John Towell Rutt (1760-1841), a druggist, became interested in the French Revolution and joined the "Society of Friends of the People" to which Lord Grey, Erskine, and other prominent Whigs belonged. Active in social reform movements, Rutt was a founder of TheMonthly Repository and was a regular contributor to its poetry columns. He published The Sympathy of Priests, a volume of poetry, in 1792, but his major work was his edition of the Theological and Miscellaneous Works of Dr. Joseph Priestley in 25 volumes (1817-1831), of whom he was a close associate.
