Roger Ludlow
Encyclopedia
Roger Ludlow 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
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.
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.
Positions in the colonies such as Deputy Governor were not elected and were given to people who already had a "station" in society. Roger Ludlow was a descendant of English royalty tracing his genealogy back through the first three hundred years of the then ruling Plantagenet family of England, starting with the Norman Conquest by William, Earl of Normandy in 1066. All of Rogers ancestors were monarchs from William, in 1066 through Edward I who died in 1307 when his son, Edward II assumed the throne. Rogers direct lineage was through one of the daughters of Edward I, Princess Elizabeth. The one exception to the above was Matilda, daughter of Henry I, grand daughter of William the Conqueror who was chosen to be monarch but overridden by the "Council" because they felt that women were unfit to rule.
Dinton, Wiltshire
Dinton is a village in Wiltshire, England, on the B3089 road about 8 miles west of Salisbury. The population was 597 at the 2001 census.-Present day:...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. Roger was the second son of Sir
Sir
Sir is an honorific used as a title , or as a courtesy title to address a man without using his given or family name in many English speaking cultures...
Thomas Ludlow of Maiden Bradley
Maiden Bradley
Maiden Bradley with Yarnfield is a small Wiltshire civil parish near the Somerset border and the home of the Duke of Somerset. The B3092 road that joins Frome to Mere runs through the middle of the village of Maiden Bradley....
, Wiltshire
Wiltshire
Wiltshire is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset, Somerset, Hampshire, Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire. It contains the unitary authority of Swindon and covers...
and Jane Pyle, sister of Sir Gabriel Pyle. He matriculated at Balliol College, Oxford
Balliol College, Oxford
Balliol College , founded in 1263, is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England but founded by a family with strong Scottish connections....
in 1609 or 1610, and was admitted to the Honourable Society of the Inner Temple
Inner Temple
The Honourable Society of the Inner Temple, commonly known as Inner Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court in London. To be called to the Bar and practise as a barrister in England and Wales, an individual must belong to one of these Inns...
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
Dorchester, Massachusetts
Dorchester is a dissolved municipality and current neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, United States. It is named after the town of Dorchester in the English county of Dorset, from which Puritans emigrated and is today endearingly nicknamed "Dot" by its residents. Dorchester, including a large...
, where they remained for five years. During that period he was chosen magistrate
Magistrate
A magistrate is an officer of the state; in modern usage the term usually refers to a judge or prosecutor. This was not always the case; in ancient Rome, a magistratus was one of the highest government officers and possessed both judicial and executive powers. Today, in common law systems, a...
in the Court of Assistants for the Massachusetts Bay Colony
Massachusetts Bay Colony
The Massachusetts Bay Colony was an English settlement on the east coast of North America in the 17th century, in New England, situated around the present-day cities of Salem and Boston. The territory administered by the colony included much of present-day central New England, including portions...
. He was elected as Deputy Governor in 1634. During this time Ludlow successfully negotiated the first treaty between the English and the Pequot
Pequot
Pequot people are a tribe of Native Americans who, in the 17th century, inhabited much of what is now Connecticut. They were of the Algonquian language family. The Pequot War and Mystic massacre reduced the Pequot's sociopolitical influence in southern New England...
. In 1635 he was defeated by John Haynes
John Haynes
John Haynes , also sometimes spelled Haines, was a colonial magistrate and one of the founders of the Connecticut Colony...
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
Massachusetts General Court
The Massachusetts General Court is the state legislature of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The name "General Court" is a hold-over from the Colonial Era, when this body also sat in judgment of judicial appeals cases...
granted them permission to settle the cities of Windsor
Windsor, Connecticut
Windsor is a town in Hartford County, Connecticut, United States, and was the first English settlement in the state. It lies on the northern border of Connecticut's capital, Hartford. The population was estimated at 28,778 in 2005....
, Wethersfield
Wethersfield, Connecticut
Wethersfield is a town in Hartford County, Connecticut, United States. Many records from colonial times spell the name Weathersfield, while Native Americans called it Pyquag...
, and Hartford
Hartford, Connecticut
Hartford is the capital of the U.S. state of Connecticut. The seat of Hartford County until Connecticut disbanded county government in 1960, it is the second most populous city on New England's largest river, the Connecticut River. As of the 2010 Census, Hartford's population was 124,775, making...
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
Connecticut River
The Connecticut River is the largest and longest river in New England, and also an American Heritage River. It flows roughly south, starting from the Fourth Connecticut Lake in New Hampshire. After flowing through the remaining Connecticut Lakes and Lake Francis, it defines the border between the...
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
Robert Rich, 2nd Earl of Warwick
Robert Rich, 2nd Earl of Warwick was an English colonial administrator, admiral, and puritan.Rich was the eldest son of Robert Rich, 1st Earl of Warwick and his wife Penelope Devereux, Lady Rich, and succeeded to his father's title in 1619...
. The Massachusetts General Court established the March Commission to mediate the dispute between the Connecticut colony and the Saybrook Colony
Saybrook Colony
The Saybrook Colony was established in late 1635 at the mouth of the Connecticut River in present day Old Saybrook, Connecticut by John Winthrop, the Younger, son of John Winthrop, the Governor of Massachusetts. The former was designated Governor by the original settlers which included Colonel...
, 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
Pequot War
The Pequot War was an armed conflict between 1634–1638 between the Pequot tribe against an alliance of the Massachusetts Bay, Plymouth, and Saybrook colonies who were aided by their Native American allies . Hundreds were killed; hundreds more were captured and sold into slavery to the West Indies. ...
. The Connecticut towns decided to send a force of more than 70 soldiers along with Narragansett
Narragansett (tribe)
The Narragansett tribe are an Algonquian Native American tribe from Rhode Island. In 1983 they regained federal recognition as the Narragansett Indian Tribe of Rhode Island. In 2009, the United States Supreme Court ruled against their request that the Department of Interior take land into trust...
and Mohegan
Mohegan
The Mohegan tribe is an Algonquian-speaking tribe that lives in the eastern upper Thames River valley of Connecticut. Mohegan translates to "People of the Wolf". At the time of European contact, the Mohegan and Pequot were one people, historically living in the lower Connecticut region...
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
Mystic Massacre
The Mystic massacre took place on May 26, 1637, during the Pequot War, when English settlers under Captain John Mason, and Narragansett and Mohegan allies set fire to a fortified Pequot village near the Mystic River...
, 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
Sassacus
Sassacus was a Pequot sachem....
and other Pequot survivors, first to Saybrook at the mouth of the Connecticut river, then westward toward the Mattabesset
Mattabesset
Mattabesset or Mattabeseck refers to the Native American group which had its principal settlement at the Mattabeseck River of what is today Connecticut, United States. It is presumed that the portage offered the Mattabeseck additional opportunities for trade...
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
John Winthrop
John Winthrop was a wealthy English Puritan lawyer, and one of the leading figures in the founding of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, the first major settlement in New England after Plymouth Colony. Winthrop led the first large wave of migrants from England in 1630, and served as governor for 12 of...
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
John Haynes
John Haynes , also sometimes spelled Haines, was a colonial magistrate and one of the founders of the Connecticut Colony...
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
Bridgeport, Connecticut
Bridgeport is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Connecticut. Located in Fairfield County, the city had an estimated population of 144,229 at the 2010 United States Census and is the core of the Greater Bridgeport area...
). He left with a group of like minded settlers from Windsor, Watertown
Watertown, Massachusetts
The Town of Watertown is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 31,915 at the 2010 census.- History :Archeological evidence suggests that Watertown was inhabited for thousands of years before the arrival of settlers from England...
, and Concord
Concord, Massachusetts
Concord is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, in the United States. As of the 2010 census, the town population was 17,668. Although a small town, Concord is noted for its leading roles in American history and literature.-History:...
to purchase property along the coast of Long Island Sound
Long Island Sound
Long Island Sound is an estuary of the Atlantic Ocean, located in the United States between Connecticut to the north and Long Island, New York to the south. The mouth of the Connecticut River at Old Saybrook, Connecticut, empties into the sound. On its western end the sound is bounded by the Bronx...
west of the New Haven Colony
New Haven Colony
The New Haven Colony was an English colonial venture in present-day Connecticut in North America from 1637 to 1662.- Quinnipiac Colony :A Puritan minister named John Davenport led his flock from exile in the Netherlands back to England and finally to America in the spring of 1637...
. 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
Sachem
A sachem[p] or sagamore is a paramount chief among the Algonquians or other northeast American tribes. The two words are anglicizations of cognate terms from different Eastern Algonquian languages...
and founded the town of Fairfield, Connecticut
Fairfield, Connecticut
Fairfield is a town located in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. It is bordered by the towns of Bridgeport, Trumbull, Easton, Redding and Westport along the Gold Coast of Connecticut. As of the 2010 census, the town had a population of 59,404...
. 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.
New Netherland
New Netherland, or Nieuw-Nederland in Dutch, was the 17th-century colonial province of the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands on the East Coast of North America. The claimed territories were the lands from the Delmarva Peninsula to extreme southwestern Cape Cod...
or the New Haven Colonists
New Haven Colony
The New Haven Colony was an English colonial venture in present-day Connecticut in North America from 1637 to 1662.- Quinnipiac Colony :A Puritan minister named John Davenport led his flock from exile in the Netherlands back to England and finally to America in the spring of 1637...
. Early the following year in 1640 Ludlow purchased land from the Siwanoy
Siwanoy
The Native American Siwanoy or Sinanoy were a band of Algonquian-speaking people, the Wappinger, in what is now the New York City area. By the mid-17th century, when their territory became hotly contested between Dutch and English colonial interests, the Siwanoy were settled along the East River...
Sachem Mahackemo
Mahackemo
Mahackemo was chief of the Norwalke Indians, a small tribe of the Siwanoy, who sold land to Roger Ludlow in 1640 which later became Norwalk, Connecticut....
located still further west in an area that would become Norwalk, Connecticut
Norwalk, Connecticut
Norwalk is a city in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. According to the 2010 U.S. Census, the population of the city is 85,603, making Norwalk sixth in population in Connecticut, and third in Fairfield County...
.
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
Property law
Property law is the area of law that governs the various forms of ownership in real property and in personal property, within the common law legal system. In the civil law system, there is a division between movable and immovable property...
. The appointment may have been made at the request of Oliver Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell was an English military and political leader who overthrew the English monarchy and temporarily turned England into a republican Commonwealth, and served as Lord Protector of England, Scotland, and Ireland....
. 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
St. Michan's Church
St. Michan's Church, located in Church Street, Dublin, Ireland, is a Church of Ireland church.-Building:Built on the site of an early Danish chapel , the current structure dates largely from a reconstruction in 1686, but is still the only parish church on the north side of the Liffey surviving...
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
Roger Ludlowe Middle School
Roger Ludlowe Middle School is a co-educational secondary school located in Fairfield, Connecticut, United States. The school is named after Roger Ludlow, the founder of the Town of Fairfield.-History:...
and Fairfield Ludlowe High School
Fairfield Ludlowe High School
Fairfield Ludlowe High School is a co-educational secondary school located in Fairfield, Connecticut, United States.-Origins:Fairfield Ludlowe High School opened in the fall of the 2003–2004 as a satellite campus of Fairfield High School...
, both in Fairfield, are named for him.
Positions in the colonies such as Deputy Governor were not elected and were given to people who already had a "station" in society. Roger Ludlow was a descendant of English royalty tracing his genealogy back through the first three hundred years of the then ruling Plantagenet family of England, starting with the Norman Conquest by William, Earl of Normandy in 1066. All of Rogers ancestors were monarchs from William, in 1066 through Edward I who died in 1307 when his son, Edward II assumed the throne. Rogers direct lineage was through one of the daughters of Edward I, Princess Elizabeth. The one exception to the above was Matilda, daughter of Henry I, grand daughter of William the Conqueror who was chosen to be monarch but overridden by the "Council" because they felt that women were unfit to rule.
See also
- Great Migration (Puritan)Great Migration (Puritan)The Puritan migration to New England was marked in its effects in the two decades from 1620 to 1640, after which it declined sharply for a while. The term Great Migration usually refers to the migration in this period of English settlers, primarily Puritans to Massachusetts and the warm islands of...
- List of Lieutenant Governors of Connecticut
- Saybrook ColonySaybrook ColonyThe Saybrook Colony was established in late 1635 at the mouth of the Connecticut River in present day Old Saybrook, Connecticut by John Winthrop, the Younger, son of John Winthrop, the Governor of Massachusetts. The former was designated Governor by the original settlers which included Colonel...
- Anglo-Dutch WarsAnglo-Dutch WarsThe Anglo–Dutch Wars were a series of wars fought between the English and the Dutch in the 17th and 18th centuries for control over the seas and trade routes. The first war took place during the English Interregnum, and was fought between the Commonwealth of England and the Dutch Republic...