WINTHROP  , a township and a summer resort of

Suffolk county, Massachusetts, U.S.A., occupying a peninsula jutting out into Massachusetts Bay about 5 M . N.E. of Boston and 3 M . S.E. of Chelsea, and forming part of the north-eastern boundary of Boston Harbour . Pop . (I goo) 6058, of whom 1437 were foreign-born and 43 were negroes; (1910, U.S. census) 10,132 . Between May and October the population is estimated to be between 14,000 and 16,000 . Area, 1.6 sq. m . Winthrop is served by the Winthrop branch of the Boston, Revere Beach & Lynn railway, and by electric railway from Orient Heights to Revere, Chelsea, East Boston, Lynn and Boston . The township contains several villages connected by a railway loop; there are nine stations in its 5.3 M. of track . The peninsula has about 8 m. of water front on the ocean and the harbour . The northern part nearest the narrow neck connecting with the mainland is a high bluff, known as Winthrop Highlands, having its north-eastern terminus in Grover's Cliff, a bold headland which forms the north-eastern-most point of the peninsula . On Grover's Cliff is Fort Heath, a battery of three powerful long-range guns .

At the western end of the Highlands is Fort

Banks (a part of Boston's harbour defence), consisting of a masked battery of sixteen 12 in. mortars, each able to drop a 600 lb shell on a ship 6 m. at sea . From Grover's Cliff a fine sandy beach facing the open ocean leads to Great Head, the highest elevation on the peninsula . Winthrop Shore Drive (16.73 acres), one of the reservations of the Metropolitan park system, is a public parkway along the shore . From Great Head, a long sandy spit curves away southward, ending in Point Shirley, a hillock and flat sandy plain, separated by Shirley Gut, a narrow channel of deep water, from Deer Island, on which are the Boston House of Correction and City Prison . At Point Shirley is the Point Shirley Club house; at the western foot of Great Head, on Crystal Bay, is the Winthrop Yacht Club house and anchorage; and at Winthrop Center on the west side are the Town Hall, the High School, the Public Library, the Masonic Hall, College Park Yacht Club and Ingleside Park . There are several large summer hotels . Winthrop, first .known as " Pullen Poynt " (Pulling Point) because the tide made hard pulling here for boatmen, was origin-ally a part of Boston; it was part of Chelsea from 1739 until 1846, when with Rumney Marsh it was separately incorporated as North Chelsea, from which it was set off as a township in 1852 under its present name, in honour of Deane Winthrop (1623—1704), who was a son of Governor John Winthrop, the elder, and whose horse is still standing . Point Shirley takes its name from Governor William Shirley who helped to establish a cod fishery XX VIII . 24there in 1753 . Before and after the War of Independence Winthrop was a favourite seaside home for Bostonians, many prominent families, including the Gibbons, Hancocks, Bartletts, Emersons, Lorings and Lowells, having country-seats here . The community was a secluded rural retreat until the construction of the railway in 1876 converted it into a watering-place . See C .

W . Hall, Historic Winthrop, 1630—zgo2 (Boston, 1902) . WINWOOD,

SIR RALPH (c . 1563—1617), English politician, was born at Aynhoe in Northamptonshire and educated at St John's College, Oxford . In 1599 he became secretary to Sir Henry Neville (c . 1564—1615), the English ambassador in France, and he succeeded Neville in this position two years later, re- , taining it until 1603 . In this year Winwood was sent to The Hague as agent to the States-General of the United Provinces, and according to custom he became a member of the Dutch council of state . His hearty dislike of Spain coloured all his actions in Holland; he was anxious to see a continuance of the war between Spain and the United Netherlands, and he expressed both his own views and those of the English government at the time when he wrote, " how convenient this war would be for the good of His Majesty's realms, if it might be maintained without his charge." In June 16o8 Winwood signed the league between England and the United Provinces, and he was in Holland when the trouble over the succession to the duchies of Julich and Cleves threatened to cause a European war . In this matter he negotiated with the Protestant princes of Germany on behalf of James I . Having returned to England Sir Ralph became secretary of state in March 1614 and a member of parliament . In the House of Commons he defended the king's right to levy impositions, and other events of his secretaryship were the inquiry into the murder of Sir Thomas Overbury and the release of Raleigh in 1616 . Raleigh was urged by Winwood to attack the Spanish fleet and the Spanish settlements in South America, and the secretary's share in this undertaking was the subject of complaints on the part of the representatives of Spain .

In the midst of this he died in

London on the 27th of October 1617 . " It can hardly be doubted," says Gardiner, " that, if he had lived till the following summer, he would have shared in Raleigh's ruin." One of Winwood's daughters, Anne (d . 1643), married Edward Montagu, 2nd Baron Montagu of Boughton, and their son was Ralph Montagu, 1st duke of Montagu . Winwood's official correspondence and other papers passed to the duke of Montagu, and are now in the possession of the duke of Buccleuch . They are calendared in the Report of the Historical Manuscripts Commission on the manuscripts of the duke of Hue-clench . See the Introduction to this Report (1899); and also S . R . Gardiner, History of England, vols. ii. and iii . (1904–1907) .