John’s family appears to have taken its name from the manor of Ludwick, where his ancestors lived from the early 13th century onwards, if not before. His grandfather, William, who in his youth had been a follower of Aymer de Valence, earl of Pembroke, represented Hertfordshire in the Parliament of 1338; and at least one of his great-uncles was also returned for the county. In December 1348 a commission of oyer and terminer was set up to inquire into allegations of trespass and poaching made by one Stephen Bassyngbourn of Hatfield against William Ludwick and his sons, John and Thomas, one of whom was probably our Member’s father. The John Ludwick who had taken possession of the Hertfordshire manor of Panshanger in, or before, 1349 quite clearly belonged to an earlier generation as well, although he too must have been a fairly close kinsman of this MP.
As a prominent local landowner and sometime j.p. Ludwick was subject to the unwelcome attentions of one of the rebels of 1381. In June of that year, Thomas Longe of Watford broke into his house at Digswell and carried off all the legal records then in his custody—presumably because his own name figured prominently in them. Not surprisingly under the circumstances, Ludwick, who was re-appointed to the bench in the following December, took an uncompromising stand against the insurgents, being commissioned not only to put down the general disorder in Hertfordshire, but also to enforce labour services on the St. Albans abbey estates. His relations with the abbey, which was commonly regarded as the harshest landowner in the county, appear to have been cordial, and he may even have been related by marriage to the abbot, Thomas de la Mare. On 15 June 1381, the day before Longe’s forcible entry at Digswell, Ludwick and his close friend, John Durham, had witnessed the charter of liberties wrung from the abbot by his tenants in Barnet and South Mimms; and at a much later date, in June 1411, the two men again acted as witnesses, this time to a grant of land made to the abbey by the earl of Oxford.
Although Ludwick seems to have enjoyed greater prominence after the Lancastrian usurpation, his career during Richard II’s early years, at least, was not undistinguished. He may, perhaps, have been related to Margery Ludwick, a lady-in-waiting to Joan of Kent, who enjoyed several marks of royal favour during the late 14th century; and we know that the annuity of £20 granted to him for life as one of Henry IV’s esquires in February 1400 (when John Durham received a similar award) had actually been paid from some point in the previous reign. As early as March 1386 Ludwick received royal letters patent exempting him from jury service and other official duties; and two years later he shared in the grant of property in Sacombe and Standon, Hertfordshire, temporarily forfeited by Sir John Holt, j.c.p. (following his condemnation in the Merciless Parliament). This award, which was rescinded in May 1398, suggests that he may have sympathized with the Lords Appellant, a view supported by his sudden removal from the local bench in August 1397. Although the grant to him of a royal pardon in the following June is not in itself unduly significant, his election to the first Parliament of Henry IV’s reign and his re-appointment as a j.p. and crown commissioner soon afterwards would suggest a previous attachment to the house of Lancaster.