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JOHN WINTHROP (1588-1649)

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Originally appearing in Volume V28, Page 736 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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JOHN See also:WINTHROP (1588-1649)  , a Puritan See also:leader and See also:governor of See also:Massachusetts, was See also:born in Edwardston, See also:Suffolk, on the 12th of See also:January (O.S.) 1588, the son of See also:Adam See also:Winthrop of Groton See also:Manor, and See also:Anne (See also:Browne) Winthrop . In See also:December 1602 he matriculated at Trinity See also:College, See also:Cambridge, but he did not See also:graduate . The years after his brief course at the university were devoted to the practice of See also:law, in which he achieved considerable success, being appointed, about 1623, an See also:attorney in the See also:Court of Wards and Liveries, and also being engaged in the drafting of See also:parliamentary bills . Though his See also:residence was at Groton Manor, much of his See also:time was spent in See also:London . Mean-while he passed through the deep spiritual experiences characteristic of See also:Puritanism, and made wide acquaintance among the leaders of the Puritan party . On the 26th of See also:August 1629 he joined in the " Cambridge Agreement," by which he, and his associates, pledged themselves to remove to New See also:England, provided the See also:government and patent of the Massachusetts See also:colony should be removed thither . On the 2oth of See also:October following he was chosen governor of the " Governor and See also:Company of the Massachusetts See also:Bay in New England," and sailed in the " Arbella " in See also:March 163o, reaching See also:Salem (See also:Mass.) on the 12th of See also:June (O,S.), accompanied by a large party of Puritan immigrants . After a brief sojourn in See also:Charlestown, Winthrop and many of his immediate associates settled in See also:Boston in the autumn of 1630 . He shared in the formation of a See also:church at Charlestown (afterwards the First Church in Boston) on the 3oth of See also:July 163o, of which he was thenceforth a member . At Boston he erected a large See also:house, and there he lived till his See also:death on the 26th of March (O.S.) 1649 . Winthrop's See also:history in New England was very largely that of the Massachusetts colony, of which he was twelve times chosen governor by See also:annual See also:election, serving in 1629-1634, 1637-1640, in 1642-1644, and in 1646-1649, and dying in See also:office . To the service of the colony he gave not merely unwearied devotion; but in its interests consumed strength and See also:fortune .

His own See also:

temper of mind was conservative and somewhat aristocratic, but he guided See also:political development, often under circumstances of See also:great difficulty, with singular fairness and conspicuous magnanimity . In 1634-1635 he was a leader in putting the colony in a See also:state of See also:defence against possible See also:coercion by the See also:English government . He opposed the See also:majority of his See also:fellow-townsmen in the so-called " Antinomian controversy " of 1636-1637, taking a strongly conservative attitude towards the questions in dispute . He was the first See also:president of the Commissioners of the See also:United Colonies of New England, organized in 1643 . He defended Massachusetts against threatened parliamentary interference once more in 1645-1646 . That the colony success-fully weathered its See also:early perils was due more to Winthrop's skill and See also: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 See also:April 16o5, was See also:Mary Forth, daughter of See also:John Forth, of Great Stambridge, See also:Essex . She See also:bore him six See also:children, of whom the eldest was John Winthrop, Jr . (q.v.) . She was buried in Groton on the 26th of June 1615 . On the 6th of December 1615 he married Thomasine Clopton, daughter of See also:William Clopton of Castleins, near Groton .

She died in childbirth about a See also:

year later . He married, on the 29th of April 1618, See also:Margaret Tyndal, daughter of See also:Sir John Ty tadal,of Great Maplested, Essex . She followed him to New England in 1631, bore him eight children, and died on the 14th of June 1647 . See also:Late in 1647 or early in 1648 he married Mrs Martha Coytmore, widow of See also:Thomas Coytmore, who survived him, and by whom he had one son . Winthrop's See also:Journal, an invaluable See also:record of early Massachusetts history, was printed in See also:part in See also:Hartford in 1790; the whole in Boston, edited by See also:James See also:Savage, as The History of New England from 163o to 1649, in 1825-1826, and again in 1853; and in New See also:York, edited by James K . See also:Hosmer, in 1908 . His See also:biography has been written by See also:Robert C . Winthrop, See also:Life and Letters of John Winthrop (2 vols., Boston, 1864, 1867; new ed . 1869) ; and by See also:Joseph I-f . Twichell, John Winthrop (New York, 1891) . See also Mrs Alice M . See also:Earle, Margaret Winthrop (New York, 1895) .

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