- From: Voyage of a Different Kind by Larry Turner:
- Peter Ruttan was clearly the most significant Captain of Associated Loyalists next to Van Alstine, Grass and White. The Ruttan family had its origins in Rochelle, France as Huguenots and settled around 1734 in New Rochelle, Westchester County, New York. Peter Ruttan was born in New Rochelle but eventually took up a farm at Franklin, in the Ramapo region, Bergen County, New Jersey. He 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. Ruttan was arrested by Skinner for disobedience of orders and resigned his commission but was not put on trial. Subsequently, Peter Ruttan raised forty men for the Huguenot Colonel Bayard and the King’s Orange Rangers. Aged 34 at the Declaration of Independence, Ruttan may have been best known for “patronizing the Indian Chief” and other intelligence activities. Ruttan had accompanied Joseph Brant on a particular mission and in token of his esteem, named his son Joseph Brant Ruttan. In New York City he purchased a house on Chamber Street. He organized his company of Associated Loyalists under Michael Grass but took all of his settlers over to Van Alstine’s Adolphustown. Even in Adolphustown, Ruttan thought of himself as the proper leader, often in opposition to Major Van Alstine.
- United Empire Loyalist listed in Loyalist Directory: https://uelac.ca/loyalist-directory/detail/?wpda_search_column_id=7233
- Find A Grave: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/175805702/peter-ruttan
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