HUTCHINSON, Aaron, clergyman, born in Hebron, Connecticut, in March, 1722; died in Pomfret, Vermont, 27 September, 1800. He was graduated at Yale in 1747, studied for the ministry in Hebron for about three years, and oil 6 June, 1750, responded to a call to preach in Grafton, Massachusetts, where he remained for about twenty-two years. In 1776 he moved to Pomfret, Vermont, established a congregation there, and two others in the adjoining towns of Hartford and Woodstock, and for several years performed the pastoral duties for the three congregations. During his fifty years of preaching he lost only two services from illness, and never used a book for conducting his services. Dr. Hutchinson was one of the foremost classical scholars of his time in this country. It was said of him by those who had an intimate knowledge of his attainments, that if the New Testament had been lost he could have reproduced it from memory in the original Greek. Upon one occasion, when he was at Bennington attending the sittings of the council of safety, he met Ethan Allen, who invited him to preach at his house the next Sunday, and at the same time handed to him the manuscript of his "Oracles of Reason," which Allen called his Bible. The Sunday arrived, a chapter from the Old Testament, specially selected for the occasion, was recited, and the first hymn that was given out began with the verse "Let all the heathen writers join To form a perfect book, But, O good Lord! compared with thine, How mean their writings look!" This was followed by an orthodox sermon. Allen never forgave Hutchinson for this, and never invited him to preach again. Of his sermons only eight were published. The most notable among them was "Mr. Hutchinson's Sermon at Windsor, July 2, 1777, at the Convention for the Forming of the State of Vermont: A well-tempered Self Love a Rule of Conduct towards Others" (Dresden, 1777), which was the first book issued from a printing press in the state of Vermont. Among the others are "Valour for the Truth" (Boston, 1767); "Coming of Christ" (1773); and "Meat out of the Eater, or Samson's Riddle Unriddled " (1774).