Luke Hutton matriculated as a sizar of Trinity College, Cambridge, in October 1582; left the University without a degree, and took to evil courses. He was 'so valiant that he feared not men nor Laws'. In 1598, for a robbery committed on St. Luke's Day, he was executed at York, the Archbishop magnanimously forbearing to intercede on his behalf.
Works
The Black Dogge of Newgate: both pithie and profitable for all Readers (c.1596)
The Discovery of a London Monster, called The Blacke Dogg of New-gate (1612)
The Black Dogge of Newgate, both pithie and profitable for all readers, black letter, n.d., 4to, dedicated to Lord-Chief-Justice Popham; reprinted with additional matter in 1638. From a passage in the preface we learn that the Repentance had been printed. In the first edition the tract begins with a poem describing a vision that appeared to the author in Newgate. The poem, which treats of the harshness of gaolers and miseries of prison-life, is followed by a prose Dialogue betwixt the Author and one Zawney, concerning 'coneycatching'.
A lost play bearing the title The Black Dog of Newgate, 2 parts, by Hathway, Wentworth Smith, and Day, was produced in 1602.
After Hutton's execution appeared a broadside ballad, Luke Hutton's Lamentation which he wrote the day before his death [1598].
Hutchinson, William (1785). The History and Antiquities of the County Palatine of Durham. Vol. 1. Newcastle: Printed for S. Hodgson & Robinsons. p.470.
Judges, A. V. (1965). The Elizabethan Underworld. 2nd ed. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd. pp. lxiii–lxiv, 265–95, 439, 503, 506–8.