Ludovic Colquhoun

Ludovic "Ludwig" Colquhoun, soldier and Texas legislator, was born in Cumberland, Dumbartonshire, Scotland in 1804. He immigrated to New Orleans, Louisiana, where he worked as a commission merchant. He moved to Bexar County, Texas, in 1837, as secretary of a Virginia land speculation company. On January 30, 1839, he paid $1,107 to receive a deed for a quarter-league of land along Peach Creek in Gonzales County. After the resignation of William H. Daingerfield, Colquhoun was appointed to the Senate of the Sixth Congress of the Republic of Texas and served from June through September 1842. He was characterized as staunchly anti-Houston in his political philosophy, in favor of immediate offensive war against Mexico. He objected, however, to the portion of the bill passed by the Senate authorizing an invasion that named Houston as commander "because of his inefficiency and inability to command an army with advantage to the country." When the United States government offered to mediate the hostilities between Texas and Mexico, Colquhoun changed his opinion and, according to the Telegraph and Texas Register, "went out to the West with the full determination to exert all his influence to prevent any expedition from starting for the Rio Grande."

Samuel A. Maverick filed suit against Colquhoun in a dispute over the ownership of a piece of land on Cibolo Creek, and while the case was being tried in San Antonio on September 11, 1842, Adrián Woll raided the town, taking captive all of the officers of the court, Colquhoun and Maverick among the fifty-seven prisoners. They were taken to Mexico and confined in Perote Prison. There Colquhoun made several copies of a map of the area between Veracruz and Mexico City that aided Thomas Jefferson Green and several of his companions in their escape. Colquhoun was released after about twenty months in captivity on March 24, 1844, after intervention on behalf of the prisoners by United States ambassador Waddy Thompson. Colquhoun sailed from Veracruz for New Orleans on April 1 aboard the brig of war USS Bainbridge and returned to Galveston aboard the Neptune.

In 1850 Colquhoun was residing in San Antonio with his English-born wife, Frances, and working as a merchant. His real estate was valued at $15,000. With the outbreak of the Civil War, due to his reputation as a man of character and ability, he was appointed Confederate States depository. He died on December 4, 1882, in San Antonio, and is buried with Kate F. A. W. Colquhoun at City Cemetery Number One.