Henry Shute

Henry SHUTE 1655-1722

Biographical Note

Son of John Shute of Kilmersdon, Somerset. Matriculated at Wadham College, Oxford, 1674; B.A. 1678. He gained an M.A. from Pembroke Hall, Cambridge in 1682, was ordained in 1693, and was Vicar of Great Finborough and Stowmarket, Suffolk 1685-9, and curate of St Andrews, Holborn, London from 1706. He was one of the first members of the SPCK in 1698 and its first treasurer until his death.

Books

A parochial library had been established in 1711 at St Peter and St Paul, Kilmersden by the Bray Trustees (Perkin pp. 252-3); Shute’s will of 1719 shows that he was closely involved with it, bequeathing to the vicar and schoolmaster ‘so many of my Books as shall be found to have a small print pasted on the backside of the Title page or elsewhere containing these words or to this effect (belonging to the parochial Library of Kilmersden in Somersetshire) to be placed by them in the Library … which … I have caused to be sett up in the North Easte Isle of the Parish Church’. He enjoined visitatorial inspection to ensure the library be ‘carefully preserved’.

His engraved armorial bookplate (‘Henricus Shute, AM’) dated 1703 is in the Franks Collection (*342).

Sources

• Will of Henry Shute, The National Archives, PROB 11/589/138.
• CCEd Clergy of the Church of England Database.
• Alumni Oxonienses 1500-1714.
• Allen, W. O. B and E. McClure. Two hundred years: the history of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1698-1898. London, 1898.
• Gambier Howe, E. R. J. Franks bequest: catalogue of British and American book plates bequeathed to the ... British Museum. London, 1903-4.
• Perkin, M. R. A directory of the parochial libraries of the Church of England and the Church in Wales. London, 2004.