Chaloner Chute, Speaker of the House of Parliament

From the Oxford Dictionary of the National Biography:

http://www.oxforddnb.com/templates/article.jsp?articleid=5412&back=

Chute, Chaloner (c.1595–1659), lawyer, was the first son of Charles Chute of the Middle Temple and Kelvedon, Essex, and his wife, Ursula, daughter of John Chaloner of Fulham, Middlesex. His father, who was originally from Suffolk, held a post in the south of England connected with the duchy of Lancaster, and he served as member of parliament for Thetford in 1593; on his mother's side of the family, one of his cousins, Sir Thomas Challoner, was tutor to Prince Henry. Although he was matriculated at Pembroke College, Cambridge, in 1613 Chute was evidently intended for the law, since he was enrolled in the same year at the Middle Temple, and was called to the bar there in May 1623.

On 14 June 1627 he married Anne, daughter and coheir of Sir John Scory of Wormesley, Herefordshire, who was also the widow of William Place of Dorking in Surrey; they subsequently had two sons and two daughters.

Maintaining a residence in Holborn, and later on at Sutton Court, Chiswick, as well as chambers at the Temple, Chute established a powerful reputation as a chancery lawyer. According to Roger North,

"if he had a fancy not to have the fatigue of business, but to pass his time in pleasures after his own humour, he would say to his clerk, ‘Tell the people I will not practise this term:’ and was as good as his word … But when his clerks signified he would take business he was in the same advanced … as before: and his practice nothing shrunk by the discontinuance. I guess that no eminent chancery practiser ever did, or will do, the like; and it shows a transcendent genius, superior to the slavery of a gainful profession." (North, 13)

Though appointed a justice of the peace and commissioner for oyer and terminer in Middlesex in 1638, and a JP for Westminster in 1640, Chute only came into political prominence when he was sought after as a defence counsel by several leading figures who were put on trial by the Long Parliament. He acted for Attorney-General Sir Edward Herbert, and was counsel for both the earl of Strafford and Archbishop Laud. In addition, he was one of the few lawyers willing to appear for the bishops in the House of Lords when they were impeached for making the canons of 1640. On being asked whether he would plead for the bishops, he is reported to have replied, ‘Yea, so long as I have a tongue to plead with’ (DNB). The strength of the answer that he drew up to the charge of praemunire against the bishops was thought by some to have been the main reason why the prosecution of the case was allowed to lapse.

In 1642 he was a commissioner of array in Middlesex, and was appointed by the house to defend Sir Richard Gurney, lord mayor of London, who was impeached for publishing the commission in the City.

Reckoned a friend by Bulstrode Whitelocke, Chute remained in London during the civil wars. He became an associate bencher at the Middle Temple in 1645. In the following year the Commons twice nominated him as a commissioner for the great seal, but the appointment was not made because of disagreement with the Lords; later on he was named as counsel for eleven MPs impeached by the army. In 1649 he defended the duke of Hamilton, and participated, along with Whitelocke and other lawyers, in meetings concerned with drawing up rules aimed at reforming proceedings in the court of chancery.

Having purchased his house, The Vyne in Hampshire, the year before, he may by 1650 have drifted away from the political scene. He married his second wife, Dorothy, the daughter of Dudley North, third Baron North, and widow of Richard Lennard, thirteenth Baron Dacre, on 28 October, and in the same year he ceased being named on the commissions of the peace for Middlesex and Westminster.

In 1651 his second and only surviving son, Challoner, who later married his stepmother's daughter, travelled abroad. In 1653 Chute declined an offer to become a commissioner of the great seal in chancery in connection with reforms put forward by the nominated assembly, claiming that he feared the post would involve too much responsibility.

Chute acted as treasurer of the Middle Temple in 1655 and 1656. Returned as knight of the shire for Middlesex in the election of 1656, he was one of several MPs who were not allowed to take their seats because they were disapproved of by the council of state. He signed the protestation published by the excluded MPs, which declared that

"When our worthy Ancestors have been met in Parliament, and have found Oppression and could not prevail to secure their Countries, Lives and Liberties by wholesome Laws, they have often made their Protestations against the Injustice and Oppression, and forewarn'd the People of their Danger." (Whitelocke, Memorials, 650)

Admitted to the second session, he served on a number of committees, including that for privileges, that for the preservation of parliamentary records, and that for attending the lord protector in connection with the public revenue. Elected again for Middlesex to Richard Cromwell's parliament that met in January 1659, Chute was unanimously chosen speaker on the first day of the session, although ‘he besought the house to think of some other person more worthy and of better health and ability to supply that place’ (DNB). In the event, by 9 March his health had declined so seriously that he was obliged to ask the Commons either to discharge him from office or grant him a leave of absence. Having been honoured with a visit from some of the members ten days later, he died on 14 April 1659.

Writing from exile on 9 May, Edward Hyde confided to a correspondent that he was sorry to hear of the death of Chute, ‘whom I have known well, and am persuaded he would never have subjected himself to that place if he had not entertained some hope of being able to serve the king’ (DNB). On the other hand, describing him as an ‘Excellent Orator, a man of great parts and generosity’ who carried weight in the house, Whitelocke noted that while many were surprised to hear that Chute appeared to have joined the party of Lord Protector Cromwell, he was convinced that he ‘heartily’ did so (Diary of Bulstrode Whitelocke, 509).

A rich man, who was able to leave legacies of £1000 to each of his daughters, Chute requested that his funeral be conducted without ostentation or ‘vaine glory’ (PROB 11/303, fol. 147). Although he asked to be buried next to his first wife at Chiswick, his will also expresses deep regard for his second wife, Dorothy, whom he was assured would ‘continue an Indulgent parent and cannot but bee an example of single vertue’ (ibid.). The tomb-room adjoining the chapel at The Vyne contains an effigy after a portrait of Chute attributed to Van Dyck.

Christopher W. Brooks

Sources DNB · HoP, Commons, 1640–60 [draft] · B. Whitelocke, Memorials of the English affairs, new edn (1732) · The diary of Bulstrode Whitelocke, 1605–1675, ed. R. Spalding, British Academy, Records of Social and Economic History, new ser., 13 (1990) · will, TNA: PRO, PROB 11/303, sig. 19 · R. North, The life of the Right Honourable Francis North, baron of Guilford (1742)

Likenesses altar tomb effigy (after Van Dyck), The Vyne, Hampshire

Wealth at death very wealthy; several houses; marriage portions of £1000 for daughters: will, TNA: PRO, PROB 11/303, sig. 19

© Oxford University Press 2004–14

Christopher W. Brooks, ‘Chute, Chaloner (c.1595–1659)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Jan 2008 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/5412, accessed 7 Feb 2014]

Chaloner Chute (c.1595–1659): doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/5412

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From The lives of the speakers of the House of Commons, from the time of King Edward III to Queen Victoria (Google eBook), by James Alexander Manning

http://books.google.by/books?id=Y8myn0GX_pAC&pg=PA336&dq=John+Cottr...

Challoner Chute, Esq.

This ancient family derives from Alexander Chute, Lord of the Manor of Taunton in Somersetshire as early as 1268, at which place the Chutes continued until the 16th century, when they removed to Wrenham in Suffolk, and subsequently purchased the beautiful seat of "The Vine" in Hampshire, long the residence of the noble family of Sandys. A junior branched seated at Surrenden and Appledore in Kent produced a gallant knight who was standard-bearer to King Henry VIII at the siege of Boulogne, and terminated with Sir George Chute of Surrenden, created a baronet in 1674, who dying issueless in 1721, that title became extinct. Another branch emigrated to Ireland, where their descendants still flourish, and claim the male representation of the family.

Challoner Chute, Esq., of The Vine, of whom we are about to treat as briefly as the short duration of his presidential career, was the son of Charles Chute, Esq., who according to Anthony Wood was also a lawyer of the Middle Temple, by Ursula, his wife, daughter of John Challoner, Esq., of Fulham in Middlesex, and the grandson of Arthur Chute, Esq., of Wrenham in Suffolk.

The subject of our memoir being destined for law, was entered of the Middle Temple, and in due time called to the bar. We have not discovered much information relative to his progress in that learned and laborious profession, but from the fact of his having been assigned as counsel for Archbishop Laud, we much presume that he had acquired the reputation of a sound lawyer, as that appointment would otherwise have appeared a mockery of justice in public estimation.

Mr. Chute lived in very eventful periods, and although several times a Parliament man, it does not appear that he entertained any of those violent opinions or principles which rendered so many of his contemporaries notorious rather than memorable. In the last Parliament of Oliver Cromwell, he sat for Middlesex; and in that short-lived Protectorship of Richard, he returned for the same county.

The manner of his election to the Office of Speaker is thus recorded. After all the members of the House had been sworn, "Sir Walter Erle rose, and put them in mind that their first work was to choose a Speaker, and there was amongst them a worthy gentleman of the long robe whom he conceived was very fitly qualified for that service. He therefore proposed Challoner Chute, Esq," who was full approved of by a general call to the chair. Mr. Chute endeavored to excuse himself on the ground of ill health and debility, as well as his want of experience of the rules and orders of the House, but, although the statement as to his bodily infirmities was unfortunately correct, the House insisted upon his taking the chair.

It is not our intention to enter at length into the proceedings of this Parliament, which met on Jan. 27, and was opened by a long and sensible speech from Richard Cromwell (much more so indeed than his friends expected from him), and a longer discourse from Mr. Commissioner Fiennes. The recognition of his title as Protector appeared to be the principal object of the former, while prayers and debates concerning the power and bounds of the House of Peers almost exclusively occupied the attention of the members until Mar. 9, when our Speaker, shortly after the sitting of the House rose and said, "that he came to the chair with a great desire to serve the House, be their sittings had been so extraordinary, and their business such, and so requiring it, that he was utterly disabled to serve them as he would for the present. That it was a great grief of mind to him to retard the public business, though but for one hour or more, as it had been this morning; that he found himself grow weaker and weaker, and therefore prayed that he might be totally discharged, or otherwise that he might have so much respite, at least, granted to him as that by the blessing of God, he might recover some better measure of health, and be enabled to return again to this service."

Mr. Chute's request having been complied with, he instantly left the house, the Serjeant with his mace attending him to his coach, and on returning brought the mace back and placed it below, under the table. It has been observed by some of the writers of that day that Mr. Chute saw the danger of the times and was sensibly affected by the daily increasing difficulties of his position arising from the total incapacity of Richard Cromwell to carry on the Government; they even went so far as to hint that timidity was the cause of his wishing to be discharged from the high office which the House had conferred upon him; but that his illness was feigned is powerfully contradicted by the fact of his death, which happened on Apr. 15, 1659, within a few weeks of retirement from office.

Noble says, "He was the most respected lawyers of his time. His last wife was Dorothy, daughter of Dudley, Lord North, the second wife and widow of Richard Lord Dacre, and sister of Francis Lord Dacre, who condescended to sit as member of Sussex in one of Oliver's Parliaments."

Our author is a little confused in this account, as he proves to be very often in genealogical matters. Mr. Chute married first Anne, daughter and co-heir of Sir John Skorey, by whom he had issue, and secondly Dorothy, daughter of Dudley, Lord North, by whom he had none. Challoner Chute, Esq., of the Vine, his eldest son and successor who sat for Devizes in the same Parliament with his father, married the Hon. Catherine Lennard, daughter of Lord Dacre, by whom he had issue a daughter Elizabeth, of whom presently, and several sons who continued the male line of the family until 1776, when upon the death of John Chute, Esq., of The Vine, that estate devolved by marriage with the heiress upon Thomas Lobb, Esq., great-grandson of our Speaker through his mother, and from his son, the Rev. Thomas Vere Chute, the estates passed to their present proprietor, William Lyde Wigget Chute, Esq., of The Vine and Pickenham Hall.

We now return to Elizabeth Chute, the granddaughter of our Speaker. This lady married Sir Charles Ludowicke Cottrell, Knt., and had issue Colonel John Cottrell, Stephen Cottrell, L.L.D. (the father of Sir Stephen Cottrell, Master of Ceremonies to the King), and the Right Rev. William Cottrell, D.D., Lord Bishop of Leighlin and Ferns. Colonel Cottrell, the eldest of the three brothers, was the direct ancestor of Charles Herbert Cottrell, Esq., of Hadley near Barnet, who is the lineal descendant and representative of our Speaker. The sister of this gentleman is married to the Rev. John Sloper of West Woodhay in Berkshire.

We cannot conclude this short memoir of the Chute family without adding a remark of Silas Taylor's that, "the name of Chute carried the memorial of the almost forgotten third nation of the Germans that conquered the Britons, and were commonly called Jutes, and after Chutes and Wights." - Harl MSS.

Arms - Gu. semee of mullets or., three swords in fesse arg. pomelled gold.

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From his English Wikipedia page (History of Parliament Biography not yet uploaded to site, Feb. 7, 2014):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaloner_Chute

Chaloner Chute (died 14 April 1659) was an English lawyer and politician who sat in the House of Commons between 1654 and 1659. He was Speaker briefly in 1659.

Chute was the son of Chaloner Chute of the Middle Temple. He was admitted to Middle Temple and was called to the bar. He developed a great reputation at the bar and was defence lawyer in several high-profile cases including Sir Edward Herbert (the king's attorney-general), Archbishop Laud, the eleven members of the House of Commons charged by Fairfax and his army as delinquents, and James Duke of Hamilton.[1]

In 1653 he bought The Vyne, the Tudor palace which is located near Sherborne St John on the outskirts of Basingstoke in Hampshire. He demolished much of the northern part of the decaying building and employed the architect John Webb, a pupil of Inigo Jones, to add the portico to the north front in the 1650s, the first of its kind on an English country house.

Chute was elected Member of Parliament for Middlesex in the Second Protectorate Parliament in 1656 (but was prevented from taking his seat). He was elected MP for Middlesex again to the Third Protectorate Parliament in 1659 and became its first Speaker.[2] However he had to stand down because of ill health and died in April.

Chute married Anne Place, widow of William Place of Dorking, Surrey and daughter of Sir John Scory of Wormesley, Herefordshire. He was succeeded by his only surviving son Chaloner.[3]

References[edit]

• 1.^ Archontology biography
• 2.^ Willis, Browne (1750). Notitia Parliamentaria, Part II: A Series or Lists of the Representatives in the several Parliaments held from the Reformation 1541, to the Restoration 1660 .... London. pp. 229–239.
• 3.^ History of Parliament Online - Chaloner Chute (his son)