author
John Clutton
1759–1838
An Anglican clergyman and poet, he wrote sermons, religious verse, and a pointed letter to Joseph Priestley. His best-known surviving work, Sabbath-Breaking on the Canal, brings early industrial life into a strongly moral and devotional poem.
1 Audiobook
Sabbath-Breaking on the Canal: A Poem
by John Clutton
About the author
Born in 1760 and dying in 1838, John Clutton was an English churchman whose printed work links Birmingham, Herefordshire, and the cathedral world of Hereford. Records for his publications describe him as rector of Kinnersley, Herefordshire, later lecturer or preacher at St. Martin's in Birmingham, and a prebendary of Hereford.
His surviving books show a writer engaged with both public religion and public debate. In the 1780s and 1790s he published A Letter to Doctor Joseph Priestley, A Farewell Sermon preached at St. Martin's, Birmingham, and a sermon for the benefit of the Hereford Infirmary. These works suggest a minister who was active in the religious and intellectual life of his time.
Clutton is also remembered for Sabbath-Breaking on the Canal, an early 19th-century poem that turns the world of canal labor and commerce into a warning about faith, work, and the keeping of the Sabbath. No suitable verified portrait was found from the sources checked, so a profile image is not included.