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Dromo's Den
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[Up] [Dromo's Den] John Winthrop Biography WINTHROP, JOHN (1606-76). A Colonial Governor of Connecticut. He was the son of John Winthrop, the first Governor of Massachusetts Bay, and was born at Groton Manor, Suffolk, England. He was educated at Bury St. Edmunds Grammar School, at Trinity College, Dublin, and at the Inner Temple (1624). In 1627 he took part in the Duke of Buckingham's unsuccessful expedition to the Isle of Ré, near La Rochelle. He joined his father in New England in 1631, and two years later participated in the founding of the town of Ipswich. He was for some time titular Governor of a small settlement at Saybrook on the Connecticut River. In 1646 he laid out a plantation on the Thames River at what is now New London, where, after 1650, he made his home. He was elected a magistrate in 1651 and Governor in 1657. Then, after serving as Deputy Governor in 1658, he was again chosen Governor in 1660, holding office from that time continuously until his death. In 1662 he carried to England a loyal address from the Connecticut colonial government to Charles II, and was successful in securing from the King a very favorable charter. He was also influential in bringing about the union of the Connecticut and New Haven Colonies. In 1675 he was one of the commissioners of the United Colonies of New England. Consult T. F. Waters, A Sketch of the Life of John Winthrop, the Younger (Cambridge, 1899). The New International Encyclopaedia, Vol. XXIII (New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1920) 634-635. |