Family Name: Rutledge
First Name: Jean
Birth Date: Fri, Aug 03, 1742
Birth Place: Dunkirk
Death Date: Fri, Mar 28, 1794
Death Place: Paris
Main places of activity:
Place From To
Paris 1773 1792
Personal info:
Career

Jean-Jacques Rutledge joined a Franco-Irish cavalry regiment in 1760 and served with them. He then travelled in Italy.

In c.1775 he moved to Paris and sought to make a career for himself as a journalist and playwright. He also joined a Masonic Lodge. Rutledge published a whole host of works covering a wide range of topics and genres. However, he was particularly concerned in a number of them to present the British and the French in a positive light to each other. He engaged in in the Shakespeare controversy against Voltaire. He also became involved in politics - initially in the Anglo-French dispute over Dunkirk and later in the 'boulanger affair'. During the Revolution he became a leading member of the radical Cordelier Club, provoking a schism within the club in late 1791. He was suspected and imprisoned largely due to his foreign connections in 1793, but was released due to the intervention of his friends.
Financial Situation

Rutledge married a ship owner's daughter in Lille, but both her family and his suffered chronic financial problems. He probably supported himself largely by his pen, by writing both for others and for the market.
Translations Other Works

secondary bibliography references

R. Las Vergnas, Chevalier Rutlidge 'gentilhomme anglais', 1742-1794, Paris, Honoré Champion, 1932.

J. G. Alger, Englishmen in the French Revolution, London, 1889, pp. 19-21.

'Rutledge, James or John James', in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.

P. Peyronnet, 'J. J. Rutlidge', in Revue d'histoire du théâtre, n°4, 176 (1992), pp. 330-359.

'Rutlidge', in J. Sgard, ed., Dictionnaire des journalistes, 1600-1789, Oxford, Voltaire Foundation, 1999, vol. ii, pp. 891-893.

R. Hammersley, French Revolutionaries and English Republicans: The Cordeliers Club, 1790-1794, Woodbridge, The Boydelll Press, 2005, especially, pp. 86-7 and p. 161 fn n°2.

R. Monnier, 'Introduction' to Paris et Londres en Miroir, Lettres de Voyage, extraits du Babillard de Jean-Jacques Rutlidge, ed. R. Monnier, Saint-Étienne, Publications de l’Université de Saint-Étienne, 2010.

Translations

  • The Deserted Village, A Poem

  • Translation Title: Le retour du philosophe ou Le village abandonné
  • Original Author: Oliver Goldsmith
  • Original title: The Deserted Village, A Poem
  • Publ. Year From: 1769 to:
  • lang: English
  • Translation: Le retour du philosophe ou Le village abandonné
  • Publisher: J. L. de Boubers
  • Pub. Place: Brussels
  • Pub. Date: 1771
  • Lang: French
  • Note:

    Rutliedge's version was an adaptation rather than a mere translation.

  • An account of the character and manners of the French; with occasional observations on the English

  • Translation Title: Essai sur le caractère et les moeurs des françois comparées à celles des anglois
  • Original Author: John Andrew
  • Original title: An account of the character and manners of the French; with occasional observations on the English
  • Publ. Year From: 1769 to:
  • lang: English
  • Translation: Essai sur le caractère et les moeurs des françois comparées à celles des anglois
  • Publisher: Unknown
  • Pub. Date: 1775
  • Lang: French
  • Note:

    Though the place of publication was given as London this was probably false.

  • A System of Politics

  • Translation Title: Le Creuset: ouvrage politique et critique
  • Original Author: James Harrington
  • Original title: A System of Politics
  • Publ. Year From: 1660 to:
  • lang: English
  • Note:

    This work was probably written around 1661, but was not published during Harrington's own lifetime.
  • Title: The Oceana and Other Works of James Harrington
  • Publisher: Darby
  • Pub. Place: London
  • Pub. Year: 1699
  • Lang: English
  • Note:

    There were at least two distinct editions of this work as well as numerous reprints.

  • Translation: Le Creuset: ouvrage politique et critique
  • Publisher: Rutledge
  • Pub. Place: Paris
  • Pub. Date: 1790
  • Lang: French
  • Note:

    Le Creuset was a journal edited by Rutledge. The translations from A System of Politics, which begin in the fifth issue, were unacknowledged and constituted only certain chapters rather than the entire work. Nonetheless, they are substantial and significant.

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By:

  • Rachel Hammersley