Governor John Winthrop, Sr. - Died of "natural causes"...at 62?!

Private User

3/9/2024 at 12:06 AM

Can anyone speak to what Winthrop may have died of? Because "natural causes" don't generally kill someone at the age of 62. It's a safe bet he didn't engage in any vices that may have shortened his life, and I can't find any mention of misadventure or him being victimized, so that leaves some kind of serious health condition.

Private User

3/9/2024 at 5:22 AM

Good morning,

Please consider the era in which Winthrop lived, and where he lived at the time of death. At 62, as a Colonial American settler, he had certainly lived a full life.

Biologically speaking, a 62 year-old man is not young, even today, even if this forces those of us in this age range to confront our mortality. Natural causes seems perfectly acceptable to me. He simply died--i.e. not from injuries in battle, or a known illness/plague, etc. Still happens today. He was not in the prime of life. I would guess perhaps a heart attack or died in his sleep? Those are things I think people would view as "natural".

Erica Howton C

3/9/2024 at 7:21 AM

It would be good to find a citation though. There was a tendency to exaggerate age at death, but it seems that many people of then and there lived a goodly long life. I would think it’s documented somewhere in biographies.

Erica Howton C

3/9/2024 at 7:32 AM

Brittanica had it.

Britannica, The Information Architects of Encyclopaedia. "John Winthrop". Encyclopedia Britannica, 9 Mar. 2024, https://www.britannica.com/facts/John-Winthrop-American-colonial-go.... Accessed 9 March 2024

“After struggling six weeks with “a feverish distemper””

Which is intriguing; where did he catch it? Was something going round in Boston in 1649?

Private User

3/9/2024 at 7:55 AM

These are firsthand accounts va Professor Gunn's Britannica bio:

https://www.masshist.org/publications/winthrop/index.php/view/PWF04...

Private User

3/9/2024 at 7:58 AM

(I'm reading through the papers in those dates to see if anyone elaborates)

Private User

3/9/2024 at 8:02 AM

Sorry--seems to be related to an earlier illness. Nothing in the 6 weeks prior to his death.

Erica Howton C

3/9/2024 at 8:05 AM

Yes, but not his first fever. ? 11 years earlier for a month?

I looked up distemper but can only find it for dogs so far. But the symptoms sound the same.

Erica Howton C

3/9/2024 at 8:07 AM

Two hits for distemper

PWF06: 295

PWF06 this volume is not available online 295

Erica Howton C

3/9/2024 at 8:24 AM

Yes, there was an epidemic in 1648-1649.

Disease in Colonial New England
by Sarah Morin on October 12th, 2021 in Archives, Civil Rights & Human Rights, Connecticut, Courts: Connecticut Courts, Diseases and History, History

https://libguides.ctstatelibrary.org/archives/uncoveringnewhaven/bl...

… Outside of epidemics like the Boston smallpox outbreak of 1721, it can be difficult to pinpoint which diseases the colonists suffered at any given time, due to their tendency to describe their malaises in vague terms. While New Englanders were quite open about their state of health in letters, diaries, and other records, they “tended to refer to their ailments not as specific diseases but rather as generic fevers, agues, and disorders, or else simply noted that they were unwell, ill, or dangerously sick” (Mutschler, The Province of Affliction, p. 5).

… However, subsequent generations of European colonists experienced several notable epidemics of measles, influenza, smallpox, and other diseases, including in 1648-1649, 1666, 1689-90, 1702, and 1721, to name a few instances (Silva, Miraculous Plagues, p. 107; Tully (NY) Area Historical Society News & Databases, Disease & Death in Early America).

Private User

3/9/2024 at 8:39 AM

Right, canine distemper is not transmissable to humans.

I found mention of other illnesses described as "distemper", such as a "Throat distemper", which was actually an outbreak of diptheria, in Massachusetts in the 1730s. Maybe "distemper" was simply a common adjective for feeling unwell? Typhoid seemed possible to me, but I only saw smallpox and whooping cough mentioned on the Cape while looking, but who knows? Cancer can also cause fevers, and they wouldn't have known if he had cancer, at least not the way we do now.

It is interesting, even if we may never know exactly which illness he had.

Erica Howton C

3/9/2024 at 8:59 AM

I think they used a term like distemper as being “out of sorts” with a fever. But the recurrence is what’s interesting; that sounds like malaria.

And Boston was a city. Probably not so great sanitation also. I bet some historians may have educated guesses.

But what’s also interesting is “natural causes” as the death cause in most of the popular sources. It doesn’t seem like it’s a secret.

Governor John Winthrop, Sr. - Died of "natural causes"...at 62?!

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