John Winthrop, Governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony

John Winthrop (born January 22 [January 12, Old Style], 1588, Edwardstone, Suffolk, England—died April 5 [March 26], 1649, Boston, Massachusetts Bay Colony [U.S.]) first governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, the chief figure among the Puritan founders of New England.

Page 237 of the actualy book Lives of the governors of New Plymouth, and Massachusetts Bay; .. - https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=loc.ark:/13960/t8df7319w&vie...

Supplement to the history and genealogy of the Dudley family ... by Dudley, Dean, 1823-1906 https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_t8kUAAAAYAAJ/page/n3/mode/2up

Find-a-Grave Memorial #1118

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John Winthrop's City upon a Hill, 1630

Now the onely way to avoyde this shipwracke and to provide for our posterity is to followe the Counsell of Micah, to doe Justly, to love mercy, to walke humbly with our God, for this end, wee must be knitt together in this worke as one man, wee must entertaine each other in brotherly Affeccion, wee must be willing to abridge our selves of our superfluities, for the supply of others necessities, wee must uphold a familiar Commerce together in all meekenes, gentlenes, patience and liberallity, wee must delight in eache other, make others Condicions our owne rejoyce together, mourne together, labour, and suffer together, allwayes haveing before our eyes our Commission and Community in the worke, our Community as members of the same body, soe shall wee keepe the unitie of the spirit in the bond of peace, the Lord will be our God and delight to dwell among us, as his owne people and will commaund a blessing upon us in all our wayes, soe that wee shall see much more of his wisdome power goodnes and truthe then formerly wee have beene acquainted with, wee shall finde that the God of Israell is among us, when tenn of us shall be able to resist a thousand of our enemies, when hee shall make us a prayse and glory, that men shall say of succeeding plantacions: the lord make it like that of New England: for wee must Consider that wee shall be as a Citty upon a Hill, the eies of all people are uppon us; soe that if wee shall deale falsely with our god in this worke wee have undertaken and soe cause him to withdrawe his present help from us, wee shall be made a story and a byword through the world, wee shall open the mouthes of enemies to speake evill of the wayes of god and all professours for Gods sake; wee shall shame the faces of many of gods worthy servants, and cause theire prayers to be turned into Cursses upon us till wee be consumed out of the good land whether wee are going: And to shutt upp this discourse with that exhortacion of Moses that faithfull servant of the Lord in his last farewell to Israell Deut. 30. Beloved there is now sett before us life, and good, deathe and evill in that wee are Commaunded this day to love the Lord our God, and to love one another to walke in his wayes and to keepe his Commaundements and his Ordinance, and his lawes, and the Articles of our Covenant with him that wee may live and be multiplyed, and that the Lord our God may blesse us in the land whether wee goe to possesse it: But if our heartes shall turne away soe that wee will not obey, but shall be seduced and worshipp other Gods our pleasures, and proffitts, and serve them, it is propounded unto us this day, wee shall surely perishe out of the good Land whether wee passe over this vast Sea to possesse it;

Therefore lett us choose life,

that wee, and our Seede,

may live; by obeyeing his

voyce, and cleaveing to him,

for hee is our life, and

our prosperity. https://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/winthrop.htm

http://genealogics.org/getperson.php?personID=I00328174&tree=LEO

Reference

Wikipedia:- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Winthrop

Biography:- John Winthrop: America's forgotten founding father by Francis J Bremer http://goo.gl/Yj3W

John Winthrop, the first governor of Massachusetts, was born in 1587 at Edwardstone in Suffolk, England. He was the only son of Adam Winthrop. The elder Winthrop had a small estate in the English countryside, Groton Manor. Winthrop was privately tutored, and at the age of fourteen, attended the prestigious Trinity College in Cambridge.

John was married to Mary Worth at the age of seventeen, and was a father at eighteen. John and Mary went on to have six children within ten years, until Mary's sudden death. John remarried within six months, only to have his new wife die on their first wedding anniversary. A year later, John married again, to his third wife, Margaret. Historical accounts tell us that Margaret was of great Christian faith, very beautiful and gracious, and very loved by her husband.

In 1623, he was appointed to the lucrative position of attorney in the court of wards and liveries. Whether he gave this position up, or lost it due to his strong Puritan beliefs, is an argued point today.

Winthrop had strong Puritan ties, and was a member of The Massachusetts Bay Company. In 1630, his Puritan beliefs led him to leave his prosperous law practice, sell, all of his possessions, and take his family to New England.

Winthrop's wife, Margaret, was expecting a baby, so he decided it was best to leave her and some of his children at home for that year. About three months after departure, Winthrop's ship arrived at Salem, and he founded the settlement of Shawmut Peninsula community that later became known as Boston. Later, Margaret arrived in New England. Winthrop learned that two of his children had died, one of them being the baby daughter he'd never seen.

Winthrop had been elected governor in 1629 before he and the Massachusetts Bay Company had ever set sail from Yarmouth, England. He began to serve as governor when he arrived in 1630 and eventually would serve twelve terms as governor, from 1630 until 1645.

See also: http://www.virtualology.com/johnwinthrop.com/

The Puritan leader and governor of Massachusetts John Winthrop was born in Edwardston, Suffolk, on the 12th of January (old style) 1588, the son of Adam Winthrop of Groton Manor, and Anne (Browne) Winthrop. In December 1602 he matriculated at Trinity College, Cambridge, but he did not graduate. The years after his brief course at the university were devoted to the practice of law, in which he achieved considerable success, being appointed, about 1623, an attorney in the Court of Wards and Liveries, and also being engaged in the drafting of parliamentary bills. Though his residence was at Groton Manor, much of his time was spent in London. Meanwhile he passed through the deep spiritual experiences characteristic of Puritanism, and made wide acquaintance among the leaders of the Puritan party. On the 26th of August 1629 he joined in the "Cambridge Agreement", by which he, and his associates, pledged themselves to remove to New England, provided the government and patent of the Massachusetts colony should be removed thither. On the 20th of October following he was chosen governor of the "Governor and Company of the Massachusetts Bay in New England", and sailed in the "Arbella" in March 1630, reaching Salem Massachusetts on the 12th of June (old style), accompanied by a large party of Puritan immigrants. After a brief sojourn in Charlestown, Winthrop and many of his immediate associates settled in Boston in the autumn of 1630. He shared in the formation of a church at Charlestown (afterwards the First Church in Boston) on the 30th of July 1630, of which he was thenceforth a member. At Boston he erected a large house, and there he lived till his death on the 26th of March (old style.)

Winthrop's history in New England was very largely that of the Massachusetts colony, of which he was twelve times chosen Governor by annual election, serving in 1629-34, 1637-40, in 1642-44, and in 1646-49, and dying in office. To the service of the colony he gave not merely unwearied devotion; but in its interests consumed strength and fortune. His own temper of mind was conservative and somewhat aristocratic, but he guided political development, often under circumstances of great difficulty, with singular fairness and conspicuous magnanimity. In 1634-5 he was a leader in putting the colony in a state of defense against possible coercion by the English government. He opposed the majority of his fellow-townsmen in the so-called "Antinomian controversy" of 1636-7, taking a strongly conservative attitude towards the questions in dispute. He was the first president of the Commissioners of the United Colonies of New England, organized in 1643. He defended Massachusetts against threatened parliamentary interference once more in 1645-6. That the colony successfully weathered its early perils was due more to Winthrop's skill and wisdom than to the services of any other of its citizens.

Winthrop was four times married. His first wife, to whom he was united on the 16th of April 1605, was Mary Forth, daughter of John Forth, of Great Stambridge, Essex. She bore him six children, of whom the eldest was John Winthrop, Jr. She was buried in Groton on the 26th of June 1615. On the 6th of December 1615 he married Thomasine Clopton, daughter of William Clopton of Castleins, near Groton. She died in childbirth about a year later. He married, on the 29th of April 1618, Margaret Tyndal, daughter of Sir John Tyodal, of Great Maplested, Essex. She followed him to New England in 1631, bore him eight children, and died on the 14th of June 1647. Late in 1647 or early in 1648 he married Mrs. Martha Coytmore, widow of Thomas Coytmore, who survived him, and by whom he had one son.

Winthrop's Journal, an invaluable record of early Massachusetts history, was printed in part in Hartford in 1790; the whole in Boston, edited by James Savage, as The History of New England from 1630 to 1649, in 1825-6, and again in 1853; and in New York, edited by James K. Hosraer, in 1908.

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A sketch of the life of John Winthrop, the younger: founder of Ipswich ... By Thomas Franklin Waters, Robert Charles Winthrop

http://books.google.com/books?id=kl5mB-xIpt0C&dq=John+Winthrop+1606...

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John Winthrop (12 January 1587/8– 26 March 1649 obtained a royal charter, along with other wealthy Puritans, from King Charles for the Massachusetts Bay Company and led a group of English Puritans to the New World in 1630.[1] He was elected the governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony the year before. Between 1639 and 1648, he was voted out of the governorship and then re-elected a total of 12 times. Although Winthrop was a respected political figure, he was criticized for his obstinacy regarding the formation of a general assembly in 1634, and he clashed repeatedly with other Puritan leaders like Thomas Dudley, Rev. Peter Hobart and others.

Winthrop married his first wife, Mary Forth, on 16 April 1605 at Great Stambridge, Essex, England. Mary bore him six children; the oldest son of that marriage was John Winthrop, the Younger, a future governor/magistrate of Connecticut. Mary died in June 1615. Winthrop (elder) married his second wife, Thomasine Clopton, on 6 December 1615 at Groton, Suffolk, England. Thomasine died on 8 December 1616. On 29 April 1618 at Great Maplestead, Essex, England, Winthrop married his third wife, Margaret Tyndal. In the Spring of 1630, Winthrop (elder) led a fleet of eleven vessels and 700 passengers to the Massachusetts Bay Colony in the New World, sailing aboard the Arbella and accompanied by his two young sons, Stephen (12) and Samuel (4). [2]. Winthrop's wife, Margaret, sailed on the second voyage of the Lyon in 1631[3], leaving their small manor behind. Their baby daughter, Anne, died on the Lyon voyage[4]. Two more children were born to them in New England. Margaret died on 14 June 1647 in Boston, Massachusetts. Winthrop (elder) then married his fourth wife, Martha Rainsborough, widow of Thomas Coytmore and sister of the famous Levellers Thomas and William Rainborowe, sometime after 20 December 1647 and before the birth of their only child in 1648, he died of natural causes.

Though rarely published and relatively unappreciated for his literary contribution during his time, Winthrop spent his life continually producing written accounts of historical events and religious manifestations. Literary scholars and historians often turn to two works in particular for analytical inspection. Winthrop’s 1630 A Modell of Christian Charity and The Journal of John Winthrop are considered to be his most profound contributions to the literary world.

John Winthrop wrote and delivered the sermon that would be called A Modell of Christian Charity en route to America with a group of puritans in the year 1630. It described the ideas and plans to keep the puritan society strong in faith as well as the struggles that they would have to overcome in the New World.

At the start of his sermon he points out three objectives for a healthy puritan life. The first stated that there is a need for differences to arise within the people of a community for it to survive. Secondly, he made was that everyday activities should bring about spiritual resonance within the community, keeping the faith strong between the puritans and to keep the structure of the lives they have built for each other. The final point that Winthrop made was that each member of the puritan community shouldn’t hold themselves higher than others for the reason that equality breed’s kindness within the community. It shows that everyone is part of the larger community of Christ and shouldn’t take too much pride in their own personal identities.

As most of the puritans came from wealthy and business backgrounds Winthrop wasn’t partial to wealthy patrons of the church. In fact, he didn’t see them as inferior but as a crucial part to the puritan society. Later in his sermon he stated that wealth and love share a correlation. He argues that a certain amount of wealth is needed in order for one to love his or her neighbor as well as the community. Additionally, there is an obvious theme of love that surrounds A Modell of Christian Charity. Winthrop shows this with his talk of sacrifices for the greater good even if it isn’t beneficial to one’s self. Love is also shown with the work one does in the community, with efforts to keep the puritan society alive and working as a perfect model of charity between Christians in a New World.

From 1630 to 1649 John Winthrop, was the first governor of Massachusetts. During this time, he kept an ongoing journal of his life and experiences in colonial era New England. Written in three volumes or, notebooks, his account remains the "prime source for the history of the Bay Colony from 1630 to 1649" (Dunn 186). This journal is the first major work by Winthrop.

The first two volumes of Winthrop's journal were published in 1790, however, the third volume was lost and not recovered until 1816. In 1825 all three volumes were published together for the first time under the name The History of New England from 1630-1649. By John Winthrop, Esq. First Governor of the Colony of the Massachusetts Bay. From his Original Manuscripts. (Dunn 187)

According to Richard Dunn, Winthrop began by keeping a daily journal in 1630, then recorded entries less frequently and regularly and wrote them up at a greater length, so that by the 1640's he had converted his work into a form of history" (Dunn 186). What started as a simple journal would later turn into a first-hand account of early colonial life. Upon his arrival in New England in 1630, Winthrop writes primarily of his private accounts: i.e. his journey from England, the arrival of his wife and children to the colony in 1631, and the birth of his son in 1632 (Dunn 197). The majority of his early journal entries were not intended to be literary, but merely observations of early New England life.

Gradually, the focus of his writings shifts from his personal observations to broader spiritual ideologies. Evidence of this can be found in the second half of his first notebook, mainly between the years of 1634 and 1637 when Winthrop was no longer in office. It is his later writings for which he is remembered.

In addition to his more famous works, Winthrop produced a plethora of writings, both published and unpublished. While living in England, Winthrop articulated his belief “in the validity of experience in his work “Experiencia” (Bremer). Later in his life, Winthrop wrote “A Short Story of the rise, reign, and ruine of the Antinomians, Familists and Libertines, that Infected the Churches of New England,” accounting for the Antinomian controversy surrounding Anne Hutchinson in the colony. The Short Story which was first published in London: 1644 (Schweninger). Both works further illustrate puritan religious philosophy with regards to political and social events during the seventeenth century.

The legacy of Winthrop’s literature is evident in American compositions following his death. “William Bradford's Of Plymouth Plantation (unpublished until 1856), Edward Johnson 's Wonder-Working Providence of Sions Saviour in New England (1654), Cotton Mather 's Magnalia Christi Americana (1702), and Winthrop's Journal were efforts both to discern the divine pattern in events and to justify the role New Englanders believed themselves called to play” (Bremer).

Governor

John Winthrop (disambiguation)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

John Winthrop was the name of several prominent figures in colonial New England, among them:

• John Winthrop (1587/8-1649), founding governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony
• his son, John Winthrop, the Younger (1606-1676), colonial governor of Connecticut
• his great-great-grandson John Winthrop (1714-1779), early American Astronomer and professor at Harvard College

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John Winthrop

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

John Winthrop (12 January 1587/8 – 26 March 1649) led a group of English Puritans to the New World, joined the Massachusetts Bay Company in 1629 and was elected their governor in October 1629. Between 1639 and 1648 he was voted out of governorship and re-elected a total of 12 times. Although Winthrop was a respected political figure, he was criticized for his obstinacy regarding the formation of a general assembly in 1634.

Biography

Winthrop was born in Edwardstone, Suffolk, England, the son of Adam Winthrop (1548–1623) and his wife, Anne Browne. Winthrop briefly attended Trinity College, Cambridge, then studied law at Gray's Inn, and in the 1620s became a lawyer at the Court of Wards in London. Other Puritans who believed likewise obtained a royal charter for the Massachusetts Bay Company. Charles I of England was apparently unaware that the colony was to be anything other than a commercial venture to America. However, on March 4, 1629, Winthrop signed the Cambridge Agreement with his wealthier Puritan friends, essentially pledging that they would embark on the next voyage and found a new Puritan colony in New England. The colony's land was taken from Native Americans with Winthrop's excuse that the natives hadn't "subdued" the land and thus had no "civil right" to it.[1]

Winthrop pledged £400 to the cause and set sail on the ship the Arbella[2]—named after the wife of Isaac Johnson, daughter of Thomas Clinton, 3rd Earl of Lincoln. Winthrop befriended the younger Johnson (29 years old at his death) in earlier days in England, spending many days at Isaac's family home. The first Englishman in the Boston area, Blackstone, was a childhood and best friend of Isaac; they attended seminary together. Winthrop on Isaac Johnson's death put in probate a sum of over £75,000. Isaac's brother Capt. James Johnson, on his arrival in 1635 was denied his title and right to Isaac's property. With the help of Dudley and others Winthrop kept this wealth in probate, and took fees, for over 30 years. Many documents were destroyed in a very mysterious manner.[citation needed] The documents were part of the "doomsday record" kept by the founders of Boston. Winthrop and others accused Johnson's wife of adultery and placed her on gallows with the rope on neck, only to let her go. Capt. James Johnson's only crime was to allow his wife to have Bible studies in his home with Anne Hutchinson, "a good woman of the Christian faith" who along with the Lady Arbella came from Lincolnshire, England.[citation needed]

Claims to inheritance were presented to the royal court in London by the father Abraham Johnson, a Sheriff of the Queen (Rutland, south of Nottingham). Isaac Johnson was buried with his wife the Lady Arbella of Lincolnshire on his land, now called King's Chapel, on Tremont Street, Boston. A reference is made to Isaac Johnson in the first chapter of the book The Scarlet Letter.

Winthrop endangered his servants for the purpose of running his enterprises and docks; "they had not clean water and many died before Winthrop was urged to move to Boston".[citation needed]

Winthrop saw to the hanging of Mary Latham and James Britton in 1644, both found in adultery, but he also admitted to an encounter with an Indian woman at an abandoned settlement not far from his home.[citation needed] Many men searched for him all night only for him to be found not far from home with a very strange story to excuse himself with.[citation needed]

John Winthrop had been elected governor of the colony prior to departure in 1629, and he was re-elected many times. As governor he was one of the least radical of the Puritans, trying to keep the number of executions for heresy to a minimum and working to prevent the implementation of more conservative practices such as veiling women, which many Puritans supported.[citation needed]

Like his Puritan brethren, Winthrop strove to establish a Christian community that held uniform doctrinal beliefs. It was for this reason that in 1638 he presided over the heresy trial and banishing of Anne Hutchinson from the colony. During this trial Winthrop referred to Hutchinson as an "American Jezebel."[3] Winthrop also subscribed to the belief that the native peoples who lived in the hinterlands around the colony had been struck down by God, who sent disease among them because of their non-Christian beliefs: "But for the natives in these parts, God hath so pursued them, as for 300 miles (480 km) space the greatest part of them are swept away by smallpox which still continues among them. So as God hath thereby cleared our title to this place, those who remain in these parts, being in all not 50, have put themselves under our protection."[4]

John Winthrop was voted out of government in 1634, but re-elected in 1646. He disagreed with Roger Williams and was forced to banish the colony.

[edit]Family

Winthrop married his first wife, Mary Forth, on 16 April 1605 at Great Stambridge, Essex, England. She bore him six children and died in June 1615. He married his second wife, Thomasine Clopton, on 6 December 1615 at Groton, Suffolk, England. She died on 8 December 1616. On 29 April 1618 at Great Maplestead, Essex, England Winthrop married his third wife, Margaret Tyndal, daughter of Sir John Tyndal and his wife Anna Egerton. Margaret Tyndall gave birth to six children in England before the family emigrated to New England (The Governor, three of his sons, and eight servants in 1630 on the Arbella, and his wife on the second voyage of the Lyon in 1631, leaving their small manor behind). One of their daughters died on the Lyon voyage. Two children were born to them in New England. Margaret died on 14 June 1647 in Boston, Massachusetts. Winthrop then married his fourth wife, Martha Rainsborough, widow of Thomas Coytmore and sister of the famous Levellers Thomas and William Rainborowe, sometime after 20 December 1647 and before the birth of their only child in 1648, he died of natural causes. His son, John Winthrop, the Younger, whose mother was Mary Forth, later became Governor of Connecticut.

[edit]Legacy

Winthrop is most famous for his "City upon a Hill" sermon (as it is known popularly, its real title being A Model of Christian Charity), in which he declared that the Puritan colonists emigrating to the New World were part of a special pact with God to create a holy community. This speech is often seen as a forerunner to the concept of American exceptionalism. The speech is also well known for arguing that the wealthy had a holy duty to look after the poor. Recent history has shown, however, that the speech was not given much attention at the time of its delivery. Rather than coining these concepts, Winthrop was merely repeating what were widely held Puritan beliefs in his day. The work was not actually published until the nineteenth century, although it was known and circulated in manuscript before that time. Winthrop did publish The Humble Request of His Majesties Loyal Subjects (London, 1630), which defended the emigrants’ physical separation from England and reaffirmed their loyalty to the Crown and Church of England. This work was republished by Joshua Scottow in the 1696 compilation MASSACHUSETTS: or The first Planters of New-England, The End and Manner of their coming thither, and Abode there: In several EPISTLES.

Modern American politicians, like Ronald Reagan, continue to cite Winthrop as a source of inspiration. However, those who praise Winthrop fail to note his strident anti-democratic political tendencies. Winthrop stated, for example, "If we should change from a mixed aristocracy to mere democracy, first we should have no warrant in scripture for it: for there was no such government in Israel ... A democracy is, amongst civil nations, accounted the meanest and worst of all forms of government. [To allow it would be] a manifest breach of the 5th Commandment."[5]

Winthrop was not governor at the outset of the Pequot war and bore only an indirect responsibility for its outcome. The decision to sell the survivors as slaves in the Bahamas was a societal response and not a personal choice.[citation needed]

The Town of Winthrop, Massachusetts, is named after him, as is Winthrop House at Harvard University, though the house is also named for the John Winthrop who briefly served as President of Harvard.

Winthrop is also briefly immortalized in Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter in the chapter entitled "The Minister's Vigil."[6]

John Winthrop's descendants number thousands today, including current U.S. Senator from Massachusetts John Kerry and President George W. Bush.[citation needed]

[edit]See also

Blessing of the Bay

Dudley-Winthrop Family

Robert Seeley

Billerica, Massachusetts

Dorothy Talbye Trial

City upon a Hill

[edit]Notes

^ Howard Zinn A People's History of the United States. New York: Harper & Row Publishing.

^ The Peerage.com

^ Francis J. Bremer, John Winthrop: America's Forgotten Founding Father (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003), p. 299.

^ The Myth of Thanksgiving.

^ R.C. Winthrop, Life and Letters of John Winthrop (Boston, 1869), vol. ii, p. 430.

^ Hawthorne, Nathaniel. The Portable Hawthorne. Ed. William C. Spengemann. New York: Penguin, 2005.

[edit]References

Bremer, Francis J. John Winthrop: America's Forgotten Founding Father (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003), p. 299

Reich, Jerome R. Colonial America. 5th ed. Ed. Charlyce J. Owen and Edie Riker. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 2001.

Winthrop, R.C. Life and Letters of John Winthrop (Boston, 1869), vol. ii, p. 430.

John WINTHROP [Parents] was born on 12 Jan 1587 in Groton Manor, Edwardstone, Sussex, England. He died on 26 Mar 1649 in Boston, Suffolk, Massachusetts. He was buried on 3 Apr 1649 in Boston, Suffolk, Massachusetts. He married Mary FORTH on 16 Mar 1605 in Great Stambridge, Essex, England.

Mary FORTH [Parents] was born on 1 Jan 1583 in Great Stambridge, Essex, England. She died on 26 Jun 1615 in Groton, Suffolk, England. She was buried on 26 Jun 1615 in Groton, Suffolk, England. She married John WINTHROP on 16 Mar 1605 in Great Stambridge, Essex, England.

They had the following children:

• F i Mary WINTHROP was born on 30 Dec 1609 in Groton Manor, Suffolk, England. She died on 12 Apr 1643 in Salisbury, Essex, Ma. She was buried on 16 Apr 1643 in Boston, Suffolk, Massachusetts.
• M ii Harry Or Henry WINTHROP was born on 10 Jun 1608 in Groton Manor, Suffolk, England. He was christened on 20 Jan 1608 in Groton, Suffolk, England. He died on 2 Jul 1630 in Salem, Essex, Massachusetts.
• F iii Anne WINTHROP was born on 8 Aug 1614 in Groton, Suffolk, England. She was christened on 8 Aug 1614 in Groton, Suffolk, England. She died on 26 Aug 1614 in Groton, Suffolk, England. She was buried on 26 Aug 1614 in Groton, Suffolk, England.
• M iv John WINTHROP was born on 12 Feb 1606. He died on 5 Apr 1676.
• F v Anne WINTHROP was born on 26 Jun 1615 in Groton, Suffolk, England. She died on 29 Jun 1615 in Groton, Suffolk, England. She was buried on 29 Jun 1615 in Groton, Suffolk, England.
• M vi Forth WINTHROP was born on 30 Dec 1609 in Groton Manor, Suffolk, England. He died on 23 Nov 1630 in (unmarried). He was buried on 23 Nov 1630

.

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Governor John Winthrop , England and The Colonies

Winthrop is the family name of three American colonial leaders, father, son and grandson. John was one of nine children and the only boy. The Winthrop family name in various spellings may be traced back more than seven centuries. It was during the reign of Queen Elizabeth that John Winthrop was born on Jan 12, 1588 * (this text is starred because it says...the dates given are in the Old Style of dating...for the New Style add 10 days. The above date of John Winthrop is the generally accepted one.)

His father, Adam Winthrop, was squire of Groton Manor in Suffolk, England as had been his father before him. This estate was to descend to John long before his decision to found a new home in America. Little is known of John's boyhood except that he grew up amid the quiet beauty of Suffolk. His writings testify that he was well educated although there are no records of any schooling except the final stage when he entered Trinity College Cambridge at age fourteen, and remained there less than two years.

He wrote at age fourteen, "About fourteen years of age, being in Cambridge, I fell into a lingering fever, which took away the comfort of my life. For being there neglected and dispised, I went up and down, mourning with myself, and being deprived of my youthful joys, I betook myself to God, whom I did believe to be very good and merciful and would welcome any that would come to Him, especially such a young soul, and so well qualified as I took myself to be; so as I took pleasure in drawing near to Him." He was admitted at Gray,'s Inn (1613) and practiced law in London, being admitted to the inner Temple in 1628.

EXCERPT FROM "THE WINTHROP PAPERS": John Winthrop was his parents only son. John grew up on his fathers estate, amid gently rolling hills, fields of wheat and rye, and shallow ponds. In his childhood he was educated by a private tutor, and at the age of 14 his father enrolled him in Trinity College in Cambridge. He studied there for 2 years and then returned to Groton to begin the practical training in running the estate. His father introduced him to Mary Forth (old English spelling Forthe), the daughter of a distinguished Essex nobleman. 3 weeks later at the age of 17, they were married. John and his wife Mary worked hard and had six children in ten years, then Mary suddenly died. After six months he remarried, but on the first anniversary of the wedding his second wife died. One year later he married his third wife Margaret. By all accounts she was one of the most appealing women in all of American History. She was beautiful and gracious. She was also a woman of faith. John Winthrop treasured her as his greatest possession. When he traveled away from home, he never failed to send her love letters.

John purchased Groton Manor, Suffolk, England from his Uncle John Winthrop. His Uncle has inherited the Manor from his father Adam Winthrop the first. Gov. John was assisted by his father who handled much of the detail and subsequently assisted his son in the management of the estate. In 1616 his father and he were included on a patent roll listing of the Suffolk Commission of the Peace. John Winthrop, came with his fleet with a charter for the Massachussets Bay Colony. The King when signing the Charter failed to notice that the Directors of the Company were not required to meet in London as other charters required. Thus the Massachussets Bay Colony were fairly independent and practiced the Puritan philosophy without interference, which is a big reason they wanted a fresh start in the New World. The Winthrop Fleet arrived at Salem on 6/12/1630 with Governor John Winthrop aboard the "Arabella". The first years in the New World had to be exceedingly difficult and many were sick with scurvy, pneumonia after the trip by sea, having to exist on wild berries, mussels and indian corn. They left Salem and went to Charlestown, however the water supply there was poor. It was obvious, as the ships straggled in that so many people could not live on the barren peninsula. Sir Richard Saltonstall and the minister George Phillips, had gone up the Charles River and found a new location which Sir Richard called Watertown. Each day since arrival at Charlestown the ships had been coming, after touching at Salem for directions. The Mayflower 2nd, The Whale, The Hopewell, The Trial, The Success, The William and Francis, and at each landing Winthrop had questioned the passengers about his son Henry. Reluctantly he was finally informed that Henry had drowned when he went swimming in a pond in Salem.

His college days soon came to an end with his marriage to Mary Forth, of a distinguished family in Essex. For 24 years from 1605, the time of his early marriage until 1629 when the MA Baby Company was founded, John lived quietly in Groton practicing law and frequently traveling back and forth to London. His first marriage Brought 6 children, four of whom lived to grow up. John, Jr. the oldest was to become colonial governor of CT and was elected to that office 18 times. After the death of John's first wife, he married a 2nd time to Thomasine Clopton. However she only lived for one year before she died. John married a 3rd time to Margaret Tyndall a brave spirited woman who was willing to give up the luxuries and comforts of her happy home in England for hardships of the New England settlement. Eight children were born to Margaret Winthrop, but only 4 lived to come to America. After her death in 1647, Gov. Winthrop married a 4th time to Martha Coytmore.

During these years in England, John Winthrop lived a quiet meditative life. A journal kept by him at this time and called "Experiencia" is a revelation of his devout piety and earnest faith. Underneath a stern and rather rigid exterior, Winthrop possessed a delicate sensibility abounding in love and tenderness. In a letter to his wife from the ship which was to bear him away to the wilderness across the sea, he wrote, "An now my sweet soul, I must again take my last farewell of Thee in Old England. It goeth very near to my heart to leave Thee."

The election of John Winthrop as Governor came on Oct. 20, 1629. He was now 42 years old. A man of deliberate judgement and keen insight, he realized from the first the great responsibility that was his. Henceforth the welfare of the Bay Colony was the one motive of his life. Five busy months of preparation before departure lay ahead. There was infinite thought to be given to the essential needs of founding new homes and industries in a strange wilderness. Only 3 times did he travel up from London to see his family in Groton. It was decided that 3 of his sons, Henry, Stephen and Adam would accompany him to America. His wife and oldest son John were to come later with the other children.

From "The Lion and the Hare", John had planned to take his family on the Arbella, but his son missed the boat, and followed in the Talbot. Mrs. Winthrop could not go as she was expecting. Only two sons accompanied him, Stephen age 11 and Adam, age 10. They slept with their father under a rug, as there were no sheets. John Winthrop sailed aboard the ship Arabella, and on June 12, 1630 the Arabella entered Salem Harbor. The journey took 83 days from the time it left Southampton, England. Sailed from Southampton, 1630, aboard the Arbella. Chosen as Governor of the Mass. Bay Co. 1629 and signed the Cambridge Agreement, allowing the transfer of the charter and Co. to New England.

There were about 700 passengers aboard, 200 cattle (70 died in a storm), many sheep, swine, goats, but few horses. After a delay by head winds, the Arbella departed from Cowes, Isle of Wight, April 8, 1630 and landed at Cape Anne, MA on June 12th of the same year. All of the shipps arrived safely during the following two weeks. The immigrants gathered a "store of fine strawberries" upon landing. A house was waiting for Gov. Winthrop at Charles town, but he had it moved to a place he named Boston.

From Winthrop's journal which he diligently kept until the day he died, he wrote just an Inkling of what that day was like..."We had now fair sunshine weather and so pleasant a sweet air as did much refresh us and there came a smell off the shore like the smell of a garden." On June 17th Winthrop wrote in his journal, "We went to Massachusetts to find a place for our sitting down. We went up the Mystic River about six miles." Because of the scarcity of food it seemed wiser to break up into small parties, and settlements were made at Lynn, Medford, Charlestown, Watertown, Roxbury, Dorchester and Cambridge (Newtown), and soon little groups of grass-thatched log huts, tents and rude shelters foretold the beginning of colonial villages which were to grow into towns and cities. Before Christmas, all the of the ships had landed safely, bringing nearly 1,000 passengers.

He took over the government from John Endicott and settled Boston. John kept extensive journals that were published nearly 200 years later as History of New England from 1630 to 1649 (1825-1826). He helped establish a Congregational Church, and lead the colony through their first hard winter. About 260 Bostonians left to find new homes in Massachusetts. This group included John Cotton, Thomas Dudley, Simon Bradstreet, Richard Bellingham, Edward Quincey. John Winthrop was Govenor of Boston almost continuously until his death. John served as governor 1629-34, 1637-40, 1642-44, 1646-49, and was deputy governor for ten years. He advocated a New England Confederation, and was first president when it was formed in 1643. After 19 years of devoted and untiring service on behalf of the MA Bay Colony, twelve of which he had been Governor, John Winthrop died on March 26, 1649 in his 62 year. He lies buried in what is now the King's Chapel Burying Ground in Boston. A statue in the Nation's Capitol at Washington and also one in Boston represent Governor Winthrop stepping ashore from the Arabella.

Winthrop's principles were high, and he was aristocratic.

He symbolizes the ambiguity of the Puritan mystique at the root of American national identity. Consider the importance ascribed to Winthrop's famous sermon, "The Modell of Christian Charity," which he wrote and possibly delivered on board the flagship Arbella when the Puritans were en route to America. More than the formulaic admonition that was customarily preached to shipmates at the launching of transatlantic voyages, it was the moral code for a godly society that Winthrop hoped would serve as a model for a reformed England. In later generations his prediction that "wee shall bee as a Citty upon a hill, the eyes of all people ... upon us" evoked a self-conscious ideal against which the themes of each day were measured. Still later, the image would become a republican symbol of American exceptionalism and world mission, and ultimately an ideological touchstone for imperial diplomacy in the twentieth century.

Winthrop was a third-generation son of English landed gentry, whose religious aspirations were focused on the advancement of the Protestant Reformation in England and continental Europe. His migration to Massachusetts Bay was in response to "corruptions" he perceived in English society at a time when the Puritans were threatened with persecution as well as an unpromising economic future. His life and writings reveal a man caught in the broad overlap of the late medieval and early modern eras. His Journal is both an excellent source for early Massachusetts history and the chronicle of his personal efforts to secure the commonwealth as a gentry-dominated oligarchy.

Winthrop regarded the governorship as his lifetime position. But several defeats in colonial elections revealed a significant opposition to his arbitrary methods. His political ideal presupposed an interdependent community wherein all members had a prescribed place and function in the social hierarchy. Despite his legal training at the Inns of Court, he opposed the movement to curtail magistrates' authority by enacting a code of laws. Instead, he consistently defended discretionary rule and the magisterial veto over the resistance of the town deputies. In a famous speech to the General Court in 1645 he distinguished civil from natural liberty as that which "is maintained and exercised in a way of subjection to authority."

Winthrop's imperious treatment of dissenters may also be seen in the context of premodern social ideals that defined the religious mission of Massachusetts Bay Colony. To achieve a Puritan utopia, Winthrop and his colleagues committed themselves to a policy of intolerance. He played a leading role in prosecuting Anne Hutchinson and her supporters during the antinomian controversy (1636-1638); in ordering the capture of Rhode Island radical Samuel Gorton and his company at Shawomet to be tried and sentenced at Boston (1643); and in subduing the "Presbyterians" William Vassal, Robert Child, and Samuel Maverick for their "Remonstrance and Humble Petition" (1646), which called for a more liberal church membership policy. In each case, the possibility of English interference threatened the goals of Winthrop's godly society.

England accepted a limited toleration in the 1640s, but Massachusetts continued to punish dissenters, thus isolating itself from the mainstream of political culture abroad. Then, too, Boston's development into a seaport town was a process that made Winthrop's medieval standard of social relations anachronistic by the final decade of his life. Ironically, it was this transformation that refurbished Winthrop's "Citty upon a hill" imagery as an American emblem, one that related the themes of progress and declension in popular rhetoric.

1630, THE WINTHROP FLEET: Eleven vessels brought ' the Great Emigration' of this year,viz:

ARBELLA the flagship AMBROSE, WILLIAM AND FRANCIS TALBOT, HOPEWELL JEWEL, WHALE CHARLES, SUCCESS MAYFLOWER, TRIAL

The first five ships sailed April 8 from Yarmouth, Isle of Wight, and arrived at Salem June 13 and following days. The other half of the fleet sailed in May and arrived in July at various dates. Altogether they brought about seven hundred passengers.

_____________________________

The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. 2001-05.

Winthrop, John, 1588– 1649, governor of the Massachusetts Bay colony 1588– 1649, governor of the Massachusetts Bay colony, b. Edwardstone, near Groton, Suffolk, England. Of a landowning family, he studied at Trinity College, Cambridge, came into a family fortune, and became a government administrator with strong Puritan leanings. A member of the Massachusetts Bay Company, he led the group that arranged for the removal of the company's government to New England and was chosen (1629) governor of the proposed colony. He arrived (1630) in the ship Arbella at Salem and shortly founded on Shawmut peninsula the settlement that became Boston. He was— with the possible exception of John Cotton— the most distinguished citizen of Massachusetts Bay colony, serving as governor some 12 times. He helped to shape the theocratic policy of the colony and opposed broad democracy. It was while he was deputy governor and Sir Henry Vane (1613– 62) was governor that Winthrop bitterly and successfully opposed the antinomian beliefs of Anne Hutchinson and her followers, who were supported by Vane. The force of his influence on the history of Massachusetts was enormous. Winthrop's journal, which was edited by J. K. Hosmer and published in 1908 as The History of New England from 1630 to 1649 is one of the most valuable of American historical sources. See The Journal of John Winthrop, 1630– 1649 (1996), abridged ed. by R. S. Dunn and L. Yeandle; R. C. Winthrop, Life and Letters of John Winthrop (2 vol., 1864– 67; repr. 1971); Winthrop Papers (5 vol., 1929– 47); biographies by J. H. Twichell (1892), E. S. Morgan (1958), G. R. Raymer (1963), and F. J. Bremer (2003); R. S. Dunn, Puritans and Yankees (1962, repr. 1971).
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http://www.mass.gov/statehouse/massgovs/jwinthrop.htm Governors of Massachusetts

John Winthrop (1587-1649)

Governor Massachusetts Bay Colony 1630-1634, 1637-1640, 1642-1644, 1646-1649

John Winthrop was the young Massachusetts Colony's most prominent leader, serving as Governor for fifteen of its first twenty years. In his famous "City on a Hill" speech, Winthrop articulated the Puritan hope that their community would be an example to the world. For Puritans did not merely seek to escape repression of their faith, they aspired to create a society based on that faith as a model to redeem their homeland.

In March of 1630, the Winthrop fleet of eleven vessels with more than 1,000 passengers onboard set off for Massachusetts. Unlike the Pilgrims who suffered through their passage and ended up 200 miles too far north during December, Winthrop and the Puritan settlers had a speedy passage, arriving in the warm weather of June and July at Salem where Governor John Endecott welcomed them.

Winthrop led the Puritans to Charlestown and eventually to the Shawmut Peninsula, because of its fresh water springs. An old Cambridge classmate of Winthrop's, the Reverend William Blackstone, who had been part of an earlier failed expedition, inhabited Shawmut. He invited the Massachusetts Bay Colony to join him on the Shawmut Peninsula. Settler Thomas Dudley, who would succeed Winthrop as the Colony's Governor, suggested the settlers name the new settlement "Boston." Dudley, as well as many of the settlers hailed from Boston in Lincolnshire, England. The name of their hometown recalled their desire to make a version of English society based on the principles of their faith.

In contemporary accounts Winthrop is often only recalled as the prosecutor of Anne Hutchinson. Winthrop's intolerant and even misogynistic nature was common among the zealous Puritan founders of Massachusetts. It often escapes contemporary readers that Winthrop was an able Governor in his time. He used the legal training he obtained as a young man studying law at the Inns of Court in London to effectively defend the Colony's charter in England. He was respected both by colonists in Massachusetts, as well as by the leaders of Plymouth, Connecticut, and New Haven who joined with Massachusetts in confederation and elected Winthrop their first chief executive.

http://capecodhistory.us/genealogy/getperson.php?personID=I11336&tr...
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Birth: Jan. 23, 1588 Edwardstone Suffolk, England Death: Mar. 26, 1649 Boston Suffolk County Massachusetts, USA

Massachusetts Bay Colony Governor. He was instrumental in leading the first large wave of colonists from England to the Massachusetts Bay Colony, the first major settlement in New England after the Plymouth Colony. He was born at Edwardstone, Suffolk, England, to a wealthy landowning and merchant family. In December 1602, he was admitted to Trinity College but soon left and married his first wife, Mary Forth, in April 1605. During this time, he became deeply religious in the Puritan faith. In 1613, he received the family holdings in Groton, and became squire of the Manor there. He soon followed his father's path as a lawyer in London, having been enrolled at Gray's Inn to study law. In 1624, Charles I ascended the English throne and was opposed to all religious groups who did not ascribe to the doctrine of the Church of England. In March 1629, Charles I dissolved the English Parliament and his continued religious intolerance and crackdown on the Puritans resulted in a decision for the some of the leaders of the Massachusetts Bay Company (who were mostly Puritans) to emigrate to New England. Winthrop was chosen as governor and on April 8, 1630, he sailed from the Isle of Wight with four ships that were part of a larger fleet of 11 ships, carrying 700 people to New England, arriving at Salem in June. They chose to settle at the present-day city of Boston, near the Charles River. In the early months the colony struggled with disease, losing about 200 people, including his son, Henry. He served as governor of the colony for 12 of its first 20 years of existence, being elected on four different occasions. He was generally civil and diplomatic towards the Native American population. However, cultural differences and trade issues, along with land ownership rights of the colonists that conflicted with the hunter-gatherer rights of the natives eventually evolved into a war with the Pequot tribe in 1637, which ended with the destruction of the tribe, whose survivors were sold as slaves to the West Indies or became enslaved by the colonists themselves. During his life, he continuously wrote accounts of historical events and religious manifestations. His major contributions to the literary world were "A Modell of Christian Charity" (1630) and "The History of New England" (1630-1649; also known as "The History of John Winthrop"), which remained unpublished until the late 18th century. He was married four times and had 16 children, his first three wives preceding him in death. He died of natural causes. (bio by: William Bjornstad)

Family links:

Parents:

 Adam Winthrop (1548 - 1623)

 Anne Browne Winthrop (1544 - 1629)

Children:

 John Winthrop (1605 - 1676)*

 Henry Winthrop (1607 - 1630)*

 Deane Winthrop (1623 - 1704)*

 Ann Winthrop (1630 - 1631)*

Sibling:

 Anne Winthrop Fones (1585 - 1618)*

 John Winthrop (1588 - 1649)

*Calculated relationship

Burial: Kings Chapel Burying Ground Boston Suffolk County Massachusetts, USA

Edit Virtual Cemetery info [?]

Maintained by: Find A Grave Record added: Jan 01, 2001 Find A Grave Memorial# 1118
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John Winthrop Memorial

Birth: Jan. 23, 1588 Edwardstone Suffolk, England Death: Mar. 26, 1649 Boston Suffolk County Massachusetts, USA

Massachusetts Bay Colony Governor. He was instrumental in leading the first large wave of colonists from England to the Massachusetts Bay Colony, the first major settlement in New England after the Plymouth Colony. He was born at Edwardstone, Suffolk, England, to a wealthy landowning and merchant family. In December 1602, he was admitted to Trinity College but soon left and married his first wife, Mary Forth, in April 1605. During this time, he became deeply religious in the Puritan faith. In 1613, he received the family holdings in Groton, and became squire of the Manor there. He soon followed his father's path as a lawyer in London, having been enrolled at Gray's Inn to study law. In 1624, Charles I ascended the English throne and was opposed to all religious groups who did not ascribe to the doctrine of the Church of England. In March 1629, Charles I dissolved the English Parliament and his continued religious intolerance and crackdown on the Puritans resulted in a decision for the some of the leaders of the Massachusetts Bay Company (who were mostly Puritans) to emigrate to New England. Winthrop was chosen as governor and on April 8, 1630, he sailed from the Isle of Wight with four ships that were part of a larger fleet of 11 ships, carrying 700 people to New England, arriving at Salem in June. They chose to settle at the present-day city of Boston, near the Charles River. In the early months the colony struggled with disease, losing about 200 people, including his son, Henry. He served as governor of the colony for 12 of its first 20 years of existence, being elected on four different occasions. He was generally civil and diplomatic towards the Native American population. However, cultural differences and trade issues, along with land ownership rights of the colonists that conflicted with the hunter-gatherer rights of the natives eventually evolved into a war with the Pequot tribe in 1637, which ended with the destruction of the tribe, whose survivors were sold as slaves to the West Indies or became enslaved by the colonists themselves. During his life, he continuously wrote accounts of historical events and religious manifestations. His major contributions to the literary world were "A Modell of Christian Charity" (1630) and "The History of New England" (1630-1649; also known as "The History of John Winthrop"), which remained unpublished until the late 18th century. He was married four times and had 16 children, his first three wives preceding him in death. He died of natural causes. (bio by: William Bjornstad)

Family links:

Parents:

 Adam Winthrop (1548 - 1623)

 Anne Browne Winthrop (1544 - 1629)

Spouses:

 Thomasina Clopton Winthrop (1582 - 1616)

 Margaret Tyndal(l) Winthrop (1591 - 1647)*

 Mary Forth Winthrop (1583 - 1615)*

Children:

 John Winthrop (1606 - 1676)*

 Henry Winthrop (1607 - 1630)*

 Mary Winthrop Dudley (1609 - 1643)*

 Female Infant Winthrop (1616 - 1616)*

 Deane Winthrop (1623 - 1704)*

 Ann Winthrop (1630 - 1631)*

Siblings:

 Anne Winthrop Fones (1585 - 1618)*

 John Winthrop (1588 - 1649)

 Lucy Winthrop Downing (1601 - 1679)*

*Calculated relationship

Burial: Kings Chapel Burying Ground Boston Suffolk County Massachusetts, USA

Maintained by: Find A Grave Record added: Jan 01, 2001 Find A Grave Memorial# 1118

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/1118/john-winthrop

References

1. 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,” he died, age 61, in the spring of 1649. By force of character Winthrop had persuaded the colonists to adopt many—though by no means all—of his pet social and political ideas. The detailed journal that he kept during his years in America is a prime source for the early history of Massachusetts, and his copious file of correspondence and memoranda gives an exceptionally full impression of his activities and personality.”
2. Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. "Suffolk". Encyclopedia Britannica, 10 Nov. 2023, https://www.britannica.com/place/Suffolk-county-Massachusetts. Accessed 9 March 2024. Suffolk county was created by the Massachusetts General Court on May 10, 1643, when it was ordered "that the whole plantation within this jurisdiction be divided into four shires". Suffolk initially contained Boston, Roxbury, Dorchester, Dedham, Braintree, Weymouth, and Hingham.