HUTT, SIR WILLIAM (1801-82), after whom the Hutt river was named, was born in Lambeth, Surrey, and educated privately at Ryde, Isle of Wight, and Camberwell. Matriculating from St Mary Hall, Oxford, he entered Trinity College, Cambridge, where he graduated B.A. (1827) and M.A. in 1831. He married (1831) Mary, daughter of J. Milner, and dowager countess of Strathmore.

Hutt was M.P. for Hull (1832-41) and for Gateshead (1841-74). A freetrader and much interested in colonial affairs, he was a member of the select committee on colonial lands (1836). He was a commissioner for the foundation of South Australia, a member of the New Zealand Association (1837), and of the select committee on New Zealand (1840). After the New Zealand bill was thrown out in 1838 Hutt formed the New Zealand Company, amalgamating the interests of the New Zealand Land Company, the New Zealand Colonisation Company and the old New Zealand Company of 1825. He was later a director and chairman. In 1860 he was vice-president of the Board of Trade. (K.C.B., 1865) He died on 24 Nov 1882. His first wife (who died 1860) left him mining properties worth over £18,000 a year. He married again (1861) a daughter of the Hon. Sir James Francis Stanhope.

D.N.B.; G.B.O.P., 1838, 1840 et seq.; Harrop, Wakefield; Marais.

Reference: Volume 1, page 229

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