Introduction
Philip Ludwell (1637/38—c.1716) of Rich Neck Plantation in James City County, Virginia was an American military and political figure, best known as governor of the British Colony of Carolina from 1691–94. From a base in the coastal port city of Charleston, he was governor of the entire Colony of Carolina. (The northern and southern settlements were under a common government from 1691 until 1708.)
Biography
Colonel Ludwell and his brother Thomas Ludwell were prominent citizens of Middle Plantation (which later became Williamsburg) in the Colony of Virginia. In 1676, he supported Virginia Governor William Berkeley during Bacon's Rebellion. Later, Ludwell married secondly Berkeley's widow, Frances Culpeper Berkeley of Green Spring Plantation, her third marriage. Despite her remarriage, she never relinquished her title as Lady Berkeley until she died in the 1690s and was buried at Jamestown.
After serving in the Colony of Carolina, Colonel Ludwell returned to Virginia, where he served as Speaker of the House of Burgesses in 1695–96. Around 1700 he moved to England, where he died.