Edward Lewes Cutts

Edward Lewes Cutts (2 March 1824 – 2 September 1901) was an English writer, antiquarian and curate, specialising in archaeology and the study of ecclesiastical history.

Life and church career

Cutts was born on 2 March 1824 in Sheffield. He was the son of John Priston Cutts, an optician, and Mary, daughter of Robert Waterhouse. He was educated at Sheffield Collegiate School and graduated B.A. at Queens' College, Cambridge, in 1848. Being ordained in the same year, he was curate successively of Ide Hill, Kent, until 1850, of Coggeshall, Essex, until 1857, and of Kelvedon until 1859, and was perpetual curate of Billericay until 1865. He had already acted also as local organising secretary of the Additional Curates Society, and on leaving Billericay became general secretary of the society in London, resigning in 1871, on presentation to the vicarage of Holy Trinity, Haverstock Hill.

In 1876 Cutts was selected by the Archbishops of Canterbury and York to visit the East and inquire into the position of the Syrian and Chaldean churches; his report resulted in the formation of the Archbishop's Mission to the Assyrian Christians. He described his travels in 'Christians under the Crescent in Asia' (1887). Although accepting the ecclesiastical views of the high church party, he was sympathetic with every school of thought within the church. He received the degree of D.D. from the University of the South.

Cutts died at Holy Trinity Vicarage, Haverstock Hill, on 2 September 1901, and was buried at Brookwood Cemetery, Woking (Plot 4). He married on 23 April 1846 Marian, daughter of Robert Knight of Nottingham, and by her had ten children, seven of whom survived him. Mrs. Cutts died on 14 December 1889.