George Duncan Ludlow

George Duncan Ludlow (September 29, 1734 – November 13, 1808) was lawyer and a Puisne Judge of the Supreme Court of the British Province of New York in the Thirteen Colonies who became the first Chief Justice of New Brunswick in Canada.

George Duncan Ludlow
1st Chief Justice of New Brunswick
In office 1784–1808
Preceded by	None
Succeeded by	Jonathan Bliss
Personal details
Born	September 29, 1734 Queens County, Long Island, Province of New York
Died	November 13, 1808 (aged 74) Fredericton, New Brunswick

George Ludlow was part of the British elite who served as Master of the Rolls and Chief Superintendent of the police for Long Island. A Loyalist during the American Revolution, in 1781 Ludlow abandoned his estate at Hempstead Plains to return to England. In 1784, he would be named the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the newly created Province of New Brunswick in Canada. James Putnam, Isaac Allen, and Joshua Upham were appointed as assistant judges. Justice Ludlow's brother, Gabriel George Ludlow, was named the first mayor of the important port city of Saint John, New Brunswick.

George Ludlow built a large home on the Saint John River at Springhill, five miles above the new province's capital of Fredericton. He married Frances Duncan with whom he had three children.

Ludlow served as Chief Justice of New Brunswick until his death in 1808.

His daughter Frances Duncan Ludlow (1766–1797) was the second wife of Richard Harison.

The village of Ludlow in Northumberland County is named in his honour.

Ludlow Hall on the campus of the University of New Brunswick was formerly named in his honour until being removed on the 26th of May, 2020 amid disputes about his controversial political stances. The building houses the Faculty of Law.[1]

Controversy

George Duncan Ludlow, a slaveholder himself, upheld slavery in New Brunswick in a controversial court case in February 1800. George Ludlow found that slavery was lawful based on customs in North America despite there being no British statute legalizing it. However, by 1820 slavery ended in New Brunswick, partly due to the controversy arising from the 1800 decision.[2]

George Duncan Ludlow also served on a local board of commissioners for the Sussex Vale Indian Residential School where he advocated for the total removal of Indigenous children from their parents.[3]

References

1. "History of Ludlow Hall". blogs.unb.ca. Retrieved 2018-12-31.
2. "Biography – LUDLOW, GEORGE DUNCAN – Volume V (1801-1820) – Dictionary of Canadian Biography". www.biographi.ca. Retrieved 2018-12-31.
3. Fingard, Judith (1972). "The New England Company and the New Brunswick Indians, 1786-1826: A Comment on the Colonial Perversion of British Benevolence" (PDF). www.unbi.org. Retrieved 2018-12-31.

• Province of New Brunswick, Chief Justices
• The Winslow Papers at the University of New Brunswick
• Place Names of Atlantic Canada by William Baillie Hamilton (1996 ) University of Toronto Press ISBN 978-0-8020-7570-3
• Isabel Louise Hill, The Old Burial Ground, Vol. II, (1979) pp. 108–110
• "George Duncan Ludlow". Dictionary of Canadian Biography (online ed.). University of Toronto Press. 1979–2016.