Robert Sparke Hutchings (11 April 1781 – 20 April 1827) was an English clergyman who initiated the founding in 1816 of Penang Free School, one of the oldest English-medium schools in Southeast Asia, in Penang in present-day Malaysia. He was also involved with the founding of the Raffles Institution, the oldest school in Singapore, in 1823 and revised the first complete Bible translation in Malay.
Education and Dittisham rectorate
Robert Sparke Hutchings was born in the village of Dittisham in Devon, the sixth and youngest child of John Hutchings (c. 1732 – 1802) of Paignton, rector of St. George's Church in Dittisham, and Sarah Sparke (c. 1734 – 1788) of Dartmouth. Robert matriculated at St Edmund Hall, Oxford in 1798 at the age of 17, obtaining a BA in 1802 and an MA in 1808. He was ordained deacon of Dittisham parish in 1803 and became its rector in 1805. He had a new rectory house built that still stands today, as well as overseeing the construction of the first road for carriages going from Dartmouth to Dittisham.
At the Dittisham rectory, Hutchings had the care of the children of his brother-in-law George Caunter, a Navy man who had gone to Prince of Wales Island (Penang) in 1795 and was its Acting Superintendent in the closing years of the eighteenth century. Caunter's wife Harriett Georgina Hutchings died in labour in Penang in 1798, and their two children born there were sent to England and joined three older siblings who had been born in Dittisham. One of the children to whom Robert Hutchings was guardian, the later clergyman and writer John Hobart Caunter, would describe his uncle as having "a heart perfection scarce could mend" and as being the source of "most of what I know".
In 1808 Hutchings became domestic chaplain to Clementina Drummond, the Dowager Baroness Perth; in 1811 he was appointed domestic chaplain to Thomas Reynolds-Moreton, Baron Ducie of Tortworth.
Efforts towards a school in Penang
In 1814, apparently due to financial difficulties, Hutchings gave up his rectorship at Dittisham and travelled to Bengal to take up a chaplaincy there. The East India Company's Board of Directors informed the Penang government that they had appointed Hutchings to succeed Penang's first resident Anglican chaplain, Atwill Lake. Hutchings arrived in Penang on 22 August 1814. There was no Anglican church on the island yet, and services were held in the Court House of George Town, the main settlement. Soon after his arrival, Hutchings petitioned the government for cups for the wine, a salver for the bread and a plate for the alms, items necessary for the administration of the sacrament. As chaplain, he also occupied himself with the care and maintenance of the Old Protestant or Northam Road Cemetery.
To a council meeting under governor William Petrie on 6 January 1816, Hutchings presented an "Address to the Public in behalf of a School, to be established in Prince of Wales Island". He argued: "It is an uncontroverted truth, that the happiness of society results from the good conduct of the majority, and this good conduct results from early habits, or Education". He proposed the establishment of a school open to all children regardless of class or race, and supporting those children whose parents could not afford the nominal fees.
The school was to be open to children aged 4 to 13 inclusive, with boarding at the school's expense provided for pupils living far away. It was to be run on liberal principles, teaching the reading and writing of English, arithmetic and a range of crafts such as carpentry and bookbinding. Great care was to be taken "that the prejudices of Parents averse to the Christian Religion, be not by any means violated". The "Children of Malay Parents who are not desirous that they should learn English" were to be "instructed by a Malay Teacher to read and write their own Language", and analogous provisions were to be made for "Children of Chuliah and Hindustanee Parents". The "first object of the Institution" was "to provide for the education of such Children, as would be otherwise bred up in Idleness and consequent Vice, and without any means of obtaining Instruction either in useful Learning or in any Manual Employment, and to implant in them the early habits of Industry, Order, and Good Conduct." The proposal was approved and a committee was appointed, chaired by Hutchings, to see the project to fruition. The first iteration of Penang Free School, housed temporarily at a private residence in Love Lane, George Town, was opened for 25 boys on 21 October 1816. A year later, the school committee reported that 49 boys and 11 girls were enrolled.