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‘The 16th of Aprill (1605) he was married at Great Stambridge.’
‘The VIIIth of May (1605) my soonne & his wife came to Groton from London, and the IXth I made a marriage feast,’ etc.
The above records show that Governor Winthrop was but seventeen years old when married.
He immediately came under Mr. Culverwell's ministry, to which, in a confession of his youthful sinfulness made in after life, he ascribes his conversion to Christianity; of which he says, ‘The ministry of the word came home to my heart with power. . . . I could no longer dally with religion. . . . I had an unsatiable thirst after the word of God; and could not miss a good sermon, especially of such as did search deep into the conscience.’
In June, 1615, his wife Mary died, and on December 6, 1615, he married his second wife, Thomasine Clopton, who lived but a year after her marriage.
Winthrop speaks of her as a ‘woman wise, modest, loving & patient of injuries’ . . . ‘& truly religious.’
In 1618 he married his third wife, Margaret Tindall.
Two letters from him to this lady before their marriage, are models of commingled piety and affection for his future wife, and are very quaint and curious.
His third wife died in June, 1647, and in December he married his fourth wife, widow Martha Coitmore, who survived him, and married a third husband, John Coggan.
The letters, still extant, between Governor Winthrop and his wives are conclusive evidence that in the lottery of matrimony he drew charming prizes, as did they.
Winthrop was a justice at eighteen years of age, and lawyer in London as early as 1622, and probably followed some branch of the legal profession up to the time of his appointment as governor—holding court as lord of the manor, and being for some time one of the ‘Atturnies in the Courte of Wards and Lyvereyes’ at the inner temple, etc. He seems to have had clients among the nobility, and to have performed professional service in connection with parliamentary proceedings.
One of the bills drawn up by him is entitled ‘An Act for the preventing of drunkenness and of the great waste of corn,’ and has the following preamble:
Somerville. Historical Society. , 1905.
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