A tireless campaigner for human rights and justice is the subject of the first Blue Plaque in Shaftesbury to recognise a person’s life and contribution.

There are around a dozen plaques in the town marking historical buildings and their use – but John Rutter is the first named individual to be honoured.

Born in Bristol and orphaned at 10, he came to Shaftesbury four years later, in 1811, to be apprenticed to a linen draper.
When 21, he came into a legacy from his father’s will and bought a printing press and was based at No 2, The Commons – now the HSBC Bank, and where the plaque will be unveiled tomorrow (Saturday, August 7).

In 1819, he wrote and printed A Brief Sketch of the State of the Poor in Shaftesbury and went on to become a defender of the disadvantaged and a champion of political reform.

He was a founder member of the Shaftesbury Union and House of Industry, for the unemployed, homeless and the poor, led anti- slavery and established the first public library in Shaftesbury.

He stood up to the town’s landlord, Lord Grosvenor, and the corrupt Town Council and ended up before Dorchester Assizes after a riot in the town, where he refused to be bound over to avoid prison as he (successfully) maintained his innocence. His actions contributed to major reforms taking place in England in the 1830s – the Great Reform Act (1832), the Slavery Act (1833), the Poor Law Amendment Act (1834) and the Municipal Corporations Act (1835).

Ian Kellet, Secretary of the Shaftesbury and District Historical Society (S&DHS), said: “This was a time of great change in the country. Rutter challenged the status quo and helped bring about these changes.
“Once they had been achieved, he became a pillar of society.”

As a councillor on Shaftesbury Borough Council, he helped bring gas lighting to the town, a market hall and well. He successfully campaigned for the South-Western Salisbury to Exeter rail line to be built via Semley an eventually qualified as a solicitor ‘to better represent the poor’.

His firm, Rutter & Son, still practises today and his life’s work was recognised when the now chairman of the S&DHS, Sir John Stuttard, wrote a book about Rutter entitled The Turbulent Quaker of Shaftesbury in 2018.

The campaign for a Blue Plaque started then, and tomorrow it will be unveiled at noon by Angus Campbell, the Lord Lieutenant of Dorset. The plaque reads: John Rutter (1796-1851). Printer, publisher, author, political and social reformer, abolitionist, public servant, philanthropist and lawyer worked here.


Mr Kellet added: “It is his contribution, in so many different ways, to the town of Shaftesbury and his championing of causes associated with equality and fairness that most merit his recognition as one of the town’s greatest citizens.”

TRIBUTE: Shaftesbury & District Historical Society President Sir John Stuttard holding the John Rutter Blue Plaque

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