Humphry Primatt (1735–1777): Animal Protection and Its Revolutionary Contexts

Bridgen, Adam

Abstract

Humphry Primatt was a Church of England clergyman and author of A Dissertation on the Duty of Mercy and the Sin of Cruelty to Brute Animals (1776), one of the earliest and most influential works of animal protectionism. However, remarkably little is known about Primatt himself. This chapter seeks to remedy this, addressing a range of unexamined materials in order to reconstruct the wider contexts of Primatt’s thinking. In view of his break from the Anglican Church in 1774 and his involvement in Unitarianism, the chapter analyzes a constellation of Dissenting influences on Primatt. Resisting, however, any straightforward characterization of him as a “revolutionary” member of the establishment church, the chapter argues that Primatt occupied a moderate and mediating position, and that his influence was due less to his perceived singularity as to his ability to incorporate some of the more esoteric ideas of animal theologians, Anglican and Dissenting, into the public mainstream.

Citation

Bridgen, A. (2023). Humphry Primatt (1735–1777): Animal Protection and Its Revolutionary Contexts. In A. Linzey, & C. Linzey (Eds.), Animal Theologians (96-123). New York: Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780197655542.003.0006

• Online Publication Date: Apr 20, 2023
• Publication Date: Apr 20, 2023
• Deposit Date: May 31, 2024
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Pages: 96-123
• Book Title: Animal Theologians
• Chapter Number: 5
• ISBN: 9780197655542
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780197655542.003.0006
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/2468615