George Duncan Ludlow




George Duncan Ludlow 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 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 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.

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.
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.