Cutts was born on 2 March 1824 in
Sheffield. He was the son of John Priston Cutts, an
optician, and Mary, daughter of Robert Waterhouse. He was educated at
Sheffield Collegiate School and graduated B.A. at
Queens' College, Cambridge, in 1848. Being
ordained in the same year, he was curate successively of
Ide Hill, Kent, until 1850, of
Coggeshall, Essex, until 1857, and of
Kelvedon until 1859, and was perpetual curate of
Billericay until 1865. He had already acted also as local organising secretary of the Additional Curates Society, and on leaving Billericay became general secretary of the society in
London, resigning in 1871, on presentation to the vicarage of Holy Trinity,
Haverstock Hill. In 1876 Cutts was selected by the Archbishops of Canterbury and York to visit the East and inquire into the position of the Syrian and Chaldean churches; his report resulted in the formation of the Archbishop's Mission to the Assyrian Christians. He described his travels in 'Christians under the Crescent in Asia' (1887). Although accepting the ecclesiastical views of the high church party, he was sympathetic with every school of thought within the church. He received the degree of D.D. from the
University of the South. Cutts died at Holy Trinity Vicarage,
Haverstock Hill, on 2 September 1901, and was buried at
Brookwood Cemetery, Woking (Plot 4). He married on 23 April 1846 Marian, daughter of Robert Knight of Nottingham, and by her had ten children, seven of whom survived him. Mrs. Cutts died on 14 December 1889. ==Writing career==