Born in Birmingham, the daughter of historian William Hutton, she became a friend of the scientist and discoverer of oxygen Joseph Priestley and the novelist Robert Bage. A keen letter-writer, she corresponded with, among others, Charles Dickens, Edward Bulwer-Lytton and her mathematician cousin Charles Hutton. She built up a collection of over two thousand letters, some of which were published after her death.
Hutton published a number of novels including The Miser Married: a Novel (1813) - itself partly written as a series of letters - The Welsh Mountaineer (1817) and Oakwood Hall (1819). She also wrote a history of the Queens of England and numerous pieces of journalism.