Thomas Rutt

Thomas Rutt, of London, was a schoolmate of John Ryland and Benjamin Flower at Northampton; he was a member of Ryland’s Secret Prayer Society 1769-71.  Originally from an Independent congregation in London, Rutt was received into the College Lane church on 12 April 1771 (see College Lane Church Book, Northamptonshire Record Office, CSBC 48, f. 139).  After completing his studies at Northampton, he returned to London where he joined an Independent congregation and, according to Lowndes London Directory for 1799, settled into business as a stockbroker at 1 King’s Arms Passage, Exchange Alley, London.  Apparently he engaged in some printing as well, publishing a sermon by George Collison, Independent minister at Hackney, titled Religion Exemplified in the character of Abijah.  A Sermon preached on the death of Mrs. E. Coverley, aged 26 years, at the Independent Chapel, Bridlington, Yorkshire.  on Sunday Evening, August 6th, 1809.  Besides his sister, Elizabeth, also mentioned in the ‘Account’, several other Rutts, all members of Independent congregations in London, followed Thomas and Elizabeth to Ryland’s academy, including John Rutt and John Towill Rutt in 1770, as well as Edward and Samuel Rutt in 1771. See ‘The Rev. John Collet Ryland’s Scholars’, Northamptonshire Notes and Queries [1926], 28; W. T. Whitley, ‘J. C. Ryland as Schoolmaster’, Baptist Quarterly 5 (1930-31), 141-44; and ”Timothy Whelan, "John Ryland and School: Two Societies in Northamnpton Boarding Schools, Baptist Quarterly 40 (2003), 90-116.