Ayllón, Lucas Vázquez de (1480?–18 October 1526), Spanish judge and founder of the first Spanish colony in North America, was born at Toledo, Spain, the son of Juan Vázquez de Ayllón, a member of a distinguished Mozarabic family, and Inés de Villalobos. Lucas was educated in the law, earning the ...
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Ayllón, Lucas Vázquez de (1480?–18 October 1526), Spanish judge and founder of the first Spanish colony in North America
Paul E. Hoffman
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Gookin, Daniel (1612-1687), colonial magistrate and soldier
Mary Rhinelander McCarl
Gookin, Daniel (1612–19 March 1687), colonial magistrate and soldier, was the son of Daniel Gookin and Mary Byrd, the daughter of Richard Byrd, canon of Canterbury Cathedral in Kent, England. His father’s family had been in Kent for many generations; Daniel may have been born in Kent or in Carrigaline, County Cork, Ireland, where his father held lands and was an important figure among the English Protestants who had settled in the southern part of Ireland early in the seventeenth century. The elder Gookin also invested in land in Virginia and went over himself in 1621 with fifty employees, passengers, and cattle. He returned to England but later sent Daniel and his younger brother John to manage his lands and to make their own way in the wilderness. Daniel first appears in the Virginia records in 1630 at age eighteen. In 1634–1635 he was granted land in his own right, 2,500 acres in the Nansemond area on the south side of the James River. By 1639 he was a widower; the year of his marriage and the name of his wife are not known. That year he returned to England, where he married Mary Dolling of London. They had nine children. Early in 1641 they returned to Virginia to settle on his property. He was made a burgess and a representative to the Virginia Assembly from Upper Norfolk County and was also appointed captain of train bands, the local militia....
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Ludlow, George Duncan (1734-1808), judge and Loyalist official
Ann Gorman Condon
Ludlow, George Duncan (1734–13 November 1808), judge and Loyalist official, was born in Queens County, Long Island, New York, the son of Gabriel Ludlow, a wealthy merchant, and Frances Duncan. The family was well established in the province, with strong ties to the Anglican church and to the powerful De Lancey political faction. George Ludlow’s younger brother was ...
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Ludlow, Roger (1590-1664), colonial official and jurist
Thomas W. Jodziewicz
Ludlow, Roger (1590–1664), colonial official and jurist, was the son of Thomas Ludlow of Maiden Bradley, Wiltshire, and Jane Pyle. Educated at Balliol College, Oxford in 1610 and the Inner Temple in 1612, he married Mary Endicott, the sister of John Endicott, an early governor of Massachusetts Bay. The couple had at least six children. In early 1630 Ludlow was elected an assistant of the Bay company, at which time he removed himself and his family to the new colony, helping to establish the town of Dorchester. Regularly reelected an assistant, Ludlow was chosen deputy governor in 1634. He was left out of office in 1635, apparently because of differences with more liberal political developments in the colony concerning the popular election of magistrates, and perhaps because of his plans to move again, this time to the Connecticut River along with other Massachusetts settlers. One of the founders of Windsor, he served during the next year (1636–1637) under the authority of a Massachusetts commission as presiding magistrate for the three towns that were forming the nucleus of Connecticut: Windsor, Hartford, and Wethersfield. He was reelected a magistrate or assistant for the next seventeen years, except when in 1642 and 1648 he served as deputy governor of Connecticut....
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Nicolls, Matthias (1626-1693), New York government official and jurist
Peter R. Christoph
Nicolls, Matthias (1626– July 1693), New York government official and jurist, was born in Plymouth, England, and baptized on 29 March 1626, the son of Matthias Nicolls, a minister of the Church of England, and Martha Oakes. The Reverend Mr. Nicolls, who was from the landed gentry, died in 1631. Martha Nicolls moved to Plympton with her son, who in time studied law in London at two Inns of Court, Inner Temple and Lincoln’s Inn. He was admitted to the bar at Lincoln’s Inn in 1649 and for the next fifteen years was a barrister in London. During this period he married Abigail Johns; they had at least four children....
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Saltonstall, Richard (1610-1694), colonial magistrate
Mary Rhinelander McCarl
Saltonstall, Richard (1610–29 April 1694), colonial magistrate, was baptized 1 October 1610 at Woodsome, Almondbury, Yorkshire, England, the son of Richard Saltonstall and Grace Kaye, daughter of Robert Kaye. His father was the nephew of Sir Richard Saltonstall, lord mayor of London. A committed Puritan and an original patentee and assistant of the Massachusetts Bay Company, Saltonstall’s father crossed to Massachusetts with his family in 1630. He helped found the town of Watertown, Massachusetts, but was so dismayed by the primitive conditions of the settlement that he returned to England in 1631. The family had not sold its English land, and the younger Richard was to divide his time between England and Massachusetts. In 1631 he returned with his father to England where he studied law and, in 1633, married Muriel Gurdon, daughter of Brampton Gurdon of Suffolk; they would have six children....
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Shippen, Edward (1639-1712), merchant, religious martyr, and political leader
Randolph Shipley Klein
Shippen, Edward (1639– August 1712), merchant, religious martyr, and political leader, was born in Yorkshire, England, the son of William Shippen, a prominent landholder, and Mary Nunnes (or Nuns). Although his older brother earned degrees at Oxford and became an Anglican clergyman, Edward in 1668 emigrated to Boston, Massachusetts, a wilderness town of about 3,500. In 1671 he married Elizabeth Lybrand; they had eight children during their seventeen years together. Not long after he joined an artillery company, Shippen converted to his wife’s faith and became a member of the Society of Friends....
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Shippen, Edward IV (16 February 1729–15 April 1806), member of the governor's council and chief justice of Pennsylvania
Randolph Shipley Klein
Shippen, Edward IV (16 February 1729–15 April 1806), member of the governor's council and chief justice of Pennsylvania, member of the governor’s council and chief justice of Pennsylvania, was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the son of Edward Shippen III, a merchant and office holder, and Sarah Plumley. He had much to live up to because the Shippens had cut large figures in economic and political circles. Shippen was apprenticed to Tench Francis, Pennsylvania’s attorney general. At age nineteen he continued his legal training at Middle Temple. After completing his studies in London, he traveled in France before returning to Philadelphia in 1750. In 1753 Shippen married Margaret Francis, his preceptor’s daughter; they had nine children, and the marriage lasted until her death more than four decades later. Kinship ties with Chief Justice ...
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Weare, Meshech (1713-1786), president and chief justice of New Hampshire
Jere R. Daniell
Weare, Meshech (16 January 1713–14 January 1786), president and chief justice of New Hampshire, was born in the part of Hampton, New Hampshire, that in 1726 became the town of Hampton Falls and now lies in Seabrook. He was the son of Mary Waite and ...
