she was comforted by the arrival of another good minister, and continued to write. In 1764, she began suffering from a throat condition that prevented her from swallowing food. It might have been cancer. In any case, she knew her life was not going to last much longer. With this thought in mind, she worked 16-18 hours per day in order to prepare eight volumes of her unpublished letters for publication. She died the following year.

[1] Anne Dutton, Selected Spiritual Writings of Anne Dutton: Discourses, poetry, hymns, memoir, ed. by Joann Ford Watson, Macon: Mercer University Press, 2004, 87.

[2] Ibid., 88.

[3] Anne Dutton, Selected Spiritual Writings of Anne Dutton: Autobiography, ed. by Joann Ford Watson, Macon: Mercer University Press, 2006, xliv

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