Thomas Joseph Hutchinson (1820-85) was a Anglo-Irish

Anglo-Irish

Anglo-Irish was a term used primarily in the 19th and early 20th centuries to identify a privileged social class in Ireland, whose members were the descendants and successors of the Protestant Ascendancy, mostly belonging to the Church of Ireland, which was the established church of Ireland until...

 explorer, born at Stonyford County Kilkenny

County Kilkenny

County Kilkenny is a county in Ireland. It is part of the South-East Region and is also located in the province of Leinster. It is named after the city of Kilkenny. The territory of the county was the core part of the ancient Irish Kingdom of Osraige which in turn was the core of the Diocese of...

 Ireland

Ireland

Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...

. He studied medicine. After a trip to West Africa

West Africa

West Africa or Western Africa is the westernmost region of the African continent. Geopolitically, the UN definition of Western Africa includes the following 16 countries and an area of approximately 5 million square km:-Flags of West Africa:...

 in 1851, he was chief surgeon on the Niger

Niger

Niger , officially named the Republic of Niger, is a landlocked country in Western Africa, named after the Niger River. It borders Nigeria and Benin to the south, Burkina Faso and Mali to the west, Algeria and Libya to the north and Chad to the east...

 expedition (1854-55). After two years as English Consul

Consul (representative)

The political title Consul is used for the official representatives of the government of one state in the territory of another, normally acting to assist and protect the citizens of the consul's own country, and to facilitate trade and friendship between the peoples of the two countries...

 at the Bight of Biafra

Bight of Bonny

The Bight of Bonny is a bight off the West African coast, in the easternmost part of the Gulf of Guinea...

 and Fernando Po, he became governor of the latter place (1857) and in 1861 was transferred to the consulate

Consul

Consul was the highest elected office of the Roman Republic and an appointive office under the Empire. The title was also used in other city states and also revived in modern states, notably in the First French Republic...

 at Rosario

Rosario

Rosario is the largest city in the province of Santa Fe, Argentina. It is located northwest of Buenos Aires, on the western shore of the Paraná River and has 1,159,004 residents as of the ....

 in Argentina

Argentina

Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...

, where he took part in the Salado expedition of 1862. In 1870 he was appointed Consul at Callao

Callao

Callao is the largest and most important port in Peru. The city is coterminous with the Constitutional Province of Callao, the only province of the Callao Region. Callao is located west of Lima, the country's capital, and is part of the Lima Metropolitan Area, a large metropolis that holds almost...

and three years later retired to his Irish home. He wrote:

• Narrative of the Niger Tshadda Binuë Exploration (1855)
• Impressions of Western Africa (1858)
• Ten Years' Wandering among the Ethiopians (1861)
• Buenos Ayres and Argentine Gleanings (1865)
• Parana and South American Recollections (1868)
• Two Years in Peru (1873)
• Summer Rambles in Brittany (1876)

External links

• Murray, Edmundo. "Hutchinson, Thomas Joseph (c.1802-1885), diplomat, physician and travel writer" in: Irish Migration Studies in Latin America, 4:4 (October 2007), pp. 271-273
• Murray, Edmundo. "'Sr. Hutchinson, otra vez, no dice V. nonsenses, no tonterrias: A Bigoted Response to Thomas J. Hutchinson's 'Two Years in Peru' (1873)" in: Irish Migration Studies in Latin America 4:4 (October 2006), pp. 230-236