“He joined General Howe’s Army on the 6th of December 1776 and served as Captain in the 4th Battalion, and later in the 3rd Battalion, New Jersey Volunteers.
"Peter, in 1778, accompanied Joseph Brant from New York State to Canada on a tour of observation and two became such fast friends that Peter named his son Joseph Brant Ruttan. When the mission was completed, Brant presented Peter with a handsome brace of pistols, which at his death came into the possession of his nephew, Sheriff Henry Ruttan, whose descendants now have them. Brant also peeled from a birch tree a piece of bark and on it recorded the services rendered by Ruttan which the latter presented to the proper authorities and was granted later that tract of land in Adolphustown that terminated on Ruttan's Point."
In the summer of 1783 with the war over, he was appointed Captain, Associated Loyalists, second in command to Captain Conrad VanAlstine, of a group of discharged soldiers and refugees who were about to leave New York. He accompanied by his brother, Lieutenant William Rutan, left for Canada after the war with the VanAlstine band on board the ship HOPE under Captain Grass from New York to Quebec where they arrived after a rough 9 week voyage on 14 Aug 1783. Two days later, they proceeded up the St. Lawrence River to Sorel where they wintered. In the spring of 1784, they travelled on up the river and arrived at Adophustown on March 20, 1784.
“For some unknown reason his place of burial has not been found... It has been stated by a descendant, however, that he believes both were buried in Hay Bay churchyard where Peter and the other members of the community contributed to the building of the church and over the years helped to keep it in repair.”