RATTAN (RUTTAN*) Capt. Peter: 1742 - 1829
Tile ordered and paid for by Elisha Rattan†, Adolphustown, Ontario, October, 1888
The Ruttan family had its origins in Rochelle, France as Huguenots and settled around 1734 in New Rochelle, Westchester County, New York. Peter Ruttan, the son of William Ruttan (1710-94) and Maria Demarest, was born April 19, 1742 in New Rochelle, New York, but eventually moved and took up a farm in Bergen County, New Jersey.
When the Revolutionary War began, Peter joined the British Army of General Howe in 1776 and brought fifty men into the 4th Battalion of New Jersey Volunteers commanded by Brigadier General Cortlandt Skinner. Subsequently, Peter Ruttan raised forty men with the Huguenot Colonel Bayard and the King’s Orange Rangers and served as a Captain. Ruttan may have been best known for “patronizing the Indian Chief” and other intelligence activities. Ruttan had accompanied Joseph Brant on a particular mission. As a gesture of his esteem for the native leader, Peter named his son, born in 1783, Joseph Brant Ruttan.
Peter Ruttan married Jannetje Ackerman in 1766. They had eight children: Abraham born in 1769; Peter born in 1771; Mary born in 1772; Jane born in 1775; William; Joseph Brant born in 1783; John born in 1786; and David born in 1789. These three youngest sons, Joseph, John and David, were born after the family had relocated to Canada. The family sailed with other Loyalists from New York in 1783 on board the transport vessel Hope.
Peter was again a Captain (second-in-command to Van Alstine), serving this time at the head of a company of 119 Associated Loyalists. Half of his people could be traced to his homeland, the border counties of New Jersey and New York. Ruttan’s Company, Company 6, was originally under Michael Grass who settled at Cataraqui (Kingston) but Ruttan eventually took all of his settlers to settle with Van Alstine in township No. 4 (Adolphustown).(2) In the old record of the Crown Lands Department, Peter Ruttan is listed for lots 19, 20 and 21 of the second concession where he settled and raised his family. After settlement, Peter Ruttan continued to demonstrate leadership. He signed letters to the governor petitioning for supplies for the settlers, and like Van Alstine, he took on the role of Justice of the Peace.(3) Both he and his brother William were among the largest subscribers to the Methodist church built at Hay Bay in 1792.
Peter Rattan died in 1829. His place of burial, although unmarked, is thought to be the old Hay Bay Churchyard.(4)
* The family name was changed from Ruttan to Rattan by some members of the family sometime after their arrival in Canada. The earlier spelling is used on the tile in memory of Peter’s brother William Ruttan (Tile # 33). Descendants with the family name of Ruttan still live in the area.
† Elisha Rattan, sponsor of this tile and grandson of Capt. Peter Rattan (Ruttan) was the eighth child of Joseph Brant Ruttan.
1. Larry Turner, Voyage of a Different Kind (Belleville: Mika, 1984).
2. Turner, p. 119; p. 137.
3. Katherine J. Lamont, Adolphustown 1784-1984 (The Adolphustown Bicentennial Committee, 1984).
4. Henry N. Ruttan, UE, A Part of The Family of Ruttan 1590-1986 (Ottawa: Emery, 1986).