Roger Ludlowe

Roger Ludlowe An Historic al Sketc h prepared by ohn H Perr J . y For his Assoc iates in the Fairfield Historic al Soc iety at the Obser v an c e of the ) wo H undred a nd Se ve nty Fifth Anniv ersary of the Founding of the — “ a mm m P ubli she d by the Fa i rfi e ld His to r i ca l So c i ety ’ i r e ss o f the ) r idge p o r t S tan da r d ROG ER LUDLOWE by John H . Perry A quarter of a millenium and almost exactly a quarter of a century ago in September 1 639 the history of F a ir fiel d began j ust across El iot street from the present home of the Society which finds a worthy occupation in perpetuating it . The early life of the pl antation was directed by and centered about Roger Lu dl owe whose signature distinguishes our seal and I whose story am asked to tell on this occasion . He c ame of an English family early domiciled in Shr op shire and from thence moving into Wiltshire where his a n c es tors are found in the first rank of gentlemen entitled as ) ni ghts of the Shire to stand as candidates to represent their county in Parliament , an honor which they seldom faile d to acquire . Th e arms of the family were ) Argent a ch evron ’ r between three ma tins heads eras ed sable . Crest ) A demi mar tin rampant sable . Motto ) Omne solum forti patri a )To a brave man every land is home ) . Our Roger was the second son of Thomas Ludl owe of Dinton , Wiltshire , gentleman , and Jane Pyle , sister of Sir Gab ) riel Pyle , ni ght , and was baptized if not born on March 7t h 1590 - . He accordingly founded F a ir field in his forty ninth - year . He was cousin to Lieut . General Edmund Ludl owe who was a memb er of the Court at the trial of ) ing Charles and “ , was c alled by Mac aulay the most illustrious survivor of a ) mighty race of men , the j udges of a ing , th e founders of ” a republic . His eldest brother , Gabriel , was called to the Bar in Eng ih 1 620 land and b ecame a Bench er in 1 6 37 . His youngest brother , George , emigrated to New England and thence to ) V orktown , in irginia , where he acquired a large estate and 4 became lieuten a nt of the county with the rank of Colonel and w - a member of th e Council . He o ned one sixteenth of the ship Mayflower . Ro ger matri culated at Oxford from B a liol College on 1 6 t h 1 6 10 but did June , , not graduate , and became a student 1 6 12 . in the Inner Temple in November . The succeeding eighteen years preceding h is departure were devoted to the study and practice of th e law , and in them h e ac quired a pro im fes s ion a l equipment such as was possessed b y no other mi grant of his time . With su ch line a ge a n d tr“a ining he necessarily found a congenial plac e a mong those wh o were c a lled by duty as well as choic e to th e field of adventure an d preferment then Opening in New England . To this service he gave his fortune and his highly trained endeavors . a 1 62 8 a In M rch , , a roy l grant of c ertain estates across the sea wa s obtained by John Endecott a n d others wh o were ” y known as The Dorch ester Compan . Some months later the ori ginal patentees with twenty n ew associ“ates pro c ured from ) in g Charles the famous Chart er of the Governor and Company of Massachusetts Bay in ” Ludl ow New England . In this Company e was chosen an as s is t a n t by the sto ckholders in London on O ctob er 2 0th 1 629 “ , , th at his counsel and j udgement might aid in preserving or ” n der and foundi g the social structure upon the surest b asis . In the Dorchester an d ) ay Companies h e was asso ciated w t o i h the l ading minds of his day , makers of the English as h N w l a well as t e e Eng nd Commonwealth . To b e chosen as an u ma n assistant by s ch men , a position equivalent to that of a m’ i n f aging director the Co pany s a fairs , was honor indee d . a s To serve also Deputy Governor in both Colonies , Governor a de facto in Connecticut , M gistrate , Commissioner , Legislator , Jurist , Judge . Maker of Treaties , Deviser of Constitutions , fl n mil er w p of La s , and Champion of Democracy b ecam e his t h e hi inevitable task in land of s adoption . 20th 1 6 30 Ludl owe s et On the of March , , sail from Ply min t h i M e a o outh sh p ry and J hn , a ship of four hundred tons which he then or thereafter owned , with John Mason , S outh cot e Underhill , Patrick , , and Smith , the minister M aver o ick and his colleague Wareham , and , what C tton Mather c al “ ” . led , an honorable Company of lesser notables In May of that year , a month in advance of Andrew Warde , h e landed ’ l on Nantasket Point , and finally sett ed at Mattapan which subsequ ently became Dorchester . He is said in some biographies to have marr i ed Mary , Endecott , th e sister of Governor Endecott already mentioned t h e but it is more probable that he married Mary Cogan , il daughter of Ph obert Co gan of Chard , in Somerset , wh o was ’ Re Vol . the sister of Endecott s wife . )N . E . Hist . and Gen . g , 4 3 be , P . This marriage had apparently taken plac e fore he sailed . Through five industrious years h e lab ored acceptably for Massachusetts and so earn ed the right to b e c alled chief which the Bible awards to those wh o serve . Th e servant of all h e thereby b ecame the greatest of all . He was conceded to b e and ch aracterized as the princi ” H e pal lay citizen of Dorchester . e was one of its thre stock h olders i n the Bay Company . He selected the site for its plantation and was a land owner , land commissioner , land th e vi ewer , and surveyor there . He was appointed a j ustice of peace with Winthrop and Saltonstall soon after h is arrival ) negotiated the first treaty with the Pequots and another with th e Narragansetts and Mohegans ) served as Admi nistrator of estates ) drafted orders and laws to meet emergencies and w as offici o Colonel ex . Wh en th e subversion of the Colonial gov er n men t through the instrumentality of Laud was threat ened by th e ) ing i n 1 634 and the Colonists resolv“ed to defend themselves by force if necessary , he was made overseer of ” the work at Castle Island , )now Fort Independence , ) one of th e most important defences on the coast , and finally was chosen a memb er of a military commission of most ext r a or din n n ot ary authority with Wi throp , Dudley , Hay es , Endec t , Bel l in h am g , Pynchon and Bradstreet as his associates . To reverse Ex omni u i b sce the familiar motto , s d unum . 6 But although h e stood thus high in th e councils and con w fid en c e of his co ntemporaries , matters in the Bay Colony ere sh aping to an end which must inevitably cost it his allegianc e in common with that of Hooker , Haynes , Stone and our own Andrew Warde . At a meeting of the General Court of the Colony in May , 16 31 it was , “ Ordered and decreed that for the time t o come no man shall b e admitted to the freedom of this body politic but such as are memb ers of some of the churches within the limits of the same . Thus these men who had expatriated themselves for t h e sake of civil and religious liberty undertook to build a state on the basis of a church convenant with ecclesiastic al i ” dominati on in spiritual and temporal a fi a r s alike . The ultimate outcome of this was foreordained . First fl t he came friction , then h eat , then sparks , then ame , then sep arating and dissipating consequences which follow confla gr a n tion . Four years was the period of this i evitable progression , during all of which Lu dl owe served his associates in th e labors more abundant which h ave been above enumerat ed . 14th 16 34 On May , , h e had been elected Deputy Gov 1 635 ernor and in due course should have b een Governor in , but was defea“ted by John Haynes who is c ontemporaneously described as of large estate and larger affections and dear to the people by his b enevolent virtues and disinterested“con ” t Ludl o e duct , al hough w himself referred to him as his evil ” genius .

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