Harper's Encyclopedia of United States History
Benson Lossing, Ed.

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Winthrop, John 1606-1649

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Colonial governor; born near Groton, Suffolk, England, Jan. 22, 1588; arrived at Salem in the summer of 1630, with 900 emigrants, in several ships, and on the voyage employed a portion of his time in writing a work entitled A model of Christian charity. On his arrival, the government, administered by Endicott, was transferred to him. He was a just magistrate, and managed the affairs of the colony with vigor and discretion until succeeded by Thomas Dudley, in 1634. Winthrop and the whole company who came with him intended to join the settlers at Charlestown, but, it being sickly there, they went over to the peninsula of Shawmut, where there was a spring of pure and wholesome water, and seated themselves, and called the place Trimountain, on account of three hills. It was afterwards called Boston, and became the capital of New England.

John Winthrop.

When Sir Henry Vane came, and was elected governor, Winthrop was made his deputy, and it was at that time that the controversy with Anne Hutchinson occurred (see Hutchinson, Anne). Winthrop again became governor in 1637, and from that time until his death he held the office of chief magistrate a greater part of the time. Governor Winthrop kept a journal of the transactions of the colony, which has been published—the first two books in 1790, and the third (the manuscript of which was found in 1816, in the New England Library, kept in the tower of the Old South Meetinghouse, in Boston) was published with the first two, in complete form, with notes by James Savage, in 1825-26. He died in Boston, Mass., March 26, 1649.

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Colonist; born in Groton, Suffolk, England, Feb. 12, 1606; son of the preceding; educated at Trinity College, Dublin; entered the public service early; was in the expedition for the relief of the Huguenots of La Rochelle, in 1627; and the next year was attached to the English embassy at Constantinople. In 1631 he came to America, but soon [414] returned to England. He was sent back in 1635, as governor of the Connecticut colony, by Lords Say and Seal and Brook, built a fort at the mouth of the Connecticut River, and there began a village named Say-Brook. In 1645 he founded New London, on the Thames. Under the constitution of the colony he was succeeded by John Hayne, and was elected governor in 1657, and again in 1659. He held the office until his death. After the accession of Charles II. （1660) Winthrop went to England to obtain a charter from the King. The colonists had been sturdy republicans during the interregnum, and the King did not feel well disposed towards them, and at first he refused to grant them a charter. Finally, when Winthrop presented his Majesty with a ring which Charles I. had given to his father, the heart of the monarch was touched, and he granted a charter, May 1 (N. S.), 1662. While attending the Congress of the New England Confederacy in Boston as delegate from Connecticut, Winthrop was seized with an illness that caused his death, April 5, 1676.

Winthrop, Robert Charles