of Ludlow as an assistant by such men marks his ability, his political, professional, and social rank, and the qualities of leadership in the weighty problems that confronted the emigrants in the new world.

In the first ship of the fleet, in the spring of 1630, Ludlow set sail from Plymouth with Mason, trained under Fairfax in the Lowlands, the destroyer of the Pequots, and comrade in arms of Miles Standish; Underhill, friend of Count Nassau; Patrick, of the Prince of Orange Guard; Southcote and Smith; the minister Maverick and his colleague, Wareham; with a goodly company, landing at Nantasket in May, 1630, and, after some mishaps, settling at Dorchester, so giving point to the ecstatic sentiment of Blake in his Annals:

"The Lord Jesus Christ was so plainly held out in ye Preaching of ye Gospel to poor lost sinners, and ye absolute necessity of ye New Birth, and God's spirit in those days was pleased to accompany ye Word with such efficacy upon ye hearts of many, that our Hearts were quite taken off from Old England, and set upon Heaven."

CHAPTER IV.

Ludlow in Massachusetts-Leader in Public Affairs-Stockholder -Landowner-Auditor of Governor Winthrop's AccountsSuperintendent of Fortifications - Military CommissionerMagistrate-Legislator-Deputy Governor-The Charter-Its Contravention-Assumption of Power-Ludlow's ProtestMagisterial Sentiment - Church-Membership Test - Popular Remonstrance-Choice of Deputies-Cotton's Postulate.

LUDLOW'S service to Massachusetts covered a period of about five years, from the duties of a magistrate in the Court of Assistants,-the highest judicial tribunal of the colonial period to 1692, sometimes called the Great Charter Court, to those of the Deputy Governorship. Then, as now, men were judged and their reputation was established by their conduct of common affairs, the performance of religious, civil, social, and political duties in every-day life.

Tried by this test, even the brief notices of Ludlow in the current records of the time are conclusive evidence of his command of the confidence and esteem of his fellow men.

A bare enumeration of the responsibilities entrusted to him demonstrates the high quality of his labors, in both personal and official station. He was one of Dorchester's three stockholders in the Bay Company; he selected the site for the Dorchester plantation, was a landowner there under a grant from the General Court, and was also land commissioner, land viewer, and surveyor; he was appointed a justice of the peace, with Winthrop and Saltonstall, at the first session of the General Court in 1630; conducted the negotiations for the first treaty with the Pequots; served as administrator of estates; drafted orders and laws to meet emergencies, and held the rank of colonel ex officio. He was charged with the delicate task of auditing the account of Governor Winthrop's receipts and disbursements, and made a report to the satisfaction of the critical General Court. When the King created the Court of Commissioners with plenary powers, in 1634, with Laud at the head of it, to take charge of the colonies and cancel all letters patent if found expedient, and Massachusetts was ordered to lay its charter before the Privy Council, so threatening the subversion of the colonial government and the

overthrow of all that had been accomplished for human liberty, and the colonists resolved to defend themselves by force as well as by diplomacy, Ludlow was made superintendent of the fortifications at Castle Island, one of the most important points of resistance to the sea approach of an enemy; and even when political sentiment toward him, in his last public service in Massachusetts, had somewhat changed, he was chosen a member of a military commission of most extraordinary authority, with his compeers, Winthrop, Dudley, Haynes, Endicott, Bellingham, Pynchon, and Bradstreet; thus, by his pre-eminence in these varied relations, giving a new significance to Palfrey's stinted compliment that he was "the principal lay citizen of Dorchester."

With such a record in private and public affairs of the lesser sort, of which little account has been taken by the earlier writers, and which would of themselves have entitled Ludlow to distinction, there remains for recognition his share as a jurist and legislator in the formative period of colonial history in Massachusetts.

The nominal authority, executive, judicial, and legislative, rested in the royal charter;

but the real power, the right to govern, to conquer, to endure, to create a commonwealth all their own, lived only in the colonists themselves. The letter was written in the English law; but the spirit, the interpretation, was made in hymn and prayer and sermon, and in the grave debates of court and council. An assistant in the chartered Company at home, whose legitimate functions were those of a director in the usual affairs of a corporation, was, much to his liking, transformed in the colony to an executive, legislative, and judicial councillor, in both Church and State.

The royal charter to the Governor and Company of Massachusetts Bay simply authorized the patentees to make laws and ordinances not repugnant to English law, to choose officers, to administer oaths of supremacy and allegiance to the freemen, to admit new associates, to transport malcontents, to resist invasion and intrusion by force of arms. Nothing was said of religious liberty; and no condition of citizenship was prescribed, save the will and vote of those already freemen. From these narrow powers, the Governor, Deputy Governor, and assistants, with some notable exceptions, — undoubtedly