Sir George Chute [55858]

  General Notes:

http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~chute/gp690.htm#head4


George Chute and Eleanor Toke Chute:

In recording the Sir George's burial in the Parish Register the Vicar, the Rev. Robert Cole (to whom Sir George had left £2) broke into verse:

"Goe sleepe Sir George.
Where's such another
Can equall thee?
or th' Squire thy brother?"

It appears that Sir George and his father-in-law Nicholas Toke of Godinton shared similar Royalist views during this period of time.
Francis Chute quotes "Pearman in A.C." for the following summary of Sir George's political views in that he
"was an ardent Royalist, he delivered the Kentish Petition for the restoration of Bishops, etc., which raised the wrath of Parliament. In 1642/3 Resolution made that George Chute now in the Sarjeant's custody be discharged from further restraint, and ordered that he shall be bailed".
Francis Chute, The Chutes of the Vyne, 2005, ppg 189-190.
The author of the Toke family records, Mr. Leslie Toke, strangely makes no mention of the imprisonment of his son-in-law, the man he refers to his own records, as "my sonne". However, he does speculate on Nicholas' royalist leanings:
"Born in 1588, Nicholas Toke had a long life and it would appear a very active one, though it was chiefly spend in the management of his own estate. The tradition of the family maintains that he was a Royalist and that he fought on Charles' side in the Civil War. He certainly held the office of Sheriff of Kent in the year 1662-3 and he had occupied no post of local authority under the Commonwealth - a possible though not positive indication of Royalist sympathies; but on the other hand, there is much reason to doubt the supposition that he was an active participator in the struggle. So important a landholder in the county of Kent could hardly have escaped the sequestration of his estates had he actually supported the King and his name does not appear among the lists drawn up of Kentish Royalists, nor is he entered as compounding for his property in the records of the Committee for compounding or for the advance of money."
The Account Book of a Kentish Estate 1616-1704. Toke Family Representative, Mr. Leslie Toke. Records maintained by Nicholas Toke of Godinton and Descendants.

Portraits of George Chute and Eleanor Toke were auctioned in 2004.

(Right) The dual portraits of George Chute <gp690.htm> and Eleanor Toke Chute. These may have been the portraits described by Francis Chute in The Chutes of the Vyne,
"A portrait of George and Eleanor was loaned to the National Portrait Gallery in 1866 by Wm. Wiggett Chute. The picture had disappeared from the Vyne before the 1956 inventory. (Pearman in AC says it was at Godinton, the Toke family home, in 1889; there is no sign of it there now.)"
Is this is the same portrait - or a different set of portraits? They are described as follows:
"Circle of Daniel Mytens (Dutch, 17th century) Oil on canvas Portrait of George Chute of Bethersden (1611-1651), half-length wearing a black and white doublet with lace cuffs and collar, in a landscape, 74cm x 59cm; together with a companion portrait of Eleanor Toke, daughter of 'The Captain' and wife of George Chute, wearing an embroidered gown with lace cuffs and collar, a pearl necklace and pendant, holding a feather fan, in landscape, 70cm x 54cm; both in carved giltwood frames. The portrait of Lady Chute is featured in the picture "The Last Day in the Old Home" and is attributed to Daniel Mytens. Provenance: Exhibition of Old Masters from Houses of Kent, 11 June - 8th July, label verso Estimate - 4000-6000."
"The Last Day in the Old Home" is a painting made in 1862 by Robert Braithwaite Martineau (1826-1869). There is a link to a larger version of the painting (below), but it appears that the Eleanor Toke Chute portrait is in the top left corner, to the right of the window. The description reads:

"This work is typical of the moralising pictures of contemporary social life that were popular in Victorian art. The Pulleyne family has been forced to sell the ancestral home, Hardham Court, and its contents, thanks to the irresponsible behaviour of a feckless spendthrift, indicated by the betting book and the dice box. A sale catalogue on the floor to the right shows that the house is to be auctioned. The frame is decorated with a victor's laurel wreath and a fool's cap and bells, and the dates 1523 and 1860. These symbolise the changing character of a family brought low by foolishness."
That painting is on exhibit at Tate Britain, in Room 13: British Art 1500 -1900: Victorian Paintings of Modern Life. Tate Britain is located on the north bank of the River Thames at Millbank, south west of the city centre and not far from the Houses of Parliament.
The painting can also be viewed on line at <http://www.tate.org.uk/servlet/ViewWork?workid=9352&roomid=3451>.
Does anyone else want to venture a guess as to why Martineau chose to use a portrait of Eleanor Toke Chute as the ancestral portrait for the family depicted in the painting as "brought low by foolishness"? Was it a deliberate reference to the Tokes or the Chutes? Out of all of the portraits in the painting, hers is is the most visible and recognizeable in the background. Any Chute art historians out there? It might be interesting to follow the paper trail on these portraits - how and when did they go from the Vyne to the National Portrait Gallery to Godinton - and then to the auction block?


Record Type: Chute Family History/Book
Title: A Genealogy and History of the Chute Family in America: With Some Account of the Family in Great Britain and Ireland, with an Account of Forty Allied Families Gathered from the Most Authentic Sources
Author: William Edward Chute
Published: Salem, Massachusetts, 1894
Comments: Copy originally owned by George Maynard Chute, nephew of William Edward Chute with his signature on the flyleaf; handwritten notes in margins; passed to George Maynard Chute, Jr. who published an updated addendum to this work in 1968; passed to George Maynard Chute, III; passed to Jacqueline Irene Chute.
Location: Privately held


Type: Book
Title: A Genealogical History of the Dormant, Abeyant, Forfeited and Extinct Peerages of the British Empire, New edition
Author: Burke, Sir John Bernard
Publishing Date: 1883
Publisher: Harrison; London, Great Britain
Cited as Source: Ringener Family, Sandra Ringener
URL: <http://awt.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=:865878&id=I3364>
HARD COPY LOCA: Chute Family Records/GP890-4

Type: Book
Title: The account book of a Kentish Estate, 1616-1703
Author: Eleanor C. Lodge, Editor
Source: Account Book of Toke, Nicholas; in the possession of Leslie Toke
Date of Publication: 1927
Publishers: Published for the British Academy by Humphrey Milford, Oxford University Press
GROUP NO: Chute Family Records/Allied Familes/Toke

Record Type: Book
Title: The Chutes of the Vyne
Author: Francis Challoner Chute
Publication Date: 2005
Publisher: Woodfield Publishing Group
Purchase URL: Woodfield Publishing Company <http://www.woodfieldpublishing.com/index.html?target=p176.html&product=P176&lang=en-uk>
GROUP NO: Chute Family Records/Library

George married Eleanor Toke [55859] [MRIN: 551614712], daughter of Captain Nicholas Toke [55860] and Margaret Knatchbull [55863]. (Eleanor Toke [55859] was born in 1616 in Godwinton, Kent, England and died in Bethersden, Kent, England.)