Mary Ann Hutton

Mary Ann or Margaret Hutton (née Drummond; 1862 – 29 August 1953) was an Irish language scholar and writer.

Early life and family Mary Ann Hutton was born Mary Ann Drummond in Manchester, England in 1862. She was the eldest child of James Drummond and Frances (née Classon). She had two brothers and five sisters. Some secondary sources refer to her as Margaret, but in official records Hutton appears as Mary Ann. Her father was a Unitarian minister, initially at Cross Street Chapel but then at Manchester New College, London from 1869. Both her father and mother were prominent figures in the Unitarian community and amongst Irish dissenters. Her paternal grandfather was the poet William Hamilton Drummond and her uncle was the botanist and physician, James Lawson Drummond. Her father was an advocate for female suffrage. Hutton was well educated, and was one of the first women to attend the University of London, going on to be awarded the Hermann silver medal in German in 1882 and a Fielden scholarship. She married Arthur Hutton in Hampstead, London on 27 March 1890. He came from a prominent Unitarian family of Dublin coach-builders. He established a coach builders in Chichester Street, Belfast in 1886. The couple lived in Deramore Park, Belfast, with their one daughter, Margaret Bruce Hutton, born on 3 November 1893.

Hutton gave £50 to the fund to establish Pearse's school, St. Enda's, and lent Pearse a further £100 in 1911 when the school was struggling financially. Hutton was widowed in 1908, and having moved to Dublin, living at 17 Appian Way. Around this time she decided to convert to Catholicism. She lived in Dublin for the rest of her life, supporting Conradh na Gaeilge and was heavily involved in the city's cultural activities. In 1937 she was the representative of the Royal Dublin Society at the Celtic Congress in Edinburgh. In 1914 she was appointed to the senate of Queen's University Belfast, and in 1933 was awarded an honorary degree of D.Litt. by the National University of Ireland.