Hutchins

Cook were the direct results of his policy in this
respect

Professional and administrative labors left
him small time for scholarly investigation. He
published in 1894, however, an American edi-
tion of Joshua Williams' Principles of the Law
of Real Property and, in 1895, Cases on Equity
Jurisprudence, annotated five volumes of the re-
ports of the Michigan Supreme Court, wrote a
biography of Thomas M. Cooley (\V. D. Lewis,
Great American Lawyers, vol. VII, 1909), and
was the author of many articles in legal journals*
His public service also included the chairman-
ship of the committee on legal education of
the American Bar Association, and membership
as the American representative on the United
States-Uruguay Treaty Commission.

Throughout his life he retained many charac-
teristics of his New England background. He
was a strong, reliant, self-respecting personal-
ity, and his impressive bearing was sometimes
the subject of affectionate undergraduate humor.
To favored students and intimate associates, he
revealed unaffected kindliness, tolerance, and
human sympathy, illuminated by endearing
flashes of shrewd Yankee humor.

EB. A. Hinsdale, Hist, of the Univ. of Mich. (1906) ;
Wilfred Shaw, The Univ. of Mich. (1920) ; "In Me-
moriam, Hany Burns Hutchins/* Univ. of Mich. Official
Pubs., vol. XXXII, no, 22 (1930); Mich. Alumnus,
Feb. i, Feb. 8, 1930; Who's Who in America, 1938-
29; Mich. State Bar Jour., Sept 1930; Detroit Free
Press, Jan. 26, 1930.] VV—d B. S.

HUTCHINS, THOMAS (i73O-Apr. 28,
1789), military engineer, geographer, was born
in Monmouth County, N, J. Left an orphan be-
fore he was sixteen, he spent his youth in the
"Western country," served as an officer of Penn-
sylvania colonial troops from 1757 to 1759, and
later entered the regular British service, in which
he remained until 1780. He took part in the
French and Indian War and was commended for
bravery. He had acquired a knowledge of en-
gineering, and laid out the plans for military
works at Fort Pitt and at Pensacola, Fla. He
kept journals of his travels while under military
orders, and illustrated them with maps. Among
these are: "Journal of a March from Fort Pitt
to Venango and from Thence to Presqu* Isle/*
1760 (Pennsylvania Magazine of History and
Biography, II, 1878, 149-53) "> A* Historical
Account of the Expedition Against the Ohio
Indians in the Year 1764 (1765), probably by
Hutchins, but attributed also to Dr. William
Smith; a "Journal from Fort Pitt to the Mouth
of the Ohio, in the Year 1768" (Indiana Histor-
ical Society Publications, II, 1895, 4*5J-*0»
and "Remarks on the Country of the Illinois"

Hutchins

(manuscript, Pennsylvania Historical Society).
Larger works are A Topographical Description
of Virginia, Pennsylvania, Maryland and Xorth
Carolina (London, 1/78), and An Historical
Narrative and Topographical Description of
Louisiana and Wcst»Florida (Philadelphia,
1784). In recognition of his scientific work he
was elected Apr, 17, 1772, to membership in the
American Philosophical Society.

When the American Revolution broke out,
Hutchins, then a captain and engineer, was in
London. Being unwilling to bear arms against
his countrymen, he asked, but was refused, per-
mission to sell his captaincy. He declined to ac-
cept a majority in a new regiment, and was then,
in August 1779, taken into custody charged with
high treason for having communicated informa-
tion to the friends of the United States in France.
On Feb. n, 1780, having been released from
prison, he resigned his commission, and "in a
private manner" went to France, where he pre-
sented himself to Franklin. The latter recom-
mended him to Congress, and he sailed from
L'Orient for Charleston where he joined the
southern army under General Greene. By reso-
lution, on May 4, 1781, Congress appointed him
geographer to the southern army. On July n,
the title was changed to "geographer to the
United States."

At the conclusion of the war, Hutchins re-
tained his office as civil geographer, but was
permitted to accept commissions from the states.
In 1783 he was employed by Pennsylvania to
view the roads leading from Susquehanna to
Reading and Philadelphia, and to select sites for
towns. In the same year he was appointed to
serve as a Pennsylvania commissioner to run
the western end of the botindary line between
Virginia and Pennsylvania. The astronomical
observations by which the southwestern point
of Pennsylvania was determined were 6nished
on Sept 20, 1784* He reported to Congress on
Mar. 7,1785, and later asked leave of absence to
continue the work. His services were now re-
quired, however, for duties specified by the Or-
dinance of May 20, 1785, which provided a
method of survey and sale of lands in the west-
tern territory ceded to Congress by the states*
The geographer of the United States was given
entire charge of the survey, and was instructed
personally to run the east and west line, tipon
which the survey of the whole territory depoad-
ed. Hutchins was continued in office for three
years from May 37,1785, and was then reekcfced
for two years. Four, and part of the fifth, of the
"seven ranges" which were the beginning of the
present system of platting public lands in the

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