He was a skilled Hebrew scholar a language which he had probably begun to study at Giggleswick, and he left many manuscripts which were posthumously published by his brother Timothy. While he was still at Cambridge, he had enjoyed the interest on £100 given by Henry Tennant and in gratitude therefor and for other benefits received at the School he left to the Governors by a will dated June 30, 1642, certain parcels of land in the parish of Giggleswick, called Eshton Close, Cappleriggs Close and Huntwait Fields. The rent of these fields was to be apportioned in two ways. Five pounds was to be given yearly to the maintaining of a poor Scholar of the parish, who had been educated in the School, at either University until he became Master of Arts. The remainder of the rent was to be distributed amongst the poor of Giggleswick, who were most pious and had most need. The land increased in value greatly. In 1683 the rent amounted to £6 8s. 0d., and in 1697 £7 5s. 10d. Seventy years later it had almost doubled and in 1806 it was £34 6s. 0d.
In the latter year the Governors effected an exchange. Huntwait was given up for Tarn Brow and the rent rose five pounds. In spite of this gradual increase in value, the Governors only allotted the five pounds to the Exhibition Fund, the rest went to the poor of Giggleswick, to be distributed on the day of the Purification of the Virgin Mary. The five pounds was as a rule paid as an extra Exhibition in addition to the sum received from the Burton rent-charge, which had been bought with the money left by William Clapham and Henry Tennant, and the recipients were often especially mentioned as poor, notably in 1652 and again in 1673.
On December 13, 1872, Tarn Brow was sold for £1,000 and apportioned to pay part of the cost of the buildings which were then being erected. The Governors were directed to pay three-and-a-half per cent. interest on the sum expended. Cappleriggs was let for £20 a year and Eshton for £11.
The whole income now arising from these sources is applied in providing certain boys with total exemptions from payment of tuition fees and the costs of books and stationery: they are called Shute Exhibitions and are offered in the first instance to boys who are in attendance at a Public Elementary School in the ancient parish of Giggleswick.
Christopher Shute had three other sons who were all ministers of the Church and were "all great (though not equal) Lights, set up in fair Candlesticks."
He had done his duty as a Father, he had more than done his duty as Vicar and Governor. It is unfortunate that there is no portrait of him, for it would then be possible to discern the scholarly and courtly grace of the man under whom the School more than it had ever done before or was to do again until the nineteenth century flourished and prospered and grew notable. He died, still Vicar and Governor, in 1626. "Happy a father who had his quiver full with five such sons."
The Rev. Robert Dockray succeeded in 1619 as Master, and Henry Claphamson, who had been Usher certainly since 1615, possibly earlier though no records exist, continued in the office. The pay of both had increased since 1592. The Ancient Statutes of that date give the stipend of the Master as twenty marks (£13 6s. 8d.), and of the Usher as £6 13s. 4d., with power to the Governors to increase it. It cannot be ascertained when a change was made but in the half-year Accounts for 1617 there occurs the entry:
Item: to the Maister and Usher, xvli.
Robert Dockray and Henry Claphamson never received less than £20 and £10 yearly apiece after 1619. In 1629 they received an additional gratuity, the Master, of twenty nobles, i.e. £6 13s. 4d. and the Usher, of £3 6s. 8d.
The School went on its uneventful way. Dockray, the Master, became Vicar and made his protestation as an ex-officio Governor in 1632. In August, 1635, Christopher Lascelles, of Ripon, gentleman, received £20 in consideration of some request he made concerning troubles which he had been put to but which he does not specify. For the rest Governors succeeded Governors, Scholars were sent to the University with aid from the Exhibition money, Master and Usher receipted their wages each half year. The year 1640, is the last in which Robert Dockray appears as a Governor and his last receipt for his wages is dated March of the same year. Henry Claphamson succeeded to his work temporarily for eighteen weeks, receiving 10s. 3d. a week, but himself died before August 1642. Anthony Lister, the Vicar, taught for just over six months at the same rate, and on August 25, 1642, the Rev. Rowland Lucas had earned £9 12s. 0d. as "head scoulmaster."