Richard Shute, the Man Under the Oldest Legible Gravestone at St. Paul's

The gravestone of Richard Shute, who died on December 14, 1704: the oldest legible gravestone at St. Paul's. National Park Service.

A small stone carved with the initials R S and the date December 14, 1704 rests on a wooden platform in the museum at St. Paul's Church National Historic Site. The village blacksmith chiselled it, roughly. It is the oldest legible gravestone in the historic cemetery at St. Paul's, one of the oldest in New York. The stone was brought indoors to preserve and display it; Richard Shute himself lies in the burial yard, in the old section on its western side.

He is in no history book. His life, though, opens a window on an early Westchester village: the settlement first called The Ten Farms and soon renamed Eastchester, and the few capable settlers who held its offices. Shute was one of them, and his religious beliefs shaped his public life.

From Fairfield to Eastchester

Shute was born in 1640 and spent his early years in Fairfield, Connecticut. As a young man he took part in the plans of his group of religious dissenters, Puritans, to move to Eastchester. Fairfield was gripped by fears of witchcraft: Shute's uncle and aunt by marriage were accused and convicted in 1662, and presumably executed. Eastchester was spared that.

In Eastchester the settlers formed a covenanted village, each member pledged to the others and governed by "Articles of Agreement" they had written themselves. They worshipped in a reformed church, separate from the Church of England.

The land became theirs in 1666, when Thomas Pell, Lord of the Manor of Pelham, sold it to ten men. Town records show Shute as owner and farmer of 41 acres he named "Bicklye", along what is now South 3rd Avenue where it meets Columbus Avenue. The group had promised to treat one another fairly and equally, so his land was much like the other nine men's: planting grounds, pasture for animals and a home lot. His upland home lot of 10 acres was well placed, with the common and the road to the south, woods to the west, waste land to the north and the King's highway to the east.

Shelter and food came first. The settlers most likely built simple dwellings, lived on the animals and supplies they had brought, and began planting and fencing their fields.

The village

Eastchester grew as villages had in England and in Fairfield: homes clustered around a green, fields of wheat and corn and pastures for horses, cattle and sheep farther out, and the school, fort and mill close by. After a further grant of land from the local Indians, who were part of the Lenape, Shute built his permanent house in the New England style known as a saltbox: a wooden frame with a central chimney and a long pitched roof sloping low at the back, two storeys in front and one behind.

A life of public office

By the age of 36 Shute was a leading citizen. The village chose him as its representative to the governor, to ask permission to hire a minister and build a meetinghouse, or church, and to be relieved of taxes for the established Church. For a Puritan, public office meant duty more than power: good works in society were the evidence of the faith that brought salvation, and public service was one of them. Shute's offices included:

• overseer of land clearing and fencing
• surveyor
• inspector and recorder of the health of farm animals, taking his turn
• treasurer, secretary and assessor
• recorder, or village clerk, from 1673 to 1703: his longest office, and one of the most important, since the village had no mayor yet. His "horrible handwriting" and careless reporting were noted.

Near the end of his life, Shute saw St. Paul's begin its change to Anglicanism. He died in 1704. No eulogy for him is on record.

Sources

• National Park Service, Saint Paul's Church National Historic Site, "Richard Shute: The man under the oldest legible gravestone at St. Paul's." https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/richard-shute-the-man-under-the-oldest-legible-gravestone-at-st-paul-s.htm
• The original gives Shute's birth year as 1640, and his age as 24 both when his group planned the move to Eastchester and when he became a landowner in 1666. Both cannot be right, so neither age is given here.