Ladson family

Ladson
Sarah Reeve Ladson, a daughter of lieutenant governor James Ladson and wife of art collector Robert Gilmor, Jr.
Country	England Province of Carolina United States

The Ladson family is an American family of English descent that belonged to the planter and merchant elite of Charleston, South Carolina from the late 17th century. The family were among the first handful of European settlers of the English colony of Carolina in the 1670s, where the family quickly became part of the American gentry.^[1] The Ladson were large plantation owners and wealthy merchants in Charleston, and owned hundreds of slaves until slavery was abolished in 1865. James Ladson served in the American Revolutionary War and became lieutenant-governor of South Carolina, while his son James H. Ladson was part of the Charleston oligarchy that was influential in launching the American Civil War. The President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen, who lived under the name Rose Ladson in her 20s, is a descendant of the family through her American great-grandmother.