Thomas Rutter (1660 – March 12, 1730) was an American

ironmaster An ironmaster is the manager, and usually owner, of a forge or blast furnace for the processing of iron. It is a term mainly associated with the period of the Industrial Revolution, especially in Great Britain. The ironmaster was usually a large ...

and

abolitionist Abolitionism, or the abolitionist movement, is the movement to end slavery. In Western Europe and the Americas, abolitionism was a historic movement that sought to end the Atlantic slave trade and liberate the enslaved people. The British ...

who constructed the first

blast furnace A blast furnace is a type of metallurgical furnace used for smelting to produce industrial metals, generally pig iron, but also others such as lead or copper. ''Blast'' refers to the combustion air being "forced" or supplied above atmospheric ...

and the first iron forge in the

Province of Pennsylvania The Province of Pennsylvania, also known as the Pennsylvania Colony, was a British North American colony founded by William Penn after receiving a land grant from Charles II of England in 1681. The name Pennsylvania ("Penn's Woods") refers to W ...

. Now known as

Pine Forge Mansion and Industrial Site The Pine Forge Mansion and Industrial Site, also known as Thomas Rutter's Mansion and the Pine Forge Iron Plantation, is an historic, American iron plantation and mansion and national historic district located in Douglass Township, Berks County ...

, the location of Rutter's mansion and

iron plantation Iron plantations were rural localities emergent in the late-18th century and predominant in the early-19th century that specialized in the production of pig iron and bar iron from crude iron ore. Such plantations derive their name from two sourc ...

was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

in 2004. The site has been the campus of

Pine Forge Academy Pine Forge Academy is a co-educational, Seventh-day Adventist Christian boarding school that serves grades 9 through 12. It is a part of the Seventh-day Adventist education system, the world's second largest Christian school system. It is located ...

since 1945. THOMAS_RUTTER

Biography

Born in 1660, Rutter was a

Quaker Quakers are people who belong to a historically Protestant Christian set of Christian denomination, denominations known formally as the Religious Society of Friends. Members of these movements ("theFriends") are generally united by a belie ...

blacksmith who immigrated from England to southeastern Pennsylvania as a young man. He married Rebecca Staples at the Pennsbury Friends Meetinghouse on October 11, 1685, and acquired property near

William Penn William Penn ( – ) was an English writer and religious thinker belonging to the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), and founder of the Province of Pennsylvania, a North American colony of England. He was an early advocate of democracy a ...

Pennsbury Manor Pennsbury Manor is the colonial estate of William Penn, founder and proprietor of the Colony of Pennsylvania, who lived there from 1699 to 1701. He left it and returned to England in 1701, where he died penniless in 1718. Following his departure ...

in Bristol Township. By January 1702, he had acquired over seven hundred acres with the goal of mining the soil for iron ore, though the venture failed. In a covenant dated February 12, 1715, Governor William Penn granted Rutter three hundred acres on

Manatawny Creek Manatawny Creek is an U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed April 1, 2011 tributary of the Schuylkill River in Pennsylvania in the United States.Gertler, Edward. ''Keystone Can ...

two or three miles above modern-day Pottstown. Rutter left his home in

Germantown Germantown or German Town may refer to: Places Australia * Germantown, Queensland, a locality in the Cassowary Coast Region United States * Germantown, California, the former name of Artois, a census-designated place in Glenn County * Ger ...

to establish Pine Forge, a

bloomery A bloomery is a type of metallurgical furnace once used widely for smelting iron from its oxides. The bloomery was the earliest form of smelter capable of smelting iron. Bloomeries produce a porous mass of iron and slag called a ''bloom ...

that was the first iron forge in Pennsylvania, on his land by 1716. By 1720, Rutter had expanded his land holdings to fifteen hundred acres, ensuring an ample supply of surface iron ore, wood to produce charcoal, and water. A 1717 letter from minister

Jonathan Dickinson Jonathan Dickinson (1663–1722) was a merchant from Port Royal, Jamaica who was shipwrecked on the southeast coast of Florida in 1696, along with his family and the other passengers and crew members of the ship. The party was held captive by Job ...

praised the quality of Rutter's iron, remarking that "the best of Sweden's iron doth not exceed it." Partnering with his neighbor Thomas Potts (father of John Potts, founder of Pottstown), Rutter also became the principal owner of the nearby Colebrookdale Furnace, established in 1720. The forges stayed in the Rutter family for six generations and in the related Potts family for three generations. Numerous surviving stoveplates and firebacks feature biblical scenes and verses and are marked with the family name. A follower of George Keith, Rutter was an abolitionist who signed ''An'' ''Exhortation & Caution to Friends Concerning Buying or Keeping of Negroes'' (1694), one of the earliest printed antislavery tracts in British America. The statement condemned slavery as "unjust and immoral" and warned that slaveholding was antithetical to Quaker values. His descendants hired Black workers and during the 1830s and 1840s concealed

freedom seekers In the United States, fugitive slaves or runaway slaves were terms used in the 18th and 19th century to describe people who fled slavery. The term also refers to the federal Fugitive Slave Acts of 1793 and 1850. Such people are also called freed ...

in old tunnels dug beneath the manor house to protect residents from Indian attacks. The 1725 house is considered a station on the

Underground Railroad The Underground Railroad was a network of clandestine routes and safe houses established in the United States during the early- to mid-19th century. It was used by enslaved African Americans primarily to escape into free states and Canada. T ...

. In 1982, the

Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission The Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission (PHMC) is the governmental agency of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania responsible for the collection, conservation and interpretation of Pennsylvania's historic heritage. The commission cares for ...

dedicated a state historical marker commemorating Thomas Rutter outside

, a historically Black school that forms part of the Seventh-day Adventist education system. Rutter's mansion and iron plantation had been the campus of Pine Forge Academy since 1945. Rutter was a prominent citizen in the Province of Pennsylvania, serving as bailiff of Germantown (1705–06), serving in the Pennsylvania Provincial Assembly (1713–15, 1727–28), and preaching at the Abington Friends Meeting. Rutter died on March 12, 1730, after a short illness. His death was reported in the ''

Pennsylvania Gazette ''The Pennsylvania Gazette'' was one of the United States' most prominent newspapers from 1728 until 1800. In the several years leading up to the American Revolution the paper served as a voice for colonial opposition to British colonial rule, ...

''. He was survived by his wife and their sons Joseph, John, and Thomas II.

Biography

References

Further reading