Oral history of Hamilton name: In the 1200's, an ancestor affiliated with the inner court of the King was forced to flee for his life after being discovered having an affair with the Queen. He fled to to Scotland, where he adopted the name of the house or castle in England that he had been forced to abandon, Hamilton.

From a letter dated 9 JUN 1958, written by Nellie Grace McConnell Hoebeke to George Maynard Chute, Jr.:

"I wish to inquire if your mother was Grace Hamilton Chute, daughter of William Hamilton of Jackson. The Maynard I recall she married was in Toledo or Cleveland & a soap manufacturer. "Aunt" Nellie Aikens married Grace's widowed father. They were a fine family. When I was 16 or 17 I often visited there in Jackson. We just called Nellie Hamilton "aunt", she was my mother's first cousin & dearly loved. I was named for her. I loved Grace dearly, too."

"Was one of three selectmen in 1753, and filled that and other offices for years after."

Source: Chute, William Edward. 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. Salem, Massachusetts, 1894. Page 11

WEC: "Deacon of the Congregational Church. "An honest, pious, sober citizen." Died "very suddenly, of apoplexy."

"We read in the Chute Genealogies, page 15, of James Chute who was born in 1686 in what became Byfield: "He lived there more than eighty-two years, an honest, pious, sober citizen; more than half of this time deacon of the Congregational Church." According to this statement he was deacon as early as 1727. His last child was baptized January 1, 1727, as the child of simple James Chute, but this does not disprove his election as deacon the same year; but what of Dea. Daniel Jewett? The last entry of a baptism of a child of his is in 1725. We may infer that he ceased to be deacon probably through death and was succeeded by James Chute about 1727. Miss Emery says (Reminiscences of a Nonagenarian, p. 325) that the Joshua Boynton who was born in 1677 and who died in 1770 was deacon of the Byfield church for forty years, but the facts here presented show that this statement is altogether a mistake, and that he cannot have been deacon at all, for there is no question who were deacons after 1763. So the list of deacons for Mr. Hale's pastorate according to my present knowledge stands thus:
William Moody, 1706-1730.
John Cheney, 1706 ( ? )-1723 (?)
Daniel Jewett, 1723(?)-1727(?).
James Chute, 1727 ( ? ) -1763.
Samuel Moody, 1730 (? ) -1763.

Source: The Story of Byfield, John Louis Ewell.

Most of us now know that the smell of sulfur or "rotten eggs" accompanying an earthquake (if there are no pipelines nearby that might have ruptured) would be methane gas, released into the atmosphere by the ground shift. Now imagine you're an 18th century Puritan and smell what you know to be "fire and brimstone" just before the ground started shaking underneath your feet. An earthquake centered off Cape Ann, Massachusetts struck the area on October 29, 1727, the same year that James assumed his role of Deacon of the Byfield-Newbury Parish church, and his wife Mary Thurston Chute had lost their son David Chute at birth. The family's youngest living son, Daniel Chute was a little over five years old when they all heard a thundering boom from the direction of the ocean, and the earth under their feet suddenly began to move.

"American colonists responded to their next severe earthquake with something less than equanimity. The 1727 earthquake, now believed also to have been centered at sea off Cape Ann, was a brief but noisy event, beginning with �a pounce like great guns,� as a Newbury record notes.

But by the time the last aftershocks subsided, the worst reminders of a violent evening were broken stone walls and chimneys in New England and a pervading smell of sulfur, known better in those times as brimstone and widely believed to provoke earthquakes. �There�s certainly a trail of sulfur under the earth from Lima to Lisbon,� Voltaire�s demoralized Candide learned as the optimist Pangloss assessed the benefits of the Lisbon horror. The Reverend John Burt of Bristol, Rhode Island, adopted the Panglossian perspective about the American tremors. �What a happy Effect had the Earthquake in 1727,� he told his congregation, �to awaken the Secure, to reform the Vicious and to make all solicitous about their spiritual and everlasting Concerns.� Source: "The Great Earthquake", Jourdan Houston, American Heritage Magazine, August-September, 1980.

"They were no doubt driven to prayer, like all the neighboring settlements, by "The Great Earthquake" of October 29, 1727, which was most severe in this region." Source: The Story of Byfield, John Louis Ewell.

"Mary, wife of Deacon James Chute died Aug 12 1760 about 4 o'clock a.m. of fever and bloody purging, aged about 67. She was a very useful woman as a midwife; and as she lived desired, so she died much lamented." (Source: Rowley Records).

"Thomas Chute, the third brother, born January 30, 1690, was a "jack of all trades," was married December 11, 1712 to Mary Curtice, by Rev. Dr. Cotton Mather, of Boston and lived there four or five years. He then moved to and settled in Marblehead, where he lived some twenty years, a tailor, farmer and innkeeper.

September 15, 1722: "Thomas Chute, Taylor, of Marblehead sold to Annas & Thomas Trevy a lot in Marblehead for �100."

October 2, 1722: "Thomas Chute, for �100 sold a town lott to Symonds Epps in Marblehead. Witnessed by Daniel Epes, Margaret Mackie. Signed by Thomas Chute and a seal, and Daniel Epes, J.P."

August 5, 1726: Stephen Dudley of Exeter province of New Hampshire gave to Thomas Chute 250 acres of land, being part of a tract given him by Captain Peter Penniwett and Abigail his squaw, &c, &c."

August 15, 1726: Stephen Dudley of Freetown, N.H., sold to Henry Laine 50 acres, being part of a tract of land given by Captain Peter Pennevit & Abigail his squaw, dated Jan 7, 1718-9, to have & to hold the sd (said) 50 acre right to be laid next to ye right of Thomas Chewte unto him the sd Henry Laine his heirs & assigns forever &c., &c."

[Note: Col. Stephen Dudley, whoever he was, seems to have kept himself busy in the apparently lucrative 18th century "Indian real estate business" - which is to say that the terms were probably far more favorable to the buyers than they were to the "sellers", and the use of the word "given" in this context seems rather ludicrous. Nonetheless, another 'sale', describes much the same transaction: "Raymond, NH, Town of Rockingham County, was purchased of an Indian by Col. Stephen Dudley in 1717, and went by the name of Freetown, which was included in the town of Chester when incorporated Aug. 27, 1726, and until May 9, 1764, when it was set off and incorporated as Raymond, Chester voting consent thereto June 26, 1763. Boundary line between Candia and Raymond established June 23, 1848." It appears from this that Dudley gave to Thomas Chute land in Raymond, New Hampshire that he had acquired nine years earlier. Captain Peter and his wife Abigail would have most likely been a member of the Abenaki or Pennacook-Abenaki Nations of New Hampshire, whose descendants provide a history that seems a bit more realistic than Dudley's version - that he was merely the delighted beneficiary of some unexpected native generosity.]

"Accounts of Thos Chute 1725 to 1733, for shus & hos hire."

August 29, 1727: "Isaac Mansfield & Thomas Chute bo't a lot in Marblehead of Nathan Brown."

January 5, 1729: "Tho^s Chewte of Marblehead in the county of Essex in New England, Taylor, for �51, sold to Jas Waldron, Mariner, a town lot. Witnessed by: Samuel Flack, Nathan Brown, Thos Chute & seal, and Mary Chute & seal."

1735. "Thos. Chute was deputy sheriff of Essex County, Massachusetts, at Salem. About this time he concluded to move to New Marblehead, or Windham, Maine, but we find that he bought property in Marblehead of Thos. Wood in 1737. He moved to Portland that year as per the following:

1737. "Received of Thos Chute twenty shillings in part for his fraight of his household goods & family from Newbury to Falmouth. Received by me, Moses Swett, Oct. 24, 1737."

1738. "Received of Thomas Chute twenty two shillings & six pence in fish which I promise to discount with Mr. Joseph Tappin of Newbury in part for sd Chutes fraight of his goods & family from Newbury to Falmouth as witness my hand, John Swett, Falmouth now Portland, February 10, 1738."

"After that his accounts and correspondence date from Maine. One is dated, "Falmouth, ye 6, April, 1738" was for Thos Chute to pay Mr. Andrew Tuck forty-five shillings & charge it to Phinibas & Stephen Jones."

"Thomas Chute was granted land in Windham, Maine (some ten miles north of Portland), in 1735, & sold some again in 1739."

Here is an old account. Falmouth, November 4, 1760: Received of Thos Chute in Cash seventeen pounds in what we call old tenor, it being in full to balance an accompt which Tho Chutes daughter Abigail Cobham stands charged with in my book. Received by me, William Cotton."

"New Marblehead & Gorham town gave Thomas Chute power of attorney to plead for them about 1760. Signed by Curtis Chute, Rebecca Bodge, Samuel Conant, Philip Gammon and several more."

"Thomas Chute was was surveyor of highways, Falmouth, 1741-1742."

"From May 19, 1746 to Jan 19, 1748, Thomas Chute was a member of Captain George Berry's Company, Falmouth. John Bodge, Curtis Chute, William and Thomas Mayberry were in the New Marblehead Division, Sarg Thomas Chute in command."

Mary, wife of Thos. Chute (probably daughter of Benj. and Mary Curtis of Scituate), died July 30, 1762, aged seventy or seventy-one.

Thomas Chute bought land in Maine in 1763. He was town clerk of Windham, 1762-65, inclusive, and one of the selectmen 1765-66."

A publishment of marriage between Lonon and Chloe Boeth, negroes of the town of Windham, with the consent of their master, Mr. Wm. Mayberry of said town. Signed by Thomas Chute, Town Clerk, 1763."

"After being a church officer some thirty years, being aged and infirm, Mr. Chute desires release from the deaconship in 1770, and died in 1771, in his eighty-second year."

Source: Chute, William Edward. 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. Salem, Massachusetts, 1894. Pages 18-20

"Thomas L. Smith, in his "History of Windham," says that he commenced the first settlement in this town, "July 30, 1737, "and further states that Chute was born in England, in 1690". This is erroneous, as William E. Chute, in his genealogy of the family, makes him the great grandson of Lionel Chute, who was born in Dedham, England about 1580. He was by trade a "Tayler," but appears to have been a sort of general trader and kept for sale various kinds of merchandise, such as hardware, dry goods and crockery. When the present Town of Windham was granted to sixty inhabitants of old Marblehead, Mr. Chute was one of the grantees. and, in the division of lands, drew Home Lot No. 12. He soon decided to make himself a home in the new township, to which end he closed his business in Marblehead, and, in the spring of 1737, came with his family to Falmouth (now Portland), where he commenced his old business of keeping a house of entertainment and working at his trade. In the meantime. however, he was doubtless clearing some part of his land and erecting a house preparatory to removing his family to New Marblehead. He built his house on his original lot. No. 12. about twenty rods from the Presumpscot River, where the remains of his old cellar are yet to be seen. The precise date of his removal from Portland is not known, but it was doubtless either in the fall of 1737 or the spring of 1738. We think the latter date more likely to be correct, for he was then doing a fairly good business in Portland, as his old account book goes to show and his well-known forethought would have induced him to remain, at least through the winter months, in a civilized community. This, however, is simply an opinion based on the fact that Mr. Chute appears, according to the old Proprietors' book of records, as "of Falmouth" as late as March, 1738. With his usual energy, he at once cleared seven acres of land on his home lot and purchased lots 13 and 14, which adjoined his original lot No. 12. On each of these he also cleared seven acres. Mr. Chute was not only the first settler, but when others came into the township, he became the acknowledged leader and adviser of the infant colony. The church records of the first parish in Falmouth (now Portland) have this entry, in October, 1738: "Thomas Chute, Mary his wife and Abigail, their daughter, being regularly dismissed from the Marblehead church, were admitted to the one here." In December, 1743, when the church was organized in New Marblehead, he, with his wife and daughter, was dismissed to the church there. As the old record says, "He having in God's providence removed to a new settlement called New Marblehead, in order to the embodying a church there, there being a paucity of members." On Dec. 27, 1743, he was chosen Deacon of the newly-formed and weak church, in which office he remained until October, 1770, when, at his own request, he was allowed to resign, and Micah Walker was chosen to fill the office thus made vacant. When the town was incorporated in 1762, Mr. Chute was elected Clerk and served in that capacity until 1765, covering a period of four years. He was selectman in 1765 and 1766. His wife, Mary died July 30, 1762, aged 70 years; and, according to the church records, his own long and valuable life came to a close in 1771, full of years and honors." � All copyrights remain with Samuel Thomas Dole, Frederick Howard Dole and the Windham Historical Society.

"Settled: 1737 by Thomas Chute and William Mayberry, from Marblehead, Massachusetts. Once called New Marblehead, incorporated was Windham, on 12 June 1762. Thomas Chute was the first white man to settle in the town of Windham and came there in the spring of 1738. He built his house on Lot 12, about 20 rods from the Presumpscot River and the remains of the old cellar are yet to be seen. He was town clerk in 1762 to 1765 and selectman in 1765 and 1766. He was born in Byfield Parish Jan. 30, 1690 and married Dec. 11, 1712, Mary Curtice. His grandson, Thomas, married (int. Nov 22, 1782) Mary, dau. of Capt. Richard and Martha (Bolton) Mayberry. Four of their sons lived in Otisfield; Francis, William Carr, Daniel and Thomas." (For full details of the Chute family see "Windham in the Past", by Dole). [History of Otisfield, page 350]

Lionel Chute located a wonderful 10-page biography on Thomas Chute and his descendants. This biographical history was presented to the Maine Historical Society in 1882 by William Goold. Despite the wealth of detail about the family provided by someone who evidently knew Thomas Chute's grandson quite well, Goold apparently relied on Dole's History of Windham for the inaccurate detail about Thomas Chute being born in London in 1690.

THOMAS CHUTE, the first settler of Windham, was born in London in 1690, and emigrated to Marblehead, Massachusetts, previous to 1725. The first charge in his carefully kept book of accounts bears that date. He notes that he raised his house on the twenty-ninth of February, 1729. He kept a house of entertainment, and sold all kinds of drinks - toddy, wines, flip¹, and the like, and often charged his customers for melting his pewter pots. There was very little money in circulation which compelled the charging of the smallest articles which were finally paid for in barter. The wealthiest people did not hesitate to have a grog score in the public house in what Chute called his "drink book," and when it became large enough it became a debtor item in his account book. He also dealt in other kinds of merchandise, hardware, dry goods and crockery. He was also a tailor, making up his own clothes and those brought to him by his customers. He also made suits of colors for vessels, and has on the cover of the book the quantity of bunting of each color required for an ensign, and for a suit - British of course.

¹"Flip": "Prior to the eventual move by early mixologists to ice-filled cocktails in the mid-19th century, warm drinks were the rule, not the exception, in the taverns and inns that serviced the eastern seaboard colonies. The drinks themselves were often peculiar, if not downright dubious. These mixtures were heated to a froth with red-hot irons with bulbous ends (known as flip irons, hottles or loggerheads) that were routinely kept in the perpetually blazing fireplaces of the colonies' eating and drinking establishments. In fact, the now familiar expression of "coming to loggerheads," which implies a state of argumentative disagreement, was born in America's colonial taverns because the irons could likewise be wielded as a blunt instrument of persuasion in a dispute between multiple parties.". Source, Pacult, F. Paul, Beverage & Food Dynamics, January/February 1999. URL: http://www.beveragenet.net/bd/1999/0199/199hot.asp.

Chute soon became the owner of buildings which he rented. In 1730 a barber is charged with half a year's shop rent, six pounds, and on the opposite page is credited with the "curling of his wig," and "half a years shaving 1 0 shilling," also, for "a wig for his son," and "shaving his head to receive it." He also had a horse to let, often "double," that was for two persons to ride on his back at the same time. He sometimes let his chaise to go to Boston. This was a pleasure vehicle that was very rare in those days.

In 1733 Mr. Chute was appointed deputy sheriff by Benjamin Marston, high sheriff of Essex County and we have his original commission. A large part of his book is taken up with charges for the service of writs. The high sheriff was entitled to a share of the fees which compelled the deputy to keep a book separate, with the sheriff, in which each writ is entered; we have that, also, from which we learn that in the four years which he held the office he served nearly one thousand writs, besides other precepts. Mr. Chute served writs for Wm. Shirley, who was afterwards appointed governor of the province. The first charge to him is in 1733. His biographers have it that he did not come from England until two years later.

James Bowdoin, subsequently governor of the state, Brigadier Waldo, and Andrew and Peter Faneuil, are charged with the service of writs in Essex County. In the book the name of Faneuil is spelt Funel - the same as it is on the family tomb in the Granary burying-ground.

By his book Chute seems to have served occasionally as an attorney as well as deputy sheriff, and did not hesitate to treat the jury and witnesses. The following charges were made in 1735:

This was Jeremiah Gridley of Boston, who afterwards became the king's attorney. One pound for attending court at Salem and making a plea seems at this time a very small fee for one of Gridley's ability and celebrity. The next charge is:

To cash to treat ye jury after they gave ye cause in favor of you .... 10 shillings

At the Ipswich term in the following October, in another case for the same client, there is a similar charge for treating the jury, and another for treating "ye witnesses."

In 1733 Sheriff Marston is charged for cash paid for whipping John Barnor, and for putting him in jail.

Soon after the treaty with the Indians in 1727², it was decided by the provincial government to survey a second or back tier of townships, between Salmon Falls River and the Androscoggin, and offer them to settlers on very easy terms. For nearly a century the old towns had formed a single line between the ocean and the wilderness, and never were a people's prudence and heroism more severely tried by the Indian enemy. Four new townships were granted: one of which was New Marblehead, now Windham, on the petition of inhabitants of old Marblehead in Essex County.

²Treaty of 1727: negotiation for peace at the conclusion of Dummer's War between the English and the Akenabi Confederacy of Maine/Massachusetts, signed at Casco Bay, that resulted from European land encroachment. The Akenabi, represented by Panaouamskeyen, strongly objected to the wording of a treaty which did not represent their words or intent during negotiations with Boston colonists. Panaouamskeyen dictated a document clarifying his actual words and intent after the treaty, which can be read here. The English translation of Panaouamskeyen's clarification can also be found in: DAWNLAND ENCOUNTERS: Indians and Europeans in Northern New England, Colin G. Calloway, University Press of New England, 1991, 0-87451-594-7 (Pg.115-118). As is true in most conflicts, the English were not the only combattants whose "prudence and heroism were severely tried."

Thomas Chute was one of the original grantees of the township, and was chosen one of a committee of three to accompany the committee of the General Court in the location and survey of the township, which was begun in April, 1735. In the distribution of lots Chute drew home lot number twelve. He soon decided to make himself a home in the new township. After closing his business in Essex County he, with his family, came to Falmouth in the spring of 1737. The last entry in his book in Marblehead is under date of April twenty-fifth. He did not immediately go to the new township, but remained in Falmouth, where he commenced his old business of keeping a house of entertainment and working at his trade. His book contains charges against many of the leading men of the town, Rev. Mr. Smith, Col. Thomas Westbrook, and Moses Pearson, for whom in 1738 he made" a plush coat and britches trimmed with silver lace." From his account we learn that Mr. Pearson kept an Indian boy, who wore a red jacket, and a negro, both of whom wore leather breeches. The church record of the first parish in Falmouth, in October. 1738, has this entry:-

Thomas Chute, Mary his wife, and Abagail, their daughter, being regularly dismissed from Marblehead church, were admitted to the one here.

While living at Falmouth, Chute had been preparing for a new home in the new township, ten miles off. The precise date of his removal to New Marblehead is not known. His first charge in the book there is against Rev. John Wight, the first minister of the town, for twenty-nine week's board. He was ordained and settled in the town in December, 1743, and Chute and his family were dismissed from the Falmouth church and recommended to that at New Marblehead.

Mr. Chute in his new home became the first settler of the township. His house was near the shore of Presumpscot river, which was the best highway to Saccarappa, three miles off, where his nearest neighbors lived. The settlers in the new tier of towns were really picket sentinels for the coast towns - sure to be attacked first in the event of an Indian war. In 1743, in expectation of a French and Indian war, the General Court of the Province appropriated twelve hundred pounds for the defense of the eastern settlements, of which one hundred pounds was assigned to New Marblehead. This was expended by a committee of the legislative council in building a fort of square timber two stories high and fifty feet on the sides, with flankers of twelve feet square at the two diagonally opposite corners. These flankers each contained a mounted swivel gun, furnished by the proprietors of the township, and a long nine-pound gun was mounted in front of the fort to fire as an alarm gun. This was furnished by the Province, and the whole work was enclosed by a palisade. This fort was built in February and March, 1743. In the same book already quoted, Mr. Chute charged for the labor of himself, his son, and his hired man, on the fort to the amount of sixteen pounds and six shillings, and in December of the same year, he credited the Province, by the hands of the committee, one hundred and fifty pounds old tenor, to balance the charge of sixteen pounds and ten shillings lawful money. Mr. Chute continued his habits of thrift in the new town. Besides the clearing of bis farm he hauled masts to the river and furnished the settlers with goods of different kinds, made their clothes and entertained them with drinks. His neighbors probably gathered at his house after the labors of the day, to hear from the outside world, from some one who had been to town, as the settlement at Falmouth Neck was called, and some treated in their turn.

Moses Pearson continued his custom to Chute's house after he removed to New Marblehead. It was a half-way house on his way to Pearsontown, now Standish. He often stayed over night. Here is a sample of Chute's charges to him," To a bowl of toddy and oats for ye horse." The same year is this charge:

"To one mug of flip when your son Freeman came from logging." This was Joshua Freeman, his son-in-law, who lived where Jeremiah Dow now does on Grove Street. Rev. Dr. Deane married another of Pearson's daughters, and fled to Freeman's when the town was burnt in 1775. In 1749 Mr. Chute attended the General Court at Boston seventy-three days as agent to defend the inhabitants against Capt. Daniel Hill's petition: but there is no intimation in the book what was the purport of the petition. In 1751 John Frost of Kittery, justice of the Court of General Sessions, issued a warrant to Chute as "one of the principal inhabitants," to warn them to assemble for the choice of officers, according to an act of the General Court. This warrant is among the papers. In 1762 the town was incorporated by the name of Windham, and Mr. Chute was the town clerk from that year until 1766, when he was chosen selectman, and charged for eight days' work, making "town, county and province rates." Mr. Chute died in 1770 aged eighty years. His descendants can be numbered by hundreds. He had an only son, Curtis, who had lived with the father but was killed by lightning. In Parson Smith's Journalof 1767, June 5, is this entry: -

Curtis Chute and one young man were killed in an instant by the lightning at the Widow Gooding's- Harrison and others hurt, and near being killed, and the house near being destroyed also.

Curtis Chute was a selectman, and in the town clerk's book of records of Windham is the following vote recorded in town meeting: -

Voted, that Peter Cobb be selectman and assessor this year in the room of Curtis Chute, who was killed by the thunder June ye third at Falmouth.

Thomas Chute had two daughters; Sarah married John Bodge of Windham, and was drowned in 1776. Abigail married Cobham.

Curtis Chute, who was killed at Falmouth left a widow and five children. She seems to have been a business woman, and carried on the homestead farm, continued the old family book of accounts, and reared her four sons to be useful and respectable citizens. Josiah, Thomas and James were in the army of the Revolution. John was selectman in 1806. He continued to live on his grandfather's farm until about 1830, when he moved to Naples and opened a public house at the foot of Long Pond, where he died in 1857, aged ninety years. He was father of John Chute, the second cashier of Casco Bank. A daughter married a Mr. Church, who continued the public house. Josiah Chute, the son of Curtis, and a grandson of the first Thomas, was born June fourth, 1759. At the commencement of the Revolution, he was sixteen years old. He enlisted in the army and served two years, but I do not learn with what body of troops he served. On his discharge he again enlisted in a company under Capt. Richard Mayberry of Windham. I have the muster-master's book of records which has Chute's name and that of his brother Thomas, and says they were mustered with their company January 21, 1777. From his former service Josiah was appointed a sergeant and clerk of the company. The muster-master's book says the company was attached to the regiment under Col. Francis. It became the fifth company of the eleventh regiment of the Massachusetts Bay forces and was in the left wing of the army under Gen. Gates in the campaign of 1777, which ended in the capture of Burgoyne at Saratoga in October.

My own great-grandfather, Nathan Noble, belonging to Capt. John Skilling's Falmouth and Scarborough company, was killed by a musket shot in his head while entering the British works alongside of Capt. Mayberry's company just before the surrender. He had fought for the English at Louisburg thirty-two years before in the" Canada Expeditions" of 1757, 1758 and 1759 and now was killed by an English bullet. He also served in Capt. Winthrop Boston's company at the siege of Boston in 1776.

Chute was not at the surrender of Burgoyne. He was wounded at the battle of Hubbardton, July seventh, three months previous, when he received a musket ball in his shoulder, and his commander, Col. Francis was killed by his side while enquiring about Chute's wound. He was taken prisoner and put into a hospital tent, from which he and another made their escape and were two weeks in the woods before they got to a friendly settlement and finally reached his home. After the healing of his wound which required two years, he returned to his regiment and having only one month more to serve he obtained his discharge which I have. It is written in the book of his own muster-roll. It reads thus: ----

Sergeant Josiah Chute of the Eleventh Massachussetts regiment having been reported as a faithful soldier who has been wounded in battle, and thereby rendered unfit for duty, has leave of absence from the camp until the first day of January next, in the year 1780. As Major Knap has reported that the time for which said Chute engaged to serve in the army, will expire on the said first day of January next, he is not required to again join his regiment, but to receive this as a discharge from the army of the United States of America, as fully as if given after his time of service had expired.

Mr. Chute was then twenty-one years of age. He came home to his widowed mother with his depreciated Continental money in his pocket, with which he was paid off, which was of small value, but he had good pluck; he commenced the ordinary business of his life as if nothing had happened. He engaged in farming, school teaching, and town business. He was selectman twenty years, between 1788 and 1816. He was representative to Massachusetts General Court ten years, 1805-12 and 1817-20. He was a delegate from his town to the convention that formed the constitution of Maine in 1819. He was much respected by his townsmen. The centennial of the incorporation of Windham occured in 1862. In response to an invitation from the citizens of the town, Gov. John A, Andrew of Massachusetts, a native of Windham, left his pressing business of sending forward troops to the army, and on the Fourth of July he delivered a centenial address to his former fellow citizens. In that address he alluded to Josiah Chute and another - his fellow soldier, in these words:-

But I must mention two men who never should be omitted�these two soldiers of the Revolution, Josiah Chute and John Swett: venerable when first I knew them, yet intelligent and active. Many times and oft, on a pleasant morning like this, have I rode with my mother and listened to the story of events in which they played a part. You know how warmly glows every emotion of the heart when we return to the old family hearthstone. So long as memory bears the recollections of childhood, so long as the earth of Windham is consecrated by the sacred dust of one [his mother] whom no fortunes of life can cause me to forget -so long will her interests and people be near and dear to my affectionate memories.

Mr. Chute's son, George W., remained at home, and smoothed his father's pillow in his last days, when the British bullet, which he had carried fifty-five years, caused him pain.

This son, true to the original stock, was a valuable citizen, and spent his life on the father's farm. Here he substantially walled up a family burial lot, and also a larger one adjoining, which he presented to the town for public use. He died a bachelor, on the twenty-third of November 1882, aged seventy-seven years. By his will he set aside one thousand dollars, to be expended by his executors in the erection of two similar marble monuments in the family burial lot: one to be inscribed to the memory of Thomas Chute, his great-grandfather, and the other to his own memory.

While I was preparing Mr. Chute's will, as he had no descendants, he expressed a wish that I would accept these family mementoes, his great-grandfather's books and papers including the commission as deputy sheriff, one hundred and fifty years old, and his father's muster-rolls of December, 1778. One has his discharge at Peekskill on the back. The other is dated at West Point, January 1,1779. They are probably duplicates. He authorized me to dispose of them as I thought best for their safe keeping. The rolls are very valuable. Of course it occurred to me that the library of the Maine Historical Society was the proper place for them, where they would he safe and accessible to all. Accordingly I now present them to the Society without reserve.

"The grant of this township was made in 1734 to Abraham Howard, Joseph Blaney, and fifty-eight other citizens of Marblehead. The township consequently took the name of New Marblehead. In 1762 it was incorporated as Windham, the name being the same as that of a town in Norfolk County, England. Capt. Thomas Chute felled the first tree, and in 1737 built of logs the first house on the banks of the Presumpscot. A meeting-house was erected in 1740. The surface of the town is uneven, though there are no lofty hills. The soil is loamy and easily worked. In the southern pai-t are inexhaustible quarries of granite. Perhaps it was this part of the town that Whitefield looked upon late in the autumn of 1744 or 1745, and exclaimed, "Pray where do they bury their dead?"

Source: Varney, George J. A Gazetteer of the State of Maine, B. B. Russell, 57 Cornhill, Boston, Publishers. 1882. Page 592.

"Abigail, b. June 7, 1718; m. ______ Cobham, in Me; had two or three daughters; she was living in 1799."

Source: Chute, William Edward. 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. Salem, Massachusetts, 1894, p. 18

"Born in Rowley, Mass., June, 1720; doubtless grew up to manhood there; about 1740 crossed the Merrimack River, and at Timberlane, since called Hampstead (ten miles north of Haverhill), in Rockingham Co, N. H.; married Nov. 26, 1745, Judith, daughter of Benjamin and Sarah (Woodward) Foster.

In a petition signed by thirty-three residents of Haverhill district, not to be joined with Kingstown, province of New Hampshire, are John Chute and Benjamin Philbrick, Oct. 16, 1746 (Volume IX, p. 362, Town Papers.)

Petition of persons in Haverhill district not to be joined with Kingstown. Province of New Hampshire To his Excelency Benning Wintworth Esq. Governor and Commander in Cheif In and over his Majisties Province of New Hampshire In New England and To the honorable his Majesties Councils of said province

The petition of Jeremiah Eaton, John Kezar and others � The Subscribers who live In Haverhill Destrict and on the Norwest side of the Washpond brook.

Humbly sheweth :

That sometime agoe your petitioners together with others to agreat number of Haverhill destrict and some of Amsbery Humbly requested your Excellency and honors to Incorporate them into a town ship according to the meets and bounds defined in the petition,
And your Exelency and honours so far Incouraged us as to send a committee to view our situation and circumstances who accordingly haveing attended that Service made their report, But it so hapned that when our committee waited upon your Excelency and honours Expecting to receive a charter of Incorporation acording to the return of said Committee the sudden news of a french fleet on the coasts so alarmed the Government that your Excelency and honers were obliged to imply all your thoughts and powers for the defence of the province and Lay aside that afair with all other Business to a further day �
That as we are informed the town of Kingstown who have been of late indeavering to Extirpate us from the Earth did on the 26th of September last set us of together with some few others who call themselves Kingstown men into a parish,
Thereby further indeavouring to vex grieve hurt and Iniure us who had many of us much rather be lead into Captivity By some Christian nation than be Joynd with them who are our Greatest adversaries under a pretence that wee are part of Kingston when in fact wee and our anchestors have possesd our lands as part of Haverhill for more than one hundred years past, and since the settlement of the line have allways been accounted Haverhill destrict men and paid rates accordingly.
Wee therefore humbly and earnestly request your Exelency and Honers to compasenate our Surcumstances and not suffer us to be rent and torn to peices by our inveterate Kingston adversaries but will aford us releif by Joyning us with our Dear Christian friends relations and neibeurs of haverhill Destrict according to our petition with them & as soon as may be Incorporated Into a township �
That so wee may have the Gospel setled amongst us and your humble petitioners as In Haverhill Destrict for your Exelency and honours duty bound shall ever pray & c. 13th October 1746.

David Heath
William Heath
Joseph Stevens, Jr
Jeremiah Eatton
John Kezar
Samuel Stevens
David Stevens
Benjamin Stevens
John Stevens
Nehemiah Stevens
Wait Stevens
Stephens Johnson, Jun.
John Muzzey
John Hunkins
John Johnson
William Hancock
Joseph Stevens
Michael Johnson
Tho. Stevens
William Easman
Daniel Robands
John Mills
Daniel Johnson
John Atwood
Zachariah Johnson
Joseph Little
John Chute
Daniel Little
Thomas Mills
Phillip M^Carrygon
Beniamin Philbrick
James Mills

Source: Town Papers. Documents and Records relating to Towns in New Hampshire, with an Appendix, Embracing the Constitutional Conventions of 1778-1779 and of 1781-1783 and the State Constitution of 1784. Published by Authority of the Legislature of New Hampshire, Vol IX. Compiled and Edited by Nathaniel Bouton, D. D., Correspondence Secretary of the New Hampshire Historical Society, Concord, New Hampshire, Charles C. Pearson, State Printer, 1875. Pages 361-362.

"John Chuet or Chute was one of the highway surveyors in Hampstead, New Hampshire in 1756 and with John Beard "tything men" 1757. In 1759, he moved to Granville, Annapolis County, Nova Scotia and settled on a farm a mile below Bridgetown, and there for more than thirty years led a life of industry, sobriety and piety, as a farmer, blacksmith, and pioneer Baptist in that province. He died Nov., 1791; his wife died Nov., 1808 i her eighty-third year"

Source: Chute, William Edward. 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. Salem, Massachusetts, 1894. Pages 20-22.

It has been assumed that the move to Nova Scotia was part of a loyalist sentiment on John's part, but the dates of his move do not support that. A good 20 years or so remained before the American Colonies began their bid for independence; a war with, and independence from, Great Britain would have been unthinkable at this point. The dates of his move do coincide with the desire on the part of Great Britain to settle the province of Nova Scotia with British subjects following the expulsion of the French Acadian settlers in 1755, possibly one of the more well-known acts of British cruelty, commemorated in Longfellow's Evangeline. From the perspective of the colonists, they had won the recent battle with France and were, as a reward for their victory, being offered land in the newly won territory. The great influx of loyalists would not begin until 1783 and was largely over by 1791, the year he died. John would have been an established resident of Nova Scotia for 24 years when the first wave of loyalist refugees from the revolt arrived; his children born there were already adults.

Interestingly enough, there was considerable friction between the existing residents of Nova Scotia and the refugees. The population of Nova Scotia tripled overnight, and the influx of loyalist refugees was a tremendous drain on the country's resources. There was also a problem of conflicting political attitudes. In today's phrasing, the newly arriving loyalists believed quite strongly that they should be recompensed in full by Great Britain for their losses and suffering incurred at the hands of the patriots; the residents of Nova Scotia thought they should get over themselves and work for a living, like everyone else in the province, resenting the land which had been parceled out for the refugees - when they, who had been loyal all along, had never been rewarded for it by being handed plots of land. When Great Britain failed to meet loyalist expectations of reward for their loyalty, and when American anti-loyalist sentiment had cooled, the bulk of them returned to the United States, leaving huge settlements in Nova Scotia, such as Shelburne, abandoned.

Notes W.A. Calnek: "The Chutes are of pre-loyalist date, and a branch of their family settled here at an early period. Thomas Chute, one of the early settlers of Granville, married Sybil, the eldest sister of the late Andrew Marshall (my maternal grandfather), and bore him a very large family, the members ,of which and their descendants are domiciled in various places in the Province, but most generally in this county. (p. 256)

CHUTE. All the numerous family of Chute in this and the neighboring counties are descended from John CHUTE, who was born at Byfield, in Rowley, Mass., June, 1792, and married at Timberlane, now Hampstead, N.H., Judith, dau. of Benjamin and Sarah Foster, a sister of the Isaac and Ezekiel who founded the Nova Scotia families of Foster. He was great-great-grandson of Lionel Chute, the noted school-teacher of the infant town of Ipswich, who came over from Dedham, Essex County, England, in 1634, and was of a family that came over with William the Conqueror. Baron Le Chute commanded a regiment of Norman troops at the battle of Hastings. John Chute came here in 1759 and was probably the first artificer in iron to settle in Granville. The lot he settled on was in recent times still occupied by the late Dimock Chute in his lifetime. He died November, 1791. The County of Annapolis in every section owes much to the thrift and energy of the descendants of John Chute.

Source: Calnek, W. A., History of the County of Annapolis, William Briggs Co., Publisher, Toronto. 1897. Facsimile edition printd by Mika Publishing Company, Belleville, Ontario, Canada. 1980

xi Ruth, b. 1765; d. single, 1856.

Source: Chute, William Edward. 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. Salem, Massachusetts, 1894. Page cii. Allied Families: Hicks.