AFTER THE WAR
With the return of peace in the triumph of the cause for which he
had battled, Colonel Ludington by no means lapsed into inactivity or
obscurity, but continued to serve the State in various ways with the
same earnestness which he had shown in war. For some time he was again a
deputy sheriff of Dutchess County, and in the performance of his duties
on one occasion was severely stabbed by a desperado named Brown, whom
he was arresting. For many years he was a justice of the peace, his
long service being ample evidence of the confidence which his fellow
citizens reposed in his probity and of the esteem in which they held
his intelligence. He had not a legal education. Indeed, as has already
been observed and as the composition of his letters clearly shows,
his schooling in even the ordinary branches was slight. His rulings
as justice of the peace were therefore based more upon common sense
and practical, elementary justice than upon technical familiarity with
statute law or with the prescribed forms of judicial procedure. His
shrewd sense and his just disposition, however, guided him so well that
his administration of the office was satisfactory to those who had
occasion to use his court, and it was a rare thing for an appeal to be
taken against any of his decisions, and still more rare for a higher
court to reverse his judgment. After many years of satisfactory service,
one of his friends persuaded him that he should pay more attention to
the technical conventionalities of judicial procedure, and to that
end provided him with a compendium of legal practice. This treatise,
admirably comprehensive yet concise, covering a number of foolscap
pages of manuscript, is among Colonel Ludington’s papers now in the
possession of his grandson, Charles H. Ludington. Colonel Ludington
accepted the advice with some misgivings, but studied the compendium,
and when the next case came before him he conducted court in a more
technically correct way than before. On this occasion an appeal was
made by the defeated party to a higher court, and that court reversed
Colonel Ludington’s judgment and ordered a new trial. That was something
which had never before happened, and was naturally a cause of chagrin to
him. He indignantly declared that it was all because of the new-fangled
methods of procedure which his friend had persuaded him to adopt, and he
thereafter persisted in conducting his court in the old-fashioned way.
Among the records of the Dutchess County justices’ courts, or courts
of special sessions, are many entries of cases tried before him. In
October, 1803, Henry Ludington, Cyrus Benjamin and Stephen Hayt occupied
the bench when “Ruamy Shaw was brought before the court charged with
feloniously stealing, taking and carrying away from the house of Isaac
Russell a pair of shoes and a Tea Kettle Holder, whereupon the said Court
after hearing witnesses for and against the prisoner are of the opinion
that the said Ruamy Shaw is guilty, … that she therefore pay a fine of
five dollars and stand committed until judgement be complied with.” The
fine was promptly paid, in the form of a due bill by William Shaw. In
July, 1806, before the same justices, “Else Lake, Spinster, was convicted
… for feloniously stealing taking & carrying away one Plad Chinz gown
out of the dwelling house of Frances Mead … and that the said court lay
a fine of $5, and that she stand committed until the same is paid. She
refusing to pay the same, Metimas (mittimus) wrought and delivered to
John Griffen const.” That plaid chintz gown was a source of much trouble,
for on that same day before the same court, “Phebe Davis, wife of Solomon
Davis, was … convicted for feloniously stealing one Plad Chinz gown to
the value of $3.50 cents, the property of Frances Mead, and that the said
Court lay a fine on the said Phebe of $6 and that she stand committed
until the same is paid. She refusing to pay the same, Metimas wrought and
delivered to John Griffen const.”
It will be of some quaint, antiquarian interest to recall the phraseology
of the commissions which were in those days issued to justices of the
peace. One of those issued to Henry Ludington, now in the MS. collection
of Mr. Patrick, runs as follows, being practically identical, _mutatis
mutandis_, with others issued to him by later governors.
THE PEOPLE of the State of New York, by the Grace of GOD, Free
and Independent.
To David Brooks, … Henry Ludington, … and Ahab Arnold, in our
County of Dutchess, Esquires, Greeting:
Know Ye, that We have appointed and assigned; and by these
Presents, do appoint and assign, you and every of you, jointly
and severally, Justices to keep Our Peace, in our County of
Dutchess, and to keep, and cause to be kept, all Laws and
Ordinances, made or to be made, for the good of the Peace,
and for the Conservation of the same, and for the quiet Rule
and Government of the Citizens and Inhabitants of our said
State, in all and every the Articles thereof, in our said
County, as well within Liberties, as without according to the
Force, Form and Effect of the same Laws and Ordinances; and
to chastise and punish all Persons offending against the Form
of those Laws and Ordinances, or any of them, in the County
aforesaid, in such Manner, as, according to the Form of those
Laws and Ordinances, shall be fit to be done; and to cause to
come before you, or any or either of you, all those Persons
who shall break the Peace, or have used, or shall use Threats,
to any one or more of the Citizens or Inhabitants of our said
State, concerning their Bodies, or the firing of their Houses,
or Barns, to find sufficient Security for the Peace, or their
good Behaviour towards the People and Inhabitants of our said
State; and if they refuse to find such Security, then them in
Prison, until they shall find such Security, to cause to be
safely kept: And further, We have also appointed and assigned
you the said Justices, or any three or more of you, to enquire,
by the Oath of good and lawful Men, of our County aforesaid, by
whom the Truth may be the better known, of all, and all manner
of Larcenies, Thefts, Trespasses, Forestallings, Regratings,
Engrossings and Extortions whatsoever, and of all and singular
other Crimes and Offences, of which Justices of the Peace may
or ought lawfully to enquire, by whomsoever, and after what
Manner soever, in the County aforesaid, done or perpetrated,
or which shall happen to be there done or attempted: And also,
of all those who in the said County have gone or rode, or
hereafter shall presume to go or ride, in Companies with armed
Force, against the Peace, to the Disturbance of the Citizens
and Inhabitants of our said State: And also, of all those who
have there lain in Wait, or hereafter shall presume to lie in
Wait, to maim, or cut and kill, any Citizen or Inhabitant of
our said State: And also, of all Victuallers and Innholders,
and all and singular other Persons, who have offended or
attempted to offend, or hereafter shall presume or attempt to
offend in the said County, in the Abuse of Weights or Measures,
or in the Sale of Victuals, against the Form of the Laws and
Ordinances of our said State, or any of them, made for the
common Good of our said State, and the Citizens and Inhabitants
thereof: And also of all Sheriffs, Bailiffs, Constables,
Gaolers and other Officers whatsoever, who, in the Execution of
their Offices about the Premises, or any of them, have unduly
demeaned themselves, or hereafter shall presume to behave
themselves unduly, or have been, or hereafter shall happen to
be careless, remiss or negligent, in the County aforesaid;
and of all and singular Articles and Circumstances, and all
other Things whatsoever, that concern the Premises or any of
them, by whomsoever, and after what Manner soever in the said
County, done or perpetrated, or which shall hereafter happen
to be done or attempted, in what Manner soever, and to inspect
all Indictments whatsoever, so before you or any of you taken,
or to be taken, or before others late Justices of the Peace
in the said County, made or taken and not determined; and to
make and continue Processes thereupon, against all and singular
the Persons so indicted, or who, before you, shall happen to
be indicted, until they be taken, surrender themselves, or
be out-lawed; and to hear and determine all and singular the
Larcenies, Thefts, Trespasses, Forestallings, Regratings,
Engrossings, Extortions, unlawful Assemblies, Indictments
aforesaid, and all and singular other the Premises, according
to the Laws, Ordinances and Statutes, of our said State; as
in the like Case it has been accustomed or ought to be done;
and the same Offenders and every of them, for their Offences,
by Fines, Ransoms, Amerciaments, Forfeitures and other Means,
according to the Laws and Customs of our said State, and the
Form of the Ordinances and Statutes aforesaid, it has been
accustomed or ought to be done, to chastise and punish. You,
therefore, and every of you are diligently to attend to the
keeping of the Peace, Laws and Ordinances, and all and singular
other the Premises, and at certain Days and Places, which
you, or any three of you shall, in that behalf, appoint, or
by Law shall be appointed, you enquire into the Premises, and
hear and determine all and singular the Premises, and perform
and fulfil the same in form aforesaid; doing therein what to
Justice appertaineth, according to the Laws and Ordinances
aforesaid: Saving to Us our Amerciaments and other Things to Us
thereof belonging: And the Sheriff of our County of Dutchess
aforesaid, at certain Days and Places, which you the said
Justices of the Peace of the said County, or any three or more
of you shall make known to him, shall cause to come before you,
the said Justices of the Peace of the said County, so many
such good and lawful Men of his Bailiwick or County, as well
within Liberties as without, by whom the Truth of the Matter
in the Premises shall be the better known and enquired into:
For all and singular which this shall be your Commission, for
and during our good Pleasure, to be signified by our Council
of Appointment. In Testimony whereof, We have caused these our
Letters to be made Patent, and the Great Seal of our said State
to be hereunto affixed: Witness, our trusty and well-beloved
George Clinton, Esquire, Governor of our said State, General
and Commander in Chief of all the Militia, and Admiral of
the Navy of the same; by and with the Advice and Consent of
our said Council of Appointment, at our City of Albany, the
fifteenth day of August, in the Year of Our Lord one thousand
eight hundred and one, and in the twenty-sixth year of our
Independence.
GEO. CLINTON.
Colonel Ludington also served with some distinction as a member of
Assembly in the State Legislature, for Dutchess County, some of such
service being during the Revolutionary War. He thus served in the Third
Session, which met at Kingston from August 18, 1777, to October 25,
1779, at Albany from January 27 to March 14, 1780, and at Kingston
again from April 22 to July 2, 1780; in the Fourth Session, which met
at Poughkeepsie from September 7 to October 10, 1780, at Albany from
January 17 to March 31, 1781, and at Poughkeepsie from June 15 to July
1, 1781; in the Ninth Session, which met in New York City from January
12 to May 5, 1786; and in the Tenth Session, which met in New York City
from January 12 to April 21, 1787. He appears to have been a prominent
and influential member. At the meeting of January, 1786, he was made a
member of the Ways and Means Committee, and of a special committee to
prepare a bill for the regulation of the militia and the establishment
of magazines. The records of that meeting show that Colonel Ludington
was in constant attendance and was an active participant in the business
of the House. He is recorded as voting at almost every division, and
generally appears to have been a member of the majority. On March 1 it
was represented to the Legislature that a number of prisoners confined
in the jail of New York for debt were reduced to great extremity for want
of wood and firewood, and were in danger of perishing for want of such
necessaries; wherefore a committee of three, Colonel Ludington being one,
was appointed to inquire into the matter—one of the first steps toward
the abolition of imprisonment for debt. On March 6, 1787, the Legislature
proceeded to the nomination and appointment of “delegates to meet with
delegates as may be appointed from other States, for the sole purpose
of revising the Articles of Confederation”—to wit, the Constitutional
Convention of the United States. Colonel Ludington, who was a staunch
Federalist, voted for the appointment of Alexander Hamilton, Robert
Yates, and John Lansing, Jr.
Soon after there arose a remarkable illustration of the dilatory
disposition of governments of that day in dealing with some matters of
real importance in which honor and good faith were involved. Away back
in April, 1784, Colonel Ludington had submitted to the Legislature a
petition relative to certain certificates for depreciation of soldiers’
pay, which he had lost or which had been stolen from him. Mr. Pell, of
the committee to which the petition was referred, had reported that the
facts were as stated in the petition, and that the petition for relief
ought to be granted. Leave was granted for the introduction of a bill
to that effect, and the bill was introduced and passed by the Assembly.
Either it was not concurred in by the Senate, however, or for some
reason it was not put into effect. For now, on April 14, 1787, we find
Colonel Ludington again presenting to the Assembly, of which he was a
member, a petition setting forth that certain depreciation certificates,
amounting in all to 407 pounds 4 shillings, had been stolen from him, and
that after passing through divers hands were paid to the Commissioners
of Forfeitures for the purchase of a forfeited estate, and were then in
the treasury of the State, wherefore he prayed for a law directing the
treasurer to return them to him. Mr. Hamilton, from the committee to
which the petition was referred, reported that the facts were found to
be as stated, that the petitioner’s case would be very unfortunate if he
were to be finally deprived of the benefit of the certificates which had
been stolen from him, and that it would be a proper act of generosity in
the State to direct the treasurer to return them to him. The committee
recommended that a clause to that effect be inserted in some bill then
before the House. The House, however, voted not to concur in the report
of the committee, and it does not appear that any further step toward
doing him justice was taken at that time. Finally, however, on March 12,
1792, the Legislature adopted the following act:
Whereas certain certificates issued by the auditors appointed
to liquidate and to settle the accounts of the troops of this
State in the service of the United States have been received by
the Commissioners of Forfeitures, and are now in the treasury
of this State, which it appears to this Legislature were lost
by Henry Ludenton, and which certificates at the time they
were lost were not transferable, otherwise than by assignment;
And whereas the said Henry Ludenton has prayed relief in the
premises; Therefore, Be it enacted by the people of the State
of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, That whenever
the United States shall direct that the residue of the twelve
hundred thousand dollars may be subscribed, which by the act
of the United States entitled “An act for making provision for
the debt of the United States,” passed the 4th day of January,
1790, had not been subscribed before the last day of September
last, then the Treasurer of this State is hereby authorized
and directed to deliver unto Henry Ludenton the aforesaid
certificates … being the certificates lost by the said Henry
Ludenton.
Thus nearly eight years after the original appeal for relief, which was
acknowledged to be valid and worthy, the Legislature voted to grant
such relief at some indefinite time in the future, conditioned upon the
fulfilment of obligations by the federal government, which had already
shown itself dilatory in the matter!
One of the most important divisions in which Colonel Ludington voted
in the minority was that concerning the independence of the State of
Vermont, a matter over which there had been danger of a civil war.
Said the “County Journal and Poughkeepsie Advertiser” for April 4,
1787: “Last Wednesday morning the important question for declaring the
Independence of Vermont was debated in the House of the Assembly. It
was carried in the affirmative, as follows:” The poll of the House as
given shows 32 votes in the affirmative, and 21 in the negative, Colonel
Ludington’s name being among the latter, although his friends Hamilton
and Lansing voted in the affirmative.
In the “New York Packet and American Advertiser” of February 27, 1783,
appeared this notice:
“Notice is hereby given to the Debtors and Creditors of Stephen
Ludinton, deceased, who was by a jury of inquest said to
have been murdered by John Akins, to meet me at the House of
Alexander Mills in Fredericksburgh on Monday the 10th day of
March next, at 10 o’clock in the morning, in order to discharge
the debts due the said estate, and receive payment as far as
the estate will go as it is supposed he died insolvent.
“HENRY LUDINGTON _Executor_.”
An act of the Legislature on March 9, 1810, made Colonel Ludington one
of the incorporators of “a body corporate and politic” for the purpose
of “making a good and sufficient turnpike road to begin at the Highland
turnpike road near the house of Joseph C. Voight in the town of Cortlandt
and County of Westchester, and from thence to or near the house of James
Mandeville and to or near the house of Samuel Owens, in the town and
county aforesaid; from thence to or near the house of Jonathan Ferris,
and to or near the house of Edward Bugby and Solomon Avery in Philipstown
in the county of Dutchess; from thence running up Peekskill Hollow, to
or near the house of Rowland Bailey, and to or near the house of Henry
Ludington in the town of Frederick; from thence running to the great road
west of Quaker Hill, to or near the house of Thomas Howard.”
It should be added, to complete the record, that Colonel Ludington was in
1771 an overseer of the poor for South Precinct; in 1772 he was assessor
of Fredericksburgh; and in 1776, 1777, and 1778 he was supervisor of the
town of Fredericksburgh.
Colonel Ludington was commonly known by his military title to the end
of his life. As a matter of fact, however, he ceased to exercise the
functions of a colonel on September 27, 1786. An act of the Legislature
of New York of April 4, 1782, provided that “in case of the death,
resignation or other inability to serve, of any Colonel now commanding
a regiment (of militia), no Colonel shall thereafter be appointed
thereto; that such regiment and all others not now commanded by a Colonel
shall henceforth be commanded by a Lieutenant-Colonel.” This act was
doubtless largely the outcome of the deliberations of the committee on
reorganization of the militia of which Colonel Ludington was a member. At
the date named in 1786, accordingly, he retired from the command of the
regiment with which he had so long been identified, and was succeeded by
Lieutenant-Colonel Drake. In this regiment Archibald Ludington and Henry
Ludington, Jr., sons of Colonel Ludington, were, respectively, paymaster
and ensign. Henry Ludington, Jr., became lieutenant in the regiment
commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Elias Van Benschoten, and on June 7,
1793, when John Drake moved away from Dutchess County and was succeeded
in command of Ludington’s old regiment by Lieutenant-Colonel Elijah
Townsend, Henry Ludington, Jr., became a captain and Archibald Ludington
paymaster in it. Henry Ludington, Jr., filled that place until March
16, 1797, when, owing to his removal from Dutchess County, he resigned
and was succeeded by Samuel Smith. Archibald Ludington was succeeded by
Stephen Waring on March 23, 1803. The commission of Henry Ludington, Jr.,
as lieutenant, is preserved in the possession of Charles H. Ludington,
and reads as follows:
THE PEOPLE of the State of NEW-YORK, By the Grace of GOD, free
and independent;
To Henry Ludinton, Junior, Gentleman, Greeting:
We, reposing especial Trust and Confidence, as well in your
Patriotism, Conduct and Loyalty, as is your Valour and
Readiness to do us good and faithful Service; HAVE appointed
and constituted, and by these Presents, DO appoint and
constitute you, the said Henry Ludinton, Junior, Lieutenant of
a Company in the Regiment of Militia in the County of Dutchess,
whereof John Drake, Esquire, is Lieutenant-Colonel Commandant.
You are therefore, to take the said Company into your Charge
and Care, as Lieutenant thereof, and duly to exercise the
Officers and Soldiers of that Company in Arms, who are hereby
commanded to obey you as you shall from Time to Time receive
from our General and Commander in Chief of the Militia of our
said State, or any other your superior Officer, according
to the Rules and Discipline of War, in Persuance of the
Trust reposed in you; and for so doing, this shall be Your
Commission, for and during our good Pleasure, to be signified
by our Council of Appointment. IN TESTIMONY whereof, We have
caused Our Seal for Military Commissions to be hereunto
affixed. WITNESS our Trusty and Well-beloved GEORGE CLINTON,
Esquire, our Governor of our State of New-York, General and
Commander in Chief of all the Militia, and Admiral of the
Navy of the same, by and with the Advice and Consent of our
said Council of Appointment, at our City of New-York, the
twenty-seventh Day of March, in the Year of our LORD, One
Thousand Seven Hundred and Eighty-seven, and in the eleventh
Year of our Independence.
Passed the Secretary’s Office, 7th April, 1787. Robt. Harpur,
D., Secretary.
GEO. CLINTON.
(Governor’s signature in margin, under seal.)
Colonel Ludington, as has already been stated, at first occupied his
estate at Fredericksburgh under a lease, and did not actually buy the
land until July 15, 1812, when Samuel Gouverneur and wife made to him a
deed for 229 acres. Long before the latter date, however, he had acquired
other lands in Dutchess County, at least as early as 1781, when he was
the owner of a large tract in the eastern part of the county several
miles from his home. It was one of the perilous duties of his daughters
Sibyl and Rebecca frequently to ride thither on horseback, through the
Great Swamp, to see that all was well on the property. After the war he
disposed of that land, as the following notice, in the “County Journal
and Dutchess and Ulster Farmer’s Register,” of March 24, 1789, shows:
To Be Sold By The Subscriber:
A Farm of about 104 acres of land in Frederickstown in the
County of Dutchess lying on the east side of the Great Swamp
near the place where David Akins formerly lived. There are
about 30 tons of the best kind of English hay cut yearly on
such place, and considerable more meadow hay may be made, a
sufficient quantity of plough and timber land, a good bearing
orchard of the best of fruit, a large convenient new dwelling
house and a stream of water running by the door. The place is
well situated for a merchant or tavern keeper. Whoever should
incline to purchase said place may have possession by the first
of May next; the payments made as easy as possible and an
indisputable title given for the same. For further particulars
inquire of the subscriber or Mr. Edmund Ogden who keeps a
public house on the Premises.
HENRY LUDINTON.
March 9th, 1789.
The result of this advertisement was the sale of the farm in question
to a man from the former home of the Ludingtons in Connecticut. This
appears from a document in the possession of Mr. Patrick, the original
of an agreement made on November 5, 1790, between Colonel Ludington and
James Linsley, of Branford, Connecticut, by which the former covenanted
and agreed with the latter “to sell a certain farm situate, lying and
being in Fredericksburgh butted and bounded as follows adjoining Croton
River on the west side and on the south by Abijah Starr & Ebenezer
Palmer and on the north by P. Starr & Samuel Huggins, Containing about
one hundred and five acres.” The price to be paid at various times and
in various sums was “414 pounds, New York currency.” “And furthermore
the said Ludinton doth further agree with the said Linsley to Enter on
the Farm of him the said Ludinton where he now Dwells to Cut and Carry
away a sufficiency of timber for the framing of a Barn of the following
Dimentions forty feet in Length and thirty feet in Breadth and the said
Linsley hath further Liberty to enter upon the home farm of the said
Ludinton and Cutt sufficient quantity of sawmill logs for to cover said
Barn and after the said Linsley has drawn said logs to the saw mill of
the sd Ludinton he the said Ludinton will saw sd Logs without delay free
from all cost and charges of said Linsley.”
Colonel Ludington was much interested in the Presbyterian church at
Frederickstown, now Patterson, and was one of its trustees. On May 22,
1793, he and his fellow trustees purchased for the church from Stiles
Peet and his wife Lydia a plot of about a quarter of an acre of land for
a burying ground for the church, the price being at the rate of forty
shillings an acre. He also personally gave most of the lumber required
for building the first academy at Patterson, an edifice which was in
later years destroyed by fire.
[Illustration: Colonel Ludington’s tombstone at Patterson (formerly part
of Fredericksburgh), N. Y.]
In person Colonel Ludington was of more than ordinary stature, and
of robust frame and dignified and commanding presence. He was of an
eminently social disposition, and in the later years of his life he
and John Jay and Colonel Crane were accustomed often to meet at their
neighbor Townsend’s, for social evenings over their pipes and mugs, to
exchange memories of the stirring days of the Revolution. Throughout his
entire life he commanded in a high degree the respect and confidence
of all who knew him, and when he died at the goodly age of 78 he was
universally mourned. He died of consumption, after a prolonged illness,
on January 24, 1817. His remains were buried in the churchyard of the
Presbyterian church at Patterson, of which he had been a trustee, and
his grave was marked with a simple stone bearing only this inscription:
H. L.
In Memory of
HENRY LUDINGTON.
Jany. 24, 1817.
Aged 78 years.
So simple was the epitaph of one of whom Blake, the historian of
Putnam County, truly says: “Col. Ludington was one of the most active,
energetic and unflinching patriots found in this part of the country
during the Revolution, and much do we regret our inability to do justice
to the character and sterling virtues of this Revolutionary patriot.
The Government records, however, show him to have been one of the bold
defenders of our country’s rights.”
Colonel Ludington’s wife, Abigail, survived him eight years, and then on
August 3, 1825, was laid beside him, at the age of more than 80 years.
The will of Colonel Ludington, now on file in the surrogate’s office of
Putnam County, reads as follows:
In the Name of God, Amen!
I, Henry Ludenton of the Town of Fredericks County of Putnam
and State of New York, being feeble in body but of perfect
mind and memory, thanks be given unto God, calling into mind
the mortality of my body and knowing that it is appointed for
all men once to die, do make and ordain this my last will and
testiment, that is to say principly and first of all I give and
recommend my Soul unto the hands of Almighty God That gave it,
and my body I recommend to the earth to be buried in a decent
Christian burial at the discretion of my executors, nothing
doubting that I shall receive the same again at the general
Resurrection by the mighty power of God. And as touching such
worldly property wherewith it has pleased God to bless me with
in this life, I do give, demise and dispose of in the following
manner. And farm first of all, I do order my executors to sell
and dispose of so much land off the north end of my farm with
the grist mill theron that will be sufficient to pay the debt
that is owing from me to Samuel Governier’s the landlord, the
line beginning at the east side of my farm on the line betwixt
me and the aforesaid Governier and running westwardly to the
north of my barn and dwelling house and all other buildings
except the aforesaid mill until it crosses the Mill Brook, and
line then to run more to the south in course (case) a straight
line will not make land enough to discharge said debt, but to
run no further west than the east fence of the old lot known by
the name of the Old Ridge Lot, and secondly all the remainder
and residue of my said farm dwelling house and buildings and
all and singular the appurtenances thereunto belonging to
remain in the hands of my executors for the use and benefit
of Abigail Ludenton my wife and Abigail Ludenton my daughter
and Derie Ludenton my son and Cornelia Ludenton my Grand
Daughter so long as Abigail Ludenton remains my widow or in
case she should not marry, until her decease, unless the said
Abigail Ludenton my daughter or said Derrick Ludenton my son or
Cornelia Ludenton should marry or either of them should marry
the said farm to remain only for the use and benefit of those
who are unmarried untill my widdow should marry or untill her
disceas as is above expressed; and in case my daughter Abigail
should not marry before the disceas of my widow she then at
the deceas of my widow to take her choice of the Rooms in the
Dwelling house wherein I live or when my widdow should marry
which room she is to have and to hold as long as she remains
single. All the remainder of my farm that is not set off for my
executors to sell to discharge the debt of Samuel Governier,
which land lying and being in the town of Frederick county
aforesaid, I do give and bequeath unto my four sons Archibald
Ludenton, Derrick Ludenton, Frederick Ludenton, Lewis Ludenton,
to be equally divided amongst them in which case the said
Ludinton and Ludenton is to pass unto Derrick Ludenton at the
division thereof one hundred dollars wich farm of land they the
said Archibald, Derrick, Frederick and Lewis Ludenton and their
heirs is to have and to hold forever with all the appertinances
thereunto belonging; but it is my will that Derrick Ludenton
my son’s proportion of the farm to remain in the hands of my
executors and for them to do as they shall judge best for him
with it. And I do will and bequeath Tartulus Ludenton my son
Fifteen Dollars to be paid out of removable property, and
after said fifteen dollars is paid and all my debts that my
land is not sold to pay is paid and discharged, to pay which
debts is my will that my executors should sell such and so
much of the movable property they shall judge will least
discommode the heirs which the residue is left to and share who
is to have the property, and it is my will that all movable
property should remain in the hands of my widdow for her use
and the use of Derrick Ludenton my son, Abigail my daughter, to
remain as the use of the farm is above discribed to remain in
the hands of my executors for the use and benefit of Abigail
Ludenton my wife and Abigail Ludenton my daughter and Derrick
Ludenton my son and Cornelia Ludenton my grand daughter untill
my wife marries or untill her disceas, unless Abigail, Derrick
or Cornelia or one of them should marry, and the one that
marries is to have use and benefit no longer of said property
until disposed of as is hereafter directed. And I do will and
bequeath unto my six daughters at the deceas or marriage of my
widow all my movable property to be equally divided amongst
them, that is to say Sibyl Ogden, Rebecca Pratt, May Ferris,
Anna Colwell, Abigail Ludenton and Sophiah Caverly my daughters.
And for the further surety of this my last will and testament
I nominate and appoint John Hopkins of the town of Fishkill,
County of Dutchess and State of New York, and Elijah Wixon of
the town of Fredericks and County of Putnam and State aforesaid
my sole executors of this my last will and testiment and I
do hereby disallow, revoke and annull all and singular every
other former will testament and bequeath and executors by me
in any wise before mentioned willed and bequeath, ratifying and
allowing this and no other to be my last will and testiment.
In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and seal this
seventh day of April in the year of Our Lord one thousand eight
hundred and thirteen.
HENRY LUDENTON. L. S.
Signed sealed and pronounced in presence of us
Stephen Merritt
John Burtch.
An interesting side-light is cast upon one feature of this will, as
well as upon the later years of Colonel Ludington’s life and the years
following his death, by a letter written in April, 1881, to Mr. Patrick
by Mrs. Julia L. Comfort, of Catskill, New York, a daughter of Colonel
Ludington’s son, Tertullus Ludington. Speaking of the old homestead at
Frederickstown, and the members of the family there, Mrs. Comfort said:
I was so young when last there, and consequently do not
remember much about them. It was the winter before Grandma
Luddington died. She gave my Mother Grandfather’s gun and
sword, and I think the powder horn to my brother Henry because
he was named after him. They were all mounted with silver. The
first time we were there was in the fall when chestnuts were
ripe. There was a very large tree in the rear of the house, and
Uncle Fred’s children, my sister and myself wished to get the
chestnuts but could not. Grandma wanted Uncle Derrick to cut
the tree down for us, but he said it would take two weeks to do
it, it was so large.
My Father was with us, and Grandfather said to him, (he always
called him Tarty,) “I am going to make a will, and I owe you
for five barrels of pork, but as I have not got the money just
now I will remember it in my will.” (It was in war time (War
of 1812) and pork was selling for thirty dollars a barrel.)
Father told him he might give it to Archie, as he was very poor
and Father was doing a good business and did not need it, but
Archie said he never rec’d a cent of it.
The last time Aunt Ogden was here, she was telling us how
she and Aunt Sophia (probably a slip of the pen for Rebecca)
were alone in the house in war time (Revolutionary War). They
had had a fence built around the house, and they each had a
gun, and once in a while they would fire one off to make the
soldiers think there were men in the house.