Roger Ludlow (1590-1664) was one of the founders
of the
Colony of Connecticut.
He was
born in March 1590 in Dinton, Wiltshire
, England
.
Roger was
the second son of Sir Thomas Ludlow of Maiden Bradley
, Wiltshire
Sir Thomas was the great uncle of Edmund Ludlow the soldier, parliamentarian,
and author. [Taylor, John M. (1900); page 25] and Jane Pyle, sister
of Sir Gabriel Pyle. He matriculated at Balliol College,
Oxford
in 1609 or 1610, and was admitted to the Honourable
Society of the Inner
Temple
in 1612.
Ludlow sailed to America in May 1630 aboard the ship
Mary &
John with his wife Mary Cogan, a sister-in-law of Governor
John Endicott of Massachusetts.
They
settled at Dorchester, Massachusetts
, where they remained for five years. During
that period he was chosen
magistrate in
the Court of Assistants for the
Massachusetts Bay Colony. He was
elected as Deputy Governor in 1634. During this time Ludlow
successfully negotiated the first treaty between the English and
the
Pequot. In 1635 he was defeated by
John Haynes for Governor.
In 1635 Roger Ludlow joined with other
Puritans and
Congregationalists who were dissatisfied
with the rate of Anglican reforms, and sought to establish an
ecclesiastical society subject to their own rules and regulations.
The
Massachusetts General
Court granted them permission to settle the cities of Windsor
, Wethersfield
, and Hartford
in the area now known as Connecticut. The
Ludlows settled into Windsor. However, ownership of the lands for
the new towns along the
Connecticut
River was called into dispute by the English holders of the
Warwick Patent of 1631 that had been granted by
Robert Rich, 2nd Earl of
Warwick. The Massachusetts General Court established the March
Commission to mediate the dispute between the Connecticut colony
and the
Saybrook Colony, and named
Roger Ludlow as its head. The Commission named 8 magistrates from
the Connecticut towns to implement a legal system. The March
Commission expired in March 1636, after which time the settlers
continued to self-govern.
In late 1636 and early 1637 the burgeoning Connecticut colony faced
armed conflict in the
Pequot War. The
Connecticut towns decided to send a force of more than 70 soldiers
along with
Narragansett and
Mohegan collaborators into an attack upon a
Pequot settlement on May 26, 1637. While Ludlow did not participate
in what became known as the
Mystic
massacre, his role in the General Court meant that he took part
in the decision to send the force. After the destruction at Mystic
Ludlow did leave the Windsor area to pursue
Sassacus and other Pequot survivors, first to
Saybrook at the mouth of the Connecticut river, then westward
toward the
Mattabesset village known as
"Sasqua" or "Unquowa". On July 13, 1637 the battle in swamps around
Unquowa signalled the final military defeat of the remaining
Pequots.
On May 29, 1638 Ludlow wrote to Massachusetts Governor
Winthrop that the colonists wanted to "unite
ourselves to walk and lie peaceably and lovingly together." Ludlow
was a framer of a document called the
Fundamental Orders, which was adopted on
January 14, 1639. The Fundamental Orders of Connecticut is the
world's first written constitution for a self-governing
people.
Roger Ludlow was a magistrate in 1637 and 1638, and was then named
as the first Deputy Governor of Connecticut. He was also chosen as
a Magistrate in 1640, and every year from that date until he left
the colony in 1654, except in 1642 and 1648, when he was again
chosen Deputy Governor. In 1643 Ludlow was one of the
representatives from Connecticut in the negotiations which led to
the con-federation of the colonies.
In early 1639 Ludlow's political rival from Massachusetts
John Haynes who had since settled in Connecticut
was elected Governor of Connecticut.
Ludlow then chose to
take leave from Hartford and Windsor and obtained a charter from
the General Court to begin a settlement at "Pequannocke" (present
day Bridgeport
). He left with a group of like minded settlers
from Windsor, Watertown
, and Concord
to purchase property along the coast of Long Island
Sound
west of the New Haven
Colony. While on this task Ludlow recalled the
attraction of the salt marshes west of the Pequonnock River near
"Unquowa" and purchased land there from the native Sachem and founded the town of Fairfield,
Connecticut
. Ludlow settled his family in the new town
of Fairfield, but returned to Hartford in the fall of 1639. In a
session of the General Court held October 10, 1639 Ludlow was
censured and fined by the Court for having exceeded the terms of
the charter granted to settle areas that were to have been east of
Fairfield. Governor Haynes and Thomas Wells visited Fairfield to
investigate the settlement and apparently found that it was
acceptable.
Right
The purchase of property and settlement in the coastal area may
have been part of an effort to obtain a Connecticut title to the
area instead of allowing the land to be sold to the Dutch from
New Netherland or the
New Haven Colonists.
Early the following
year in 1640 Ludlow purchased land from the Siwanoy Sachem Mahackemo
located still further west in an area that would become Norwalk,
Connecticut
.
In 1646 Ludlow was asked by the Connecticut General Court to draft
a comprehensive set of laws "grounded in precedent and authority
and fitted to the necessities of the new civilization." The result
was “The Code of Laws of 1650”, or Ludlow Code, which is archived
in the Connecticut Colonial Records.
Having been tried for slandering Mrs. Thomas Staples of Fairfield
(the accusation was that Ludlow had said that she was a witch) and
lost as well as being appointed commander of a militia to defend
Fairfield against invasion by the Dutch, Ludlow had grown weary of
colonial life. He left Fairfield in April or May 1654. He first
sailed to
Virginia Colony to visit
his brother George who had settled there. Then Ludlow left Virginia
to return to England and made it to Ireland by September 1654.
Ludlow
settled at Dublin
and in
November of 1654 was appointed to serve the Council as an
adjudicator of matters relating to property
law. The appointment may have been made at the request
of
Oliver Cromwell. He served on the
commission from 1654 to 1658. A new commission was appointed and
Ludlow was again assigned to it in 1658. He was also appointed to
the post of
Master in Chancery in
Ireland.
He was a
resident and member of St. Michan's Church
in Dublin. His wife Mary died and was buried
on June 3, 1664 according to records kept at the parish church.
Parish records of his death in Dublin (presumed to have taken place
between 1664 and 1668) no longer exist.
Roger Ludlowe Middle
School and
Fairfield
Ludlowe High School, both in Fairfield, are named for
him.
See also
Notes
- Taylor, John M. (1900)
- Taylor, John M. (1900); page 22
- Taylor, John M. (1900) page 33
- Permission was also granted to settle Springfield, Massachusetts but by
1638 that city left the others to instead be part of the
Massachusetts Bay Colony. See Horton, Wesley W. (1993-06-30) for
details.
- The Warwick Patent is also known as the Saybrook Patent in some
literature. See
- Taylor, John (1900); page 145
- Taylor (1900) page. 150-153.
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