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 .

While this was j ustly a great disappointment , it was doubtless only a minor one among th e reasons wh ich prompted him to j oin those wh o soon after—to use their own language t ” foll“owed the s rong bent of their spirits to remove . The controlling factor in the whole situation lay in th e fact that men of masterful purposes , of broad views of human

rights , of faith in democrati c principles , could not long b rook s t f e e e es s the church member hip est of suf ra g , the xclusiv n and 7

the arrogance of ministerial interference and dictation in pub

r lic and private a fi a i s . Thus Massachusetts lost the services of one of h er ablest

men , and Connecticut , acquiring him as a p ioneer , to this day i enj oys the works of his hand in her unique const tution , her u n excelled j urisprudenc e and her political and religious lib er

t y . The valley of the Long River was not an unknown land to e the men of this new emigration . Its spell had long b efore b en

cast upon Dutch and English adventures , and the Sagamore

W ah uin n a c ut S a s s a cus q , an ambassador from , who came first

Ludl owe it to and dined w h Governor Winthrop , had urged the colonists to come to his country and given glowing des i i r cr pt ons of its att activeness .

Small parties from the three Bay towns , Dorchester , New t town and Wa ertown , c ame to Connecticut in th e summer of 1635 )as Brewster informs us in his contemporaneous letter ) Lu l to choose lo cations for their families . d owe came with

those from Dorchester , and Mathew Grant , the surveyor , in his first distribution set out a large lot to him at what was

again called Dorchester , for they brought the names of their

Massachusetts homes with them ) but Dorchester soon b ecame

Windsor , named from the royal city ) Newtown Hartford , the

. W eth er s fiel d English birthplace of Mr Stone , and Watertown , ’ John Talcott s foreign home . The lot s“o set out to him conta“ined 122 acres and was s it ” ” uat ed mon the island road at the two bridges between Mr . Sa“uel Allen and Mr . Henry Wolcott . O n this lot h e b uilt ” “ ” a stone house which was drowned very deep in t h e flood

1 63 - of 8 9 .

This house is b elieved to have stood near wh ere the new Loomis Institute ro ad now turns ofi from the old highw ay to ward the railroad .

Just here the undoubted facts compel th e painf ul admis sion t hat Ludl owe and his company established themselves in Windsor by a ruthless belligerency which calmly swept aside

the lawful claims of prior occup ants . 8

He returned to the Bay for th e following winter , and in March 1 636 the General Court of Massachuset ts empowered , , “ a commissi on of eight to govern th ose wh o thus had resolved

to ) transplant themselves and their estates unto th e river of “ ” Ludl owe E s Connecticut . Roger , q , was named first on

this commission and Andrew Warde last . To it were accorded

in combination the usual powers of Legislature Court and Ex

i a ct ec ut ve . Its enabling is a familiar document in American

hist ory . Thus wa s Roger Lu dl owe selected by those who knew him best to b e the virtual head of this first experiment in true democracy and his loss of the Massachusetts Governorship

might well b e thenceforth forgotten . i He forthwith moved to Windsor , and th e“first entry n the Colonial records of Connecticut is th at of a Corte hold en att 2 6 Newton )Hartford ) April , over which he with four of his associates on the Commission presided During the ensuing year he held several Cortes the

records of which h ave been preserved , at once instituted j ury ff trials . and doubtless labored constantly and e ectively in the ard uous task of guiding the three river towns on that untried

way which was to ultimately become Connecticut . Although the Charter of th e Commission expired by its

1637 . terms in March , , a renewal was never sought or granted The river towns had always intended and now learned to

Lu l stand alone . d owe appears to h ave continued by common

Ma y . On consent to act as chief executive th e first day “of , 16 37 , h e presided over what the re cord describ es as a Gener ” — all Corte at H a r t efor d the initial o“ccurrence by the w ay of — ff n uiv th at title for th e tribunal and there an o e s e warr agt .

P e uoit t th e q was declared , an act sometimes described as f the “irst display of soverei gnty i n New England . ” A pink , a pinnac e and a shallop th ereupon took down “the river more than one -h alf the fighting men of the three ” l a nt a con s Ludl owe p and , b efore th e issue is known , , weigh ed d own with the respons ibility for the administration of the 9

17t h r almost defenceless settlements , on May w ites in part as follo“ws to his friend Pynchon in like stress at Springfield For my part my spirit is ready to sink within me when a if ) upon a larms which are daily I think of your condition . if it But I must confess bot h you and ourselves do stand o merely by the power of our God , therefore he must and ught i“i i if to have all th e praise of it . Our plantations are so gleaned by that small fl eet we sent out that those th at r e it i f it it main are not able to supply our watches ) and

. wh at we plant is before our doors , little anywhere else th e On the 26th of the following month h e was order“ed by ” ” Gen r all Corte in conjunction with Mr . Haine to parle ” uoit t with the b ay about P eq matters , and in July he aecom 3 h p an i ed the force which on July 1 t under the command of -m h is friend an d fellow ship ate in the Mary and John , Cap t h e tain Mason , exterminated that trib e in great swamp fight ) al in Southport . hus active in war as well as in peace , and

ways observant , his zealous attention to the task committed to

F a ir fiel d his charge broug“ht him to , and coming he saw that which made its taking up so worth while as to b e spe edily

m. consum ated th e For the time being however , he returned with victor , “ Un cowa ious troops to the river towns , although fair with its ” h ills and streams , rich intervales and forest lands had cap t ur ed his imaginati on . Just here he diver s ifies the sameness of his constant civil service with the only ecclesiasti cal lab or which I find credited o to him and , with Mr . Pynchon as his fellow delegate , aec m p an i es Mr . Hooker and Mr . Stone to a colonial Synod wh ere in twenty-two days they helped to condemn ei ghty -two dis tinct teachings of the Antinomians , and , for some reason not clearly evident , took with them a scalp from those of which the Pequot heads had been so recently b ereft . B efore these days his name had always headed the list th of the magistrates who h eld the various courts upon e river , but his successful competitor for the governorship of Massa chus et t s t e on had now moved to Connec i cut , and , wh ther account of his greater wealth and far greater diplomacy , or

for some other reason , soon took precedence here , and from Nov ’ II a n es 14 t h 1 637 . ember , Mr y name appears first and Lud

’ lowe s sec ond . In this sequence h e appears in the roll call of each General Court until th e birthday of Con“necticut as a 14 1 639 Commonwealth on January th , for an orderly and decent government established a c cording to God with duties and powers and restrictions put into writing and published dates for Co n necticut and for the civilized world from th at day ? 7

It was very quietly done , this momentous act , this first written Constitution known to history that created a

It s gomvernment . adoption was th e b eginning of American de ocracy and th at is the same as to say of all properly safe ” guarded popular government the wide world over .

The Fundamental Orders of Connecticut are on e of th e

- epoch marking documents of history , and yet no account exists s of the method or surrounding circum tanc es of their adoption . They stand upon the r ecords of the State without in t r oduc tion or background or comment save the singl e concluding line 14th Ja nuary 1 638 - 9 the 11 orders above said ar e voted .

They were plainly deem ed to b e self explanat ory and self sufficient . They are the Mel chi z a d ek among the Magna

Chartas of the World . Some historians find in the General Court of those days the then equivalent of th e present General Assembly , and in as much as th e 7t h article o“f this instrument defines one of the duties of t h at Court to b e to agitate the a fayr es of the Com ” mon l h wea t , th e claim seems to b e well founded . Our only

c oncern with them today is to note the fact that , ever since their monumental character came to b e recognized and writ of Lu dl owe ten , Roger is conceded to h ave b een the a r t ific er of their form . While he doubtless was also influential in deter mining the principles involved he certainly clothed th ose in principles the language us ed . 11

1 1th 1 639 On April , , at th e first Court of Election created by and held under this new constitution he was elected — — r Deputy Governor M . Haynes being Governor and on“August 8th w as appointed with the Governor and Mr . Wells to goe

’ to the River s mouth to consult with Mr . Fenwick about a treaty of combination with some of the other New England colonies which may have been th e initi al step in t h e federa tion hereafter referred to . On the 15t h of the same month h e reports to the Gen eral

Court the result of this endeavor , but at the next Court held 5th 1 639 — on September , , his name for the first time since he came to Connecticut— does not appear in the list of magis trates present nor does it appear in the record of the Court , “ held five days later , and he is then fined five shillings for ” being absent . He appears again among the magistrates holding a Parti cul ar Court on O ctober 3r d and at a General Court h eld a , “ week later the record states th at Mr . Deputy informed the Court that he h ad understood since his r et ur n e ofi en ce hath beene taken att som e of his proceedings in his late j ourney to ” P equonn ocke and the parts thereab outs whereupon h e pro c eeds to explain his conduct and the margin of th e old record “ , Mr Ludl o is inscrib ed . we his apology for taking up Un coa .

e Thus by grace of an unprecedented absence , a sid note and an apolo gy we are enabled to ac cord to the month of Sep 1 639 t tember , , the distinction of having seen the bir h of Fair

field .

Ludl owe explains that att his coming to the P equon n ocke

i f i“ h e found cause to alter his former thoughts of winter ” i fi i ng ther“e , and nd ng that undesirable per“sons were plan ti ”i ning to take up a Pl an t a c on beyond h e adventured to drive his cattle thither i f and to sett out himself and som e others house lotts to build on there it it and sub mitts it W heth er h e hath transgresse d the Commission or nott .

) he Court unanimously conceaved that his proce edings ” be e l could not warrant d by th e Commission and , apparent y 12

e Gov th at he mi ght b e j udged by his peers , appointed the th n er n or Haynes and th e future G overnor Wells to visit th e place and adj ust the matter . im At a General Court held the following January t he ” x) fi l d Un c oa p or t un it y of Weth er s e concerning mo e was answered by a report fro this C mmittee that th y “ i“ ’ Ludl owe s . had thought fitt to confirme Mr . acts Ludl owe on We thus , and in no other way , learn that started his j ourney with friends and cattle to settle at P equon n ocke n ot under some kind of Commission , the nature of which is dis Un coa i , d closed , except that it did not cover the settl ng of an that Un coa appearing to our discerning , intrepid and always headstron g adventurer too goo d to lose was nevertheless ” planted . It should b e explained that t h e distri ct then called P e quon n ock extended from th e P equonn ock River w est erly

. toward , if not to , Ash Creek

o f 10 h Before finally leaving the General C urt o O ctob er t , 1 639 e , h owever , we sh ould note that indexed land records w re thereb y ordered and town clerks appointed for th e first time

e in New England , and provision mad for th e orderly settling e is o i of testate and intestate estat s , all of which c nv ncingly

s . credited to Mr . Ludlow

He is also appointed Chairman of a Committee t o gather “ ’ ” up the remarkable passages of God s providence from the b eginning of the Colony and report them for record .

f V l f r e An a fidavit of John Green found in o . A o our

a t 4 47 w wh o cords page sho s that some , if not all , of those

Un c oa came with him to were Joh n Green , Edward Jessup ,

Thomas Newton , Thomas Staples and Edmund Strickland . “” ” Th e house lott so as aforesaid sett out to him was on

t o the nor hwest side of Eli t Street , a short distance east of Mr . ’ t he Betts store , and near by were lots of his above named ” companions . He left his cattle here , but evidently did not

then build a house for himself, since he was soon back in Hart

of 3 ford as the ab ove quoted record O ctober d shows . 13

e 3d 1639 a n d He sat i n s ix Courts b etw en O ct ober , , 5t h 164 0 2d March , , both inclusive , but was absent on April , and thereafter continuously until the General Court) for th e 1642 election of magistrates in April , , when he was elected t he Deputy Governor again . This interval in his attendance at court on the river prob ably indicates the time when he was n busy at Un coa building his house , providing for and protecti g his in t er es t s a n d ordering t he affairs of the new plantatio“n . in In February , however , while still in Windsor , he was ” treated to consider some orders about intestate e s tates and

c orporal punishment and land tenures , for during his entire soj ourn in Connecticut toll was taken of his legal knowledge constantly . During his absence from the General Court and the place of its sessions , he was by no means forgotten , for in April ,

1640 h e was chosen a magistrate and appointed with Mr . , “ t o b P a uon Haynes and Mr . Wells settle , the bounds etween q ” ocke and Un cowa y e and t o tender the oath of Fidelity to ” the Inhabitants of the said Townes . In June of that year h e was ordered to set out th e bounds betwixt th e Planta ” tions of Cuphege ) n ow Stratford) and Un coway e and to

n h j oin with Mr . Hopki s of Cup ege in administering j ustic e 1 641 r there , and in April , , was again elected a magist ate .

The first twelve pages of th e first volume of our t own

i e e e records are m ssing , and th e entri s ther b gin with the year , 164 9 1650 t , which is prob ably old style for , so tha any informa tion about his actions here which may have been c ontained o in the l st pages will never b e available . It was undoubtedly b brief at the best , and pro ably related simply to his gran ts of land . What most , if not all , of these were we know suffi c i en t ly well from the record of the sales made by him j us t before he left , and hereafter referred to . We do know that the town was started by Ludl owe b oth geographically and civilly in orderly and well c onsidered fashi on and that its fashion and its founder soon a ttracted here the best blo od t he e N w in b oth Conn cticut and e Haven Col onies . The s ame intelligent con c ern for the welfare of his Colon y which l ed 14

him at th e outset to exceed his commission westward beyond P equon n ock soon made apparent the desirability of acquiring 26th 164 1 territory farther westward still and on February , “ , the Indians of Nor walke are pur s ua d ed by largess of wam — pum tobacco looking glasses and j ews harps , the coin cur , , , “ — . rent of th at aboriginal realm , to convey to Mst Roger ” Ludl owe of f aier fiel d the territory ext ending from the middl e of the Norwalk river to the middle of the Soakat uck river ’ a n d from the sea a day s walk into the Wh at his dealings with th e Indi a ns of F a ir field had been e we do not know . No deeds from them to him have ever com

t o . light , or from them to the inhabitants prior to his departure The three deeds which cover the present town and more are 1656 16 61 1670 e dated , and , but contain no r ference to him

or any suggestion that the previous relations between th e abor ) igin al grantors and t h e inhabitants had been otherwise than

satisfactory .

The deed from the Norwalk Indians is witnessed by Thom t h as Ludl owe and one Adam . Adam was evidently e Indian i . m servant given to him by Massachusetts Tho a s s s aid by

the Norwalk historian Selleck to have b een his son . His broth er Gabriel had a son Thomas but I find no evidence that Ro ger had such a child .

Ludl owe 19 1650 This Norwalk property agreed on June , , to surrender“to N ath an iel Eli and others in consideration that they would sett upon the pl ant in ge of Norwalk with all con ” v en ien t iv “speed , pay him fift“een pounds with interest and g e ” to his sonnes one of the first lots l a ied out of th e value £200 . t of There is nothing , however , to indicate hat any lot was ever so set apart . 13 1 654 — On April , one month before he parts with all — h is property in F a ir fiel d h e executes a formal transfer of i w d the Norw“alk land to El and his associates , and ackno le ges ” himself satisfied .

) ) h i s d eed s h ows tha t F a i r fi el d h a d be fore th i s d a t e b egu n i n l o a l s a t o la n U n cowa or U n cowa e a n m c u ge s upp t y s t h e a e of t h e n ew own a l h o h t h e e or d s of t h e S a e d o no s eemo i i l t t us e n 1 4 t , t ug r c t t t u t 6 5 . 15

A conspicuously handsome monument of bronze and gran ite in south eastern Norwalk now characterizes Ludl owe as “” the founder of that town . Emboldened by your civic pri de and guarded by your

Ludl owe friendship , I venture to claim that founded only one

town and that that town was F a ir field . As public a fi a ir s were administered in the Bay Colony in “ ” 1635 and 16 36 when the Dorchester Church )for so were the

s ettlers there contemporaneo usly described ) with its mini s ter

moved to Windsor , no lay memb er of the pilgrimage , however learned could successfully claim to h ave founded the place , “ where it next set downe , while the ab ove transcription of what really happened between th e Saugatuck and Norwalk rivers ought to make the monument blush for its metallic

statement . After his election as Deputy Governor in 1 642 he sat once in the General Court before the next Court of Election at

r e which , not b eing eligible under the custom for consecutive a appointment as deputy , h e was chosen magistrate , appointed l d moderator of the particu ar court , and irected to hold two

Un c owa local courts for Stratford and “y during the year . 164 3 d es eir ed In November , , the Colony him to review ” l r o the S ou d ea s of the towns upp n the sea coast . If Frank “” Ludl o lin was many sided surely Ro ger we was as truly s o . He was reelected Magistrate in 1 644 and 4 5 but appar ently

l a was still busy in the new p ant tion , and attended court only

once . His labors had by this time produced a de gree of pros per it y in F a ir fiel d which caused it in 1 645 to be for the first time included in the rate levy of th e Colony . He was again elected magistrate in 164 6 and d es eir ed to take some paynes in drawing forth a body of laws for the ” o government of this Commonwealth , and it was rdered that two particular cou“rts be held immediately preceding the two general courts that both the assistance of Mr . Ludl owe may b e had and such actions as fall out betwixt any upp on the River and the Townes by the sea side be more comfortably attended . 16

Th e body of lawes a bove referred to was finally com

t h e pl et ed by Ludl owe a n d adopted by General Court in May , 1 50 n was 6 . No record or evide c e exists to show th“at he ever compensated therefor beyond the statement that it is the myud ” of the Court that he b e c onsidered for his p aynes . To this “’ ” e d a y it is known a“s Ludl owe s Code . It is not a r vision o r compilation but a systematic and comprehensive body of laws prefaced by a Bill of Rights in which are contained s ev ” eral of the leading provisions of Magna Charta . It is a marvelous production for a wilderness inhabitant and in form and substanc e most of its articles are today

embodied in the general legislation of the State . He was elected a magistrate in 1 647 and Deputy Governor 1 64 8 1 649 50 5 1 52 53 in , then again first magistrate in , , , and , 1 8th 1 654 but at the Court of Election on May , , his name t does not appear and therewi h , except for the Staples tri al ,

he passes out of Connecticut history . After his last election as Deputy Governor he participated

a in the General Court at H rtford only five times , except when

it sat as a Court of Election , for other lawyers well enough

equipped for the purpose h ad come to th e front , but he was regularly elected a memb er of it and in all matters of moment to the colony at l a rge was generally ac corded a prominent

t s N po s ition . He is sen “on commis ions to the ew Haven Col ” “ 1 649 th S o er ony , and in is desired to prepare e ul dg s for t h e Indian War . 1 643 In Connecticut j oined with Massachusetts , Plymouth

- — and New Haven Saybrook also having some plac e to form a federation known as The United Colonies of New England to better meet the ever present peril from the Dutch and

Indians . To the meetings of this Federation Ludl owe was 1 64 sent as Commissioner from Connecticut for the years 8 , 51 52 53 , and , and when th e peril from the Dutch was b elieved to have become imminent and the federated colonies seemed

F a i r field 1 653 to act tardily or not to act at all , in the fall of declared war all by herself and appointed Ludl owe Command

18

Gold had c ome here from Milford in th e New Haven 1 64 9 Colony in , and Andrew Warde of th e same colony c ame at about the same time . My own first lineal ancestor in the town , Rich ard Perry , probably th e one time Secretary of y th at name in the New Haven Colony , had also recentl moved i n and was then living on the opposite side of Main Street .

For reasons which c an only be conj ectured , Roger Lud w Ma y l 0t h lowe left F a ir fiel d and Connecticut bet een , and 2 9 th 1 4 65 . , never to return It is supposed that an ac cumula , m tion of slights , disappoint ents , undeserved criticisms , petty

n j ealousies a d failure to reco gnize his priceless services , cul mi n in a t g in his failure to attain the Governorship , the Dutch

a n d War episode , th e Staples law suit determined his depart ure , although Mr . John M . Taylor , his latest biographer , con c eives it to be quite possible that an invitatio n from Oliver

Cromwell , to whom he was well known , to return and enter the service of the English Commonwealth m ay h ave b een a

- a n d u super added controlling ca se , for it is known that at this time su ch invitations were coming to th is country . He was

- n too efficient a man to be round cor ered . too energetic to b e

n - companio able , too dire ct to b e diplomatic , too self reliant

- l for t it er r e and out spoken to be popular . A ways in h e was u vi apparently seldom s a t er in modo. He wa s a wilderness

u . subduer and a fo ndation builder , not a so cial favorite . The Massachusetts records disclose that while an impo“rtant ques tion of government wa s under discussion there he grew into

O a passion and continued stiff in his pinions , and on two occasions men were fined for piling epithets upo n him which were possibly deserved but decidedly unpleasant for the per 3 son described to listen to . Wh en in 16 5 he failed of promotion to th e Governorship , h e stormed ab out in a way which made no friends , and even the sainted wife of “John Davenport felt j ustified in describing him under o ath as free in his spee“ch . Amon g the content ious of those days he was described as the ff ” che e man . Be it said to his credit however , that among his “other contentions he was th e first man in New England to ” hotly condemn a politi cal caucus . Too indispensable to 19

have been out of important public office a single year of the

twenty -four wh ich he spent in New England and yet never n quite attaining the highest almost , but not quite the leadi g , “

figure of his time , he chartered a vessel to transport himself ” and his family to Ver gen i a there to visit his broth er b efore

ret urning to his native land . When the Colony of New Haven i in April 1654 confisc ated the ship so chartered , he compla ned

bit terly and departing soon afterward as above stated , sailed , I

j udge , direct to Ireland , for I can find no evidence of his going

V i . to irg nia , while the deposition of a Mr Webster )State Arch 1660 l . 4 ives private controversies Vo . II . doc ) made in speaks of

Lu dl owe an event as having happened about the time Mr . went ”f for ol d England . Lan ding in Ireland he crossed over and was at Holyhead

1654 . in Septemb er , where his cousin , Edmund Ludlow , Lieut ’ s General of Cromwell forces in Ireland , tells us in his memoirs

that he met him and took him b ack to Dublin . There he 18 th 1654 was soon nominated by Cromwell , and on Decemb er , , t appoin ed by the Lord Deputy and Council , to b e a memb er of a Commission composed of men of th e greatest distinction e to settle claims relative to the forfeited lands in Ir land , and i for o“ther purposes . Th e record s as follows Ludl owe E s It is ordered th at Ro ger , q , be appointed i Gommu . for the adm nistration of j ustice at Dublin and like

cl a me or wise for the adj udication of y s and to that end it is dered that he b e inserted in the Respective Commission for

that Purp ose ) and it is further ordered that h e b e added to the Commission for the administration of j ustice in the County

c omi ms s on h of Corke , and inserted in the for t e Peace of the

said County , to the end he may act in the administration of mj ustic e there until he shall b e otherwise disposed of as there ay be occasion for the most advantage of the Common ” wealth . m He sat in this Com“ission during its life and on S eptem 22 1758 ber , , was paid in full for his good servi ces .

) A fter a rr ivi n g a t th i s con cl u s i on I fi n d i t s upporte d i n a n ote b he S a r t l a e e L ib a i a n C h a l es J . oa d le i n l y t t t r r H y Vo . 4 1 N e w E ng . n H i s t . a d G en . R eg . P . 6 5 . 20

Thereupon he was appointed on a new Commissi on order ed by th e Lord Protector and associated again with men of

n ot e .

H e also was made Master in Chancery for Ireland , a lucra ) h tive position of aut hority and great responsibility . e last known reference to his public labors is found in t he Receiver ’ General s accounts and is as foll ows

16 1 659 . n o Dec . , To Mr Jonatha Ludl w )probably his ’ 12 h c 1 659 W a r r t . t oldest son ) by dated ye of D c r , , the sum of twenty pounds for ye use of Roger Ludlow for his care and

p ains taken in several publique services in thi s nacon , and is in ’ ful s at is fa c con of all past services done by him for ye Com mn l th o wea .

The last known reference to the man h imself is the foll ow ’ ing entry in the records of Saint Michan s Parish Church in Dubl“in ) 1 L dl 664 3 . u owe t o o June Burial , Mary , wife R ger Lud w lo e , Esq . From this it is apparent that the husb and was then living and resident in Dublin .

No authority yet seen records his death or p oints to h is grave .

If the Constitution which he devi sed was the Mel chi z a deck

t o of Democracy , he himself appears h ave been its Moses , and b to have een punished , as was that first great lawgiver, for in fir mit ie s of temper . him He apparently took with to Ireland his wife Mary

Cogan and such of his six children , Jonathan , Joseph , Roger, n An e , Mary and Sarah , as were then born . One of these was b orn in Windsor . The b irthplaces of the others we do not

. t know Sarah married Na haniel Brewster , a nephew of Elder

Brewster of Plymouth , and returning to this country died and is buried at Setauket , Long Island . Captain Caleb Brewster

u of Black Rock , of Revol tionary fame , was one of her des c en d an t s was , and his grandson , Caleb Brewster Hackley , the last of th e Ludl owe l in e living in or near Fa irfield unl ess what 21

the late Mr . Henry Mills thought probable ultimat ely proves to be true , that the wife and children of the President of this

Society enj oy that envi able distinct ion . It is not without regret that I have thus made my contri ’ b ut ion to your evening s entertainment as dry and un in s pir ing as the index of a book of deeds . I was anxious but unable to do otherwise . The early records and contemporary litera ture of the town h ave been searched in vain for a human pic ture of our founder . We are trusted with the knowledge that his pastor had one eye and great fervor , but of what parts was Roger Lud lowe ? Our curiosity is piqued by th e long silences where during the fifteen years of his guardi a nship of our infancy some in formation mi ght so easily h ave been given about his local in t er est s a , his community rel tions , his appearance , his family , and his so ci al life .

n Th at , when his fellow citi ze s were identified by their

first names and habitually referred to without prefix or title , he was sufficiently described in Town and Colony and Federa

Ludl owe tion as Mr . , and his constant public services duly noted , excites our pride but does not contribute to the intima cy we would like to feel . ’ He was the Colony s wise leader and capable executive , ’ but he was our ancestors friend and nei ghb or , and we resent the fact th at we lack his picture and were so flippa nt ly dep

of rived his declining years and continuing poste rity . We are glad however that while he stayed we gave him of offices and land and confidence the best we had . The makers of Connecticut history adorn her Capitol at

Hartford , and among them is necessarily the subj ect of our sketch . Brooks ’ splendid statue placed in the western niche on the

1 0 an d north front in 9 9 portrays him in cloak , doublet short clothes with a law book in his hand , strikingly intellectual , m and palpably co bative as he looks out from the building wh ere center the activities of that which he taught how to be 22

’ a State . The hair is long a s w as Cromwell s , whose example w e s in that r espect he is said to have followed , hil th e feature are copied from an existing portrait of a relative .

Next to him stands John Mason , his fellow immi grant ,

- quondam neighbor and life long friend , and beyond Mason are Governors Eaton Winthrop a n d Haynes .

Thus in memorial effigy as in active life he i s on e of and l evel with the choicest spirits of hi“s time . Connecticut ’s reco gnition of the father of Conne cticut ” Jurisprudence , as he was early called by Judge Thomas Day , t hough late is generous , for the Supreme Court room in the ’ n ew State Library derives distinction from Herter s notable portrayal of th e enactment of the Fundament a l Orders in which

Ludl owe Ro ger seated at th e table dominates the group .

for Except three lines upon the b oulder on our Green , the w town hich owes its existence to his discernment , and its early e prominence to his repute , has paid no lasting tribut to his memory .

) h e r e ed i n s k e h wa s r e n d e e d os s i l e a n d it s a h o p c g tc r p b by , ut r i s ea n e r e M ) a o of a o h o er n l i d e d t o P s . J oh n l d md t e gr t y bt , . y r H rtf r i o a he o f L ud l owe a n d i n a l es s er e r on s i d e a l e d e ee t o b gr p r , bu t v y c r b gr ) h e i s o of F a i r fiel d M r s S h en k t o t h e A i l on L ud l owe H t ry by c c , rt c e mA ) e i Ma z n e a n W i l l i a . e s l a e of F a r fi l d i i mi by r ) t e ) n ) h e ga e o f A r c r l VI I I R ev o r n r o r H i o Vo . o D M i d dl ow t o M d a d s t . o a of e . G t y , ct r H t t , , t h e S a e L i a i a n a nd h i s a s s i s a n s a n ma n o h e k i n d r i e n d d t o s t t br r t t , y t r f a n d h el pe r s wh os e u n i ted con t ibut i on s h a e g i en t o i t s uch a l u e a s — r v v v i t h a s J . H . P .

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