USA > Connecticut > Fairfield County > Fairfield > The history of Fairfield, Fairfield County, Connecticut, from the settlement of the town in 1639 to 1818. Vol. I > Part 39
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Roger Ludlow Esq". Mr. Steel.
Mr. Westwood.
Mr. Phelps.
Mr. Warde .*
Mr. Pinchion, Mr. Swaine & Mr. Smyth, the three others appointed to assist in govern- ing the colony, were not present.
The first law passed by this Court, was, that no Englishman should trade a pistol or a gun, or any powder or shot with the Indians " under a heavy penalty." Constables were chosen for Dorchester, Newtown & Watertown. At a second Court held on the 7. of June at Dorchester (Windsor), Samuel Wakeman & George Hubbard were appointed by Ludlow & his associates, to survey & lay out the length & breadth of that town. Military laws were made for the protection of the towns, & every man was ordered to provide himself with powder & ball, & twenty bullets of lead, under a penalty of ten shillings before the end of August. Each plantation was ordered to train the men monthly " & oftener the unskillful." A fine of five shillings was imposed upon absent sol-
* The name of Andrew Warde is spelled in the Massachusetts Commission & occasionally in the Connecticut Records, Warner.
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diers ; & all not owning arms were to report to the next General Court. At a Court held the 21. of Feb. 1637, it was ordered that Newtown shall be called Hartford town, Watertown Weathersfield, and Dorchester Windsor. A law was passed that no single man not married & without servants, unless a public officer, should keep house by liim- self without the consent of the town in which he lived, under a penalty of twenty shillings a week. Also "that no Mr. of a family, shall give habitation or entertainment to any young man to sojourn in his family, but by the allowance of the inhabitants of the said town where he dwells, under the like penalty of 20s. per week."
At a Court held on the 28. of March 1637 it was ordered, that every juryman should have six pence for cach action given them upon evidence, " to be paid by him the action goes against." The spring of 1637 not only brought back those who had fled from the hard- ships of their first winter upon the Connecticut & many others with them ; but it also led to a decisive action on the part of Ludlow & his associates. It had undoubtedly been the aim of Ludlow upon leaving Massachusetts to establish a separate colony in Connecticut. In this movement he was sustained by his associates. The necessity of a promise of alle- giance to the Bay colony for one year at the outset of the emigration, was made impera- tive by the action of the General Court of Massachusetts. The population of the river towns at this early date, independent of Winthrop's twenty men at the Seabrook fort, num- bered about eight hundred souls, including two hundred & fifty adult men.
In organizing the first Court, it was Ludlow who instituted trials before Jurors .* ·(Nov. 1636) He took great pains to keep the English settlements free from the intrusion of adventurers, that the family relations of the commonwealth might be built upon the healthy principles of christian morality. A law was passed that none should join the colony, but by a vote of the inhabitants of the town to which they applied for admission. The courage of Ludlow, as a leader, is shown in the action taken by this Court, in declar- ing war against the powerful Pequots, a step which can never be regarded as other than the salvation of all the New England colonies. Left to preside over & protect the inhabitants of Windsor, with the few men who remained to assist him after the expedition had embarked upon its perilous undertaking, he must have endured that strong tension of nerve which requires an iron will to control. His feelings at this moment are expressed in a letter written from within the palisadoe of Windsor, which he gave an Indian a new coat to carry to Mr. William Pynchon of Springfield. He wrote : "I have received your letter, wherein you express that you are well fortified, but few hands. For my part, my spirit is ready to sink within me, when, upon alarms, which are daily, I think of your con- dition, that if the case be never so dangerous, we can neither help you, nor you us. But I must confess, both you and ourselves do stand merely in the power of our God.
Our plantations are so gleaned by that small fleet we sent out [He pleaded military necessity for taking Mr. Pynchon's boats without his leave; the boats were at or below ' Warehouse Point '], that those that remain, are not able to supply our watches, which are day and night ; that our people are scarce able to stand upon their legs ; and, for planting, we are in a like condition with you : what we plant is before our doors-little anywhere else."
While in this agony of suspense for himself & those whom he had been instrumental in leading to settle with him on the Connecticut, Ludlow must have indeed experienced as he declared in this letter " what it was to stand merely in the power of God." Never did more earnest prayers arise than he & those anxious, trembling hearts around him
* See Sergeant Seely's action against the inhabitants of Watertown, Ct., Col. Rec., Vol. I., 4.
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offered before the Throne of Grace, while they awaited the return of Mason & his band. Greater therefore than any pen can depict, must have been his joy & the joy of all within the river settlements, when Mason with his band, out of which five only had been killed, returned in triumph. Every demonstration of happiness was made in the settlements, & never did more heartfelt thanksgiving ascend on High Without delay Ludlow assembled a General Court (June 26.), when it was resolved to prosecute the war against the Pequots. As the terror of annihilation at the hands of the Indians no longer existed, he resolved to accompany the army ; & with several gentlemen from Hartford, set out with Mason & his forces for the Pequot country. On their way thither his old friend Captain Israel Stoughton from Dorchester, with a band of Massachusetts men, joined the expedition. The flying Pequots themselves, now stricken with the terror of annihilation were rapidly pursued through the forests of Quinnipiac, Cupheag, Pequonock, and Uncoa to a swamp lying in the Sasqug fields, about twenty-five miles South-west of New Haven where, before another day had passed, Ludlow witnessed the complete overthrow of the most powerful enemy of the English in the colonies, The country he had passed through was one new to him. Its fine scenery & maritime advantages, left an impression upon his mind not to be effaced. Upon his return to Hartford his energies were employed in legislating for the benefit of the colony, establishing peace with the Indians on the river, and in supplying the impoverished inhabitants of the settlements, with the necessaries of life for the approaching winter. He was appointed one of a committee to send a vessel to Massachusetts for corn & other supplies for the colonists. He was also appointed with Mr. George Hull of Windsor, to traffic with the Indians for the inhabitants of that town, for beaver on the Connecticut. Committees were also appointed for the other two towns, & no others were allowed to trade with the Indians under a heavy penalty.
The next step of importance taken by Ludlow and his associates towards making Connecticut an independent colony, was to enter into a voluntary combination for the maintenance of a " public state or commonwealth." During the long and tedious winter which followed the Pequot war, Ludlow with the council of his associates was engaged in preparing a frame of government for the colony. Here he had an opportunity to show his ability as a lawyer and a statesman. Here too a golden opportunity was offered him to triumph over those who had so grievously wounded him in Massachusetts, in opening a wide and conciliatory policy, by allowing the civil franchise to rest, not upon church membership, but upon a good moral character. This instrument, was the first Constitu- tion, of Connecticut, and is the first example in history of a written constitution-a distinct organic law, constituting a government and defining its power. Of this Constitution Dr. Trumbull says : " With such wisdom did our venerable ancestors provide for the freedom and liberties of themselves and their posterity. Thus happily did they guard against every encroachment on the rights of the subjects. This probably is one of the most free and happy constitutions of civil government which has ever been formed." Judge Hollister writes : " I have compared this paper with those written by Milton, expressive of his views of government and of liberty. In the political writings of the great poet I can see the marks of unbounded genius, vast imagination, and prophetic hopes, lighting up the dim horizon with the golden promise of dawn. But I find in them no well digested system of repub- licanism. He deals alone with the absolute. His republic would befit only a nation of Miltons. His laws are fit only to govern those who are capable of governing themselves. But Ludlow views the concrete and the abstract at once. He is a man of system-such systems as can alone be placed in the hands of frail men to protect them against their worst
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enemies-their own lawless passions." Again the New England historian Dr. Palfrey writes : " The whole Constitution was that of an independent state. It continued in force with very little alteration, a hundred and eighty years, securing throughout that period, a degree of social order and happiness such as is rarely the fruit of civil institutions." He also says " The instrument, drawn with great care and knowledge, seems to bear the marks of the statesman-like mind of Haynes and the lawyer-like mind of Ludlow." That Ludlow sought the approval of Haynes, towards whom he appears to have exhibited no personal resentment, is probable ; but the instrument is one which exhibits the skill of a lawyer's mind and phraseology ; and when compared with Ludlow's Code of 1649, leads to the acknowledged conclusion, that whatever happy influences he employed at that time, no other hand than his drew the first Constitution of Connecticut. On the II. of April 1639, the magistrates and freemen of Connecticut assembled at Hartford, and under the Constitution, proceeded to elect their officers " according to their order." John Haynes was chosen governor, and Roger Ludlow deputy governor. The election of Haynes at this time, must have been a severe disappointment to Ludlow, yet he could not have been wholly unprepared for it. Haynes had joined the colony during the latter part of the previous spring. He had been exceedingly popular while governor of Massachusetts, and his coming to Connecticut was considered a valuable acquisition to the colony. Probably on account of the dignity attached to his former office of governor, his name was placed before that of Ludlow's in the order of the list of magistrates, at the assembling of the General Court on the following November ; which could not have failed to give Ludlow a timely warning that he would probably be elected governor of Connecticut. Whatever disappointment Ludlow suffered at that time, he remained silent ; and as the freemen had not been given the privilege of holding a caucus, he no doubt felt that the election was the result of their honest vote. Experience had taught him that " truth is not to be spoken at all times " in a body politic,-at least, if " he had not learned the art so common in our age of telling the people precisely what he did not believe to be true," he had learned to master himself; and that his strength lay in silent submission to an injustice which was hard to bear. It may have been that this disappointment, which must have been more keenly felt than that which he had experienced in Massachusetts, led him to leave Windsor. The probability is, however, that the charming scenery, fine meadow and seaport advantages of the country near the borders of Long Island Sound, through which he had pursued the Pequots, influenced him, as soon as time and occasion served, to plant a colony near the spot of the final extermination of that hostile tribe.
In granting his petition the General Court selected Pequonnock as the most desirable point for a settlement. The course afterwards pursued by the Court in censuring Lud- low for exceeding his instructions by settling at Uncoway instead of Pequonnock, and fining him five shillings for his absence from a court held in September, leads to the con- clusion, that there existed some jealous fear lest he might form another colony south of the New Haven Colony. Be this as it may, the dissatisfaction expressed by the General Court after his apology for the step he had taken, certainly exhibits the plain fact, that there was very little room to question his excellent judgment in the matter. On the con- trary, they might much better have given him a vote of thanks for securing to the Con- necticut Colony one of the most valuable tracts along the Sound. The Herculean work accomplished by Ludlow at Fairfield, ever vigilant, zealous and unwearying for her weal, gives him the well merited title of the Father of Fairfield. Here he was thrice chosen deputy governor of the colony and several times made a commissioner to the United
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Colonies of New England, when great emergencies called for the wisdom of the choicest minds. He was annually chosen one of the magistrates of the colony, and was not only the first judge of the highest court of Fairfield, but, after the organization of the town, its first military commander. " He was the first lawyer who came into Connecticut, & one of the greatest who has ever lived in the state." In his unpretentious home, situated on the corner of Ludlow and Windsor streets," he compiled a code of laws, which many years afterwards, was destined to rank him among the leading statesmen of the age in which he lived.
The sanction given by Ludlow to the declaration of war against the Dutch by the citizens of Fairfield, he without doubt believed one of military necessity ; but his unfor- tunate step in accepting the office of commander-in-chief was a rash act. There exists, however, no evidence to show that he, or the citizens of Fairfield, who thus honored him with their confidence, had the slightest idea of sedition. It was " the impulsive action of those, who, foreseeing their own imminent peril, and hopeless of recovering the needed aid from a source whence they had a right to expect it, resolved to rise in their own defense." Nor is there a shadow of evidence to show, that Ludlow or his fellow townsmen either sympathized with, or countenanced the seditious men, who lived in the towns under the New Haven government. On the contrary, it has been plainly shown, that he immediately notified New Haven of the step he had taken, and called upon them for armed men to assist in going against the Dutch, and that while the insurrectionists were under arrest at Fairfield, the inhabitants of the town assisted the New Haven officers to quell the tumult they had raised about the place of their confinement.
Ludlow no doubt thought this a golden opportunity to bring the troublesome Dutch- men of New Amsterdam under the control of the New England colonies. The United Colonies had applied in 1653 to Cromwell " for help, shipping and forces " to prosecute a war against the Dutch, which were hourly expected to reach New England ; and certainly no more favorable opportunity could have offered for such a design, than while England was at war with Holland. There appears but little doubt, however, that the old jealousy which had existed toward him was strongly roused at this time, especially in the New Haven Colony, lest his ambition might tempt him to establish another colony, which should be more particularly under the control of the Mother-country, and perhaps more in sym- pathy with the views of the reformers in the Church of England. From this moment he became the victim of animadversion and persecution, especially among the inhabitants of New Haven ; and there were persons who attempted to rank him among the enemies of the commonwealth .; The fact that his family in England, while opposed to the arbitrary course pursued by Charles I., were not friendly to Cromwell, might also have been another cause for awaking suspicion towards him.
Disgusted with the sudden coolness of the magistrates of New Haven, who had advo- cated a war upon the Dutch with more zeal than any of the other colonies ; and had even declared that Massachusetts had broken the articles of confederation, in refusing to prose- cute a war against them, Ludlow resolved to leave the country. In his consciousness of no intentional guilt, his proud and sensitive spirit bowed under the humiliations heaped upon him. The suit brought against him by Thomas Staples for reporting, while visiting
* At the present date, 1888, the property of O. B. Jennings.
+ In a letter sent to Robert Basset by Abraham Kimberly the statement was made that " Baxter," one of the ringleaders against the New Haven Colony, "was a rogue and Ludlow was another."-New Haven Col. Rec., Vol. II., 58.
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.
the Rev. Mr. Davenport of New Haven, the story that Mrs. Staples was suspected of witchcraft, &c., thus making him responsible for the declarations of the witch Knap, and a majority of the men and women of Fairfield, was another source of deep humiliation to him. The course afterwards pursued by the New Haven Colony in confiscating the vessel at Milford, which he had engaged to carry his family and effects to Virginia, must have filled him with indignation and almost a sense of degradation.
For nearly two centuries the general belief prevailed that Ludlow went to Virginia, & there spent his days in seclusion ; but this was not the case. He undoubtedly went to Virginia with his family to pay a farewell visit to his brother George Ludlow, who lived in Yorktown. He very soon after left the country, & first settled at Dublin in Ireland. He appears to have followed his profession as a lawyer, for soon after his return, he was made one of a committee with Charles Cocke & Thomas Dunne, "to whom in July, 1656, the Council at Whitehall referred the petition of Thomas Jenner, for restitution of goods, which had been taken from him at Boston, under a commission from Major Sedge- wick & Capt. Leveret."* Immediately after Cromwell's death he removed to Holly- head, an island in the county of Anglesia, North Wales, a parliamentary town of con- siderable importance, & the nearest British seaport to Dublin. It was here, while the name of Ludlow was an offense in the ears of the King, that he first ventured to take up his residence in his native country.
Hitherto little has been known of Ludlow's family ; but the following document pre- sented to the author of this work by the late Joseph Lemuel Chester, D.C.L., LL.D., of London (one of Connecticut's most honored sons) only a few weeks before his death, affords an interesting & valuable clue to the family history of this remarkable man.
124 Southwark Park Road, London. S. E. England. 19 November 1881.
Dear Madam
The Pedigrees entered at the Herald's Visitation of Wiltshire give the descent of the family of Ludlow, of Hill Deverill in that county, the direct line of which is as follows :-
William Ludlow Esqr. = Margaret dau. & heir of Wm Rymer.
Fo'n Ludlow=Lora. dau. of Thos Ringwood. of Ringwood. Hants.
John Ludlow=Phillippa dau. of Wm Bulstrode, of London. William Ludlow=Joane dau. of Nichs More of Whitford. Hants. Esq.
George Ludlow Esq .= Edith dau. of Andrew. Lord Windsor,
eldest son and heir of Stanwell co Middlesex. She died in 1543.
!
Edmund Ludlow of Hill Deverill. Esq. Son & heir.
Thomas Ludlow 2d Son.
This Thomas Ludlow is supposed to be the ancestor of the Ludlows of Warminster, Wilts, sometimes living & having estates at Maiden Bradley in that county, & at Butleigh co. Somerset. There is little, if any, doubt, that such was the case, & that he was the Thomas Ludlow with whom I am about to deal. He made his
* Col. Papers Public Record Office, London, Vol. 13. 3. 1. Extracted by Sir Anthony B. Strausham of London.
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Will on the 19. of November 1'07, describing himself as of Dinton, co. Wilts, Gentleman. To his daughter Anne, then under 21 years of age & unmarried, he bequeathed £100. His wife Jane was to have a certain annuity out of his lands at Butleigh, co. Somerset, which were to descend to Gabriel his son. His wife was also to have his household goods at Butleigh & at Warminster, Wilts, & to be his executrix. He made his brother, Sir Gabriel Pyle, Knight, overseer of the Will.
The will was proved at London, in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury, on the 8th of June 1608, by the relict Jane Ludlow. How or why he came to be of Dinton at his death is unimportant. His identity is the chief question, & that is clear enough. His wife Jane survived him about 40 years, which shows that he must have died comparatively young. She made her Will on the Ioth of December 1646, describing herself as of Baycliffe,* Wilts, widow. The following is a full abstract of it :--. " To the poor of Maiden Bradley 20 shillings, & of War- minster 20 shillings,-to my son Roger Ludlow, one of my wedding rings ; and to my son George Ludlow, my other one-To Thomas, one of the sons of my son Gabriel Ludlow, £5 .; to Francis, another of his sons, my nag colt & gilt silver salt ; and to John, another of his sons £10 .- To Ann, Elizabeth & Sarah, daughters of my said son Gabriel, each {10. The residue of my estate, to my daughter in law Phillis Ludlow, & I appoint her my executrix. The will was proved in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury, on the 6th of July 1650, by Phillis Lud- low the executrix."
It is important to note just here that she made her daughter-in-law her executrix, instead of one of her sons which would ordinarily have been an unnatural proceeding. What was the probable cause for this ? Simply, that her eldest son Gabriel was already dead, & her other two sons, George & Roger, had emigrated to America. She therefore, most naturally, made the widow of Gabriel, who was still in England with her family, her residu- ary legatee & executrix, remembering, however, her two absent sons, by the bequests of rings. Nothing could be more clear than this.
This Jane Ludlow, wife & widow of Thomas, was the sister of Sir Gabriel Pile, Kt., of Wiltshire, who died in 1627. The daughter Anne is not named in her mother's will, & was therefore probably dead.
Gabriel Ludlow, the eldest son, was admitted to the Inner Temple, London, in November 1610, being described as of Butleigh, co. Somerset. He became a Barrister in 1620, & a Bencher in 1637. He was evi- dently dead at the date of his mother's will, in 1646, but I have been unable to find his will. His widow Phillis, made hers on the 12th. of September 1657, & it was proved on the 18th of December following. All the children named in the Will of her mother-in-law were still living ; & to her son Thomas she bequeathed a ring that had been given to her by his " uncle George Ludlow."
Roger Ludlow was evidently the second son of Thomas & Jane Ludlow. He was also admitted to the Inner ^ Temple, in November 1612, being described as the son of Thomas Ludlow then of Maiden Bradley, but he does not appear to have become a Barrister. We here find, however, where & how he obtained his knowledge of legal matters, which stood him in stead in New England, & enabled him to compile that wonderful code known in modern history as the " Blue Laws." Of him more hereafter.
George Ludlow, the youngest of the three brothers, also left a Will, which is fortunately on record in Lon- don, & which gives the clue to the solution of the whole mystery. The Will was dated on the 8th of September 1655, & I give a full abstract of it.
" I, George Ludlow, of the county & parish of York, in Virginia, Esquire, &c- To my nephew Thomas Ludlow, eldest son to my brother Gabriel Ludlow Esquire, deceased, & to his heirs forever, all my estate in Virginia, also my 16th of the Ship Mayflower, whereof Capt. Wm White is Commander, which I bought of Mr. Samuel Harwar, of London, Merchant, & I appoint him sole executor of my estate in Virginia, he to pay my now wife Elizabeth £50. per annum for her life, in London, in full satisfaction of her claims on my estate .- My crop this year to be consigned to Mr. William Allen, of London, Merchant, & Mr. John Gray that lives at the Green Man on Ludgate Hill, & they to receive the monies due me from Mr. Samuel Harwar, at the Sun & Harp in Milk Street, London- To each of my brother Gabriel's children now in England £100, out of the pro- ceeds of said crop, & the residue of said proceeds to go to my brother Roger Ludlow's children - To my said brother Roger £100. which I lent him - To George, son to Col. Wm Bernard, my great silver tankard with my arms upon it." [Sundry small bequests to friends & other persons evidently not relations.]
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