LUDWELL, Edward (by 1523-63/66), of Bath, Som.

It was as a ‘clothmaker’ that in January 1544 Edward Ludwell was granted the lease of a tenement and garden in Broad Street by the mayor and commonalty of Bath, but he had increased sufficiently in wealth and standing to be termed ‘gentleman’ in the return of 1558. In the reign of Edward VI he had proceedings taken against him in the court of requests for allegedly buying a mill from its mortgagee without the owner’s consent. In 1551 as mayor he was ordered to place a man in the pillory for ‘lewd talk’ and early in Mary’s reign he and other members of the corporation were involved in a dispute with Humphrey Cotton, keeper of the baths. The subsidy rolls of 1546 and 1552 show Ludwell as one of the richest citizens, and his ascendancy is reflected in his recurrent election to Parliament. He died before the second session of the Parliament of 1563.3Anct. Deeds, Bath, ed. Shickle, 106; C219/25/96; Req.2/16/33, 20/42; Municipal Recs. Bath, ed. King and Watts, 32; E179/170/218, 246.