Anthony Chute [56488]

  General Notes:

http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~chute/gp690.htm#head2



Anthony Chewte/Chute:

Anthony Chewte, the Poet
Anthony Chewte, for all his questionable choices in life, seems to have endeared himself to Chutes on both sides of the Atlantic. Francis Chute, in his Chutes of the Vyne researched Anthony's role in the feud between Thomas Nashe and Gabriel Harvey, and, in his section, "Flogging the Dead Poet" (pages 134-135), finds Anthony "endearingly human"; a fully qualified member of the "Not Very Good at Anything Club". After reading about Anthony and the slander he endured posthumously from the rather vicious Nashe - you can't help but feel a certain affection for him.

Lionel Chute located a portion of the text of "Beawtie Dishonor'd" in Collectanea Anglo-Poetica or A Bibliographical and Descriptive Catalogue of a Portion of a Collection of Early English Poetry With Occasional Extracts and Remarks Biographical and Critical, which ahd several pages devoted to Anthony Chute. The Rev. Thomas Corser, Rector of Stand, Lancashire and Vicar of Norton, Northhamptonshire, wrote the commentary which appears between stanzas and before and after the poem excerpts. The resulting discussion on the poem can be found in the section devoted to "Beawtie Dishonor'd" <beawtie.htm>:
Anthony Chewte, The Tobacco Enthusiast
We North Americans often have a rudimentary history stashed somewhere in our minds: after Christopher Columbus sailed bravely across the Atlantic, everyone else followed in an orderly fashion, and here we are. Actually, the century following Columbus's discovery was filled with bumbling, foolhardy, badly planned trips across the Atlantic, most of which ended in disaster, long before anyone got the nerve to actually settle here. A long line of Englishmen set sail with not enough provisions, or lost their provision ships in bad weather, or were grounded in shallow water through poor navigating and then lost their provisions. Most limped home in shame, some never returned at all. Sailors grumpily refused to make the voyage; many thought these wild shores teeming with 'savages' undesirable. Especially as those same "savages" were besting them rather ferociously, in a military capacity, for quite some time.
For example, in 1536, forty-four years after Columbus arrived in the Americas and thirty-nine years after John Cabot discovered North America, an Englishman, Richard Hore, got the idea to capture a North American native and parade him around Tudor London. One of his predecessors had already brought back a Brazilian, which had astonished King Henry VIII. However, the only natives they were able to spot outwitted them and escaped in their canoe, and Hore returned empty handed and in debt, but not before his men had starved so badly they resorted to cannibalism and began to eat each other before being rescued by passing French vessel. This horrified London to such an extent that for next 25 years there were no officially sanctioned voyages to North America. In 1578 Sir Humprey Gilbert tried again, though he forgot to check the boats for seaworthiness, and none of his ships made it much further than Falmouth - the British Falmouth, that is, not the American.
One ship, however, was captained by Sir Walter Raleigh, who later so captivated the new Queen Elizabeth that she gifted him with money, homes, jewels and enough funding to venture across the ocean once again. Raleigh was much better organized than his predecessors and his ships actually made it to North America, where he planned to create a colony. The English weren't generally receptive to the idea of sending their civilized selves to this untamed country, but were forced to concede that, if they didn't, the land would fall to the Spanish, who were already systematically enslaving, murdering, torturing and infecting the native population of Central and South America in huge numbers. Besides, they thought, as it was obvious they weren't going to get much revenue doing business with the North American natives, sailing across the Atlantic would at least give them a real source of revenue: that is, pirating the Spanish ships and confiscating their loot. The disappearance of Raleigh's first colony, in Roanoke, is the subject of much debate and speculation and won't be discussed here. But the Spanish, meanwhile, had discovered a new plant, "tobacco", which they were transporting back to Europe. The new plant immediately captivated the population of Europe, first because it was a new and interesting herbal specimen from the new world, but secondly - and perhaps more importantly - because it was addicting.
The plant was introduced in France in 1556, in Spain and Portugal in 1558, and, finally, to England in 1564 or 1565, where it immediately became the subject of an intense interest and discussion.
The first English book on the subject, Tabaco. The distinct and Severall opinions of the late and best Phisitions that have written of the divers natures and qualities thereof was published by Anthony Chewte in 1595, although anonymously. His relations may at first glance wonder why he chose such a topic; the answer is that he chose it because it was relevant, interesting and being hotly debated at the time. It was probably fortuitous that he did so anonymously, as King James I (1603-1625), who suceeded Elizabeth eight years later despised Sir Walter Raleigh, and everything he stood for - which included colonizing the Americas and importing tobacco. King James wrote a scathing treatise on the subject of tobacco, complaining of the habit, which was rather odd for a man who also complained about the habit of bathing, never washed and spent much time scratching himself and playing with his codpiece when nervous.
It isn't clear if Anthony published it anonymously initially - after all, Queen Elizabeth had no problem with tobacco - or if he quickly (and wisely) decided to erase his name from the author's page after King James succeeded to the throne. After all, it was James whose dislike of Sir Walter Raleigh was so passionate that he had him imprisoned for treason and scheduled for execution. A treatise supporting Raleigh's position on the benefits of tobacco and disputing that of the reigning monarch might have earned Anthony the same view from behind bars in the Tower of London that Raleigh had; it could be that he hastily disavowed all claim to and knowledge of his own publication for a time. It might be interesting to see if records of correspondence exist between the writer and his publisher (listed as "Adam Islip for William Barlow, 1595") in a British collection somewhere.
©The Chute Family, 2003

Anthony had apparently discussed the various uses of tobacco with physicians, read documents describing its uses in North American medicine, and came to the conclusion that those who opposed its use were largely doctors who feared being put out of business if tobacco use became prevalent.
In this rather small piece of writing the author insisted that his readers must use the "kind weed" as a medicine curing all illnesses: "I thinke that there is nothing that harmes a man inwardly from his girdle upward, but may be taken away with a moderate use of Tobacco, and in those parts consist the chief reasons of our health, for the stomacke and head being cleare and void of evill humors, commonly the whole body is the better."
Chute described the healing characteristics of tobacco and suggested that the doctors are trying to hide the benefits of smoking from the general public. In his opinion, it was because moderate pipe smoking was so good for preventing a number of illnesses, that it seemed like it could even threaten the very existence of the medical profession.
Source: <http://www.english.batrussia.ru/tobacco/facts/>

Anthony Chute (British, d. 1595?)
Tabaco. The distinct and Severall opinions of the late and best Phisitions that have written of the divers natures and qualities thereof
London: Adam Islip for William Barlow, 1595
Arents Tobacco Collection
Chute devoted the first half of his little treatise - the first on tobacco in the English language - to promoting tobacco "drinking" as a health remedy, which he rightfully states had not been done before. Pipes, he noted, could be made of either silver or clay, although silver got hot fast and was problematic to keep clean. Convinced that tobacco should be consumed only for health reasons, he suggests that it can relieve just about any ailment related to excess fluids in the body:
"I thinke that there is nothing that harmes a man inwardly from his girdle upward, but may be taken awaywith a moderate use of Tabacco, and in those parts consist the chief reasons of our health, for the stomacke and head being cleare and void of evill humors, commonly the whole body is the better."
Source: Elizabeth Wyckoff, September 1997
URL: <http://www.nypl.org/research/chss/spe/art/print/exhibits/drydrunk/debate.htm>

An original copy of this Anthony Chewte publication is part of the New York Public Library Arents Tobacco Collection.



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: The Visitation of Kent
Surname: Chowte
Date: 1530
Publisher: The Harleian Society, London
Published: London, 1898
Page(s): 5
LOCA: Chute Family Records/GP690-2

  Noted events in his life were:

• Inherited, 1 Feb 1568. Inheritance: The estates at Bethersden and Seddlescomb

• Military, 1580. Joined expedition, led by Don Antonio, to claim the throne of Portugal.

• Document, 1593. Printing of Beawtie dishonored/Shores Wife (printer: John Wolfe) May have been written earlier.

• Document, 27 May 1594. Letter of application for Pursuivant at Arms, addressed to the Lord Treasurer Burghley

• Document, 1595. Printing of Tabaco. The distinct and Severall opinions of the late and best Phisitions that have written of the divers natures and qualities thereof