A vegetarian and total abstainer, he developed a strong vein of mysticism with an active interest in social and religious problems.

[1] Among Sutton's early literary friends were his fellow townsman, Philip James Bailey, and Coventry Patmore.

When Ralph Waldo Emerson visited Manchester in 1847 he invited Sutton from Nottingham to meet him, and a permanent friendship was begun.

In 1854 there appeared his Quinquenergia; or, Proposals for a New Practical Theology, including a poem series Rose's Diary which made his reputation.

It was praised by Bronson Alcott and James Martineau, and anthologised in the Golden Treasury of Sacred Poetry by Francis Palgrave.

Rose's Diary with other poems was reprinted in the "Broadbent" booklets as A Sutton Treasury (Manchester, 1899; seventeenth thousand, 1909).