John Winthrop Biography

Dromo's Den

WINTHROP, John (1588-1649). An English colonist in America, first Governor of the Colony of Massachusetts Bay. He was born at Edwardston, Suffolk, England, and his early life was spent at Groton Manor, in Suffolk. He studied for two years (1602-04) at Trinity College, Cambridge. In 1626 he was appointed attorney in the Court of Wards and Liveries, presided over by Sir Robert Naunton. The drift of affairs in Parliament, the impending crisis in the political world, and his own sympathy with the Congregationalist movement, led him to take an interest in American emigration. The London proprietors of the Massachusetts Company, who had determined to transfer the seat of government to the New World, on Oct. 30, 1629, elected John Winthrop Governor. On June 22, 1630, with a fleet of 11 ships, Winthrop arrived at Salem. Soon afterward he removed to Charlestown, whence in the September following he and his fellow colonists again removed- this time to the site of Boston, which place they founded. In 1634 he was chosen Deputy Governor under Thomas Dudley (q.v.). Dudley was followed by John Haynes (1635) and Haynes by Sir Harry Vane (1636). During the latter's Governorship Winthrop as Deputy Governor led the opposition to the liberal policy adopted by Vane towards Anne Hutchinson (q.v.) and her followers. He had separated from the Church of England on leaving England, and was at this time thoroughly identified with the Puritan movement. He opposed strenuously the new Antinomianism and on the issue thus raised was chosen Governor over Vane in 1637. He retained the Governorship until 1640, was again Governor in 1642-44 and again from 1646 until his death. In 1643 the New England Confederation was formed under his auspices, and he became its first president. Winthrop's Journal was first published in a single volume (Hartford, 1790). This was republished with newly discovered manuscripts under the title History of New England, 1630-49 (Boston, .1825-26), with notes by James Savage. Many of his papers have been published by the Massachusetts Historical Society. Consult also R. C. Winthrop's valuable Life and Letters of John Winthrop (2 vols., Boston, 1864-67); J. H. Twichell, John Winthrop (New York, 1891), in "Makers of America Series"; Andrew Macphail, Essays in Puritanism (Boston,- 1905). For his wife, MARGARET TYNDAL WINTHROP (1591-1647), consuit Alice Morse Earle, Margaret Winthrop (New York, 1895).

The New International Encyclopaedia, Vol. XXIII (New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1920) 634.