John 1588-1649 Winthrop

WINTHROP, JOHN (1588-1649), Puritan leader and first governor of Massachusetts, was born in Edwardston, Suffolk, England, Jan. 12 (old style), 1588. In 1602 he matriculated at Trinity college, Cambridge, but he did not graduate. He next practised law and achieved considerable success, being appointed, about 1623, an attorney in the court of wards and liveries, and also being engaged in the drafting of parliamentary bills. His in come rose to the sum of £700 a year, when, for reasons now un known, he suddenly in 1629 lost his appointment. A Puritan, he had made wide acquaintance among the leaders of the Puritan party. On Aug. 26, 1629, he joined in the "Cambridge Agree ment," by which he and his associates pledged themselves to re move to New England, provided the Government and patent of the Massachusetts colony should be removed thither. On Oct. 20, 1630, he was chosen governor of the "Governor and Company of the Massachusetts Bay in New England," and sailed in the "Arbella" in March 163o, reaching Salem, Mass., June 12 (old style), accompanied by a large party of Puritan immigrants. After a brief sojourn in Charlestown, Winthrop and many of his immediate associates settled in Boston in the autumn of 163o. There he lived until his death on March 26 (old style), Winthrop's history in New England was very largely that of the Massachusetts colony, of which he was 12 times chosen governor by annual election, serving in 1629-34, 1637-40, 1642-44, and 1646-49, and dying in office. He was usually deputy governor and always assistant when not actually governor. He gave all his

strength, devotion and fortune to the colonies. He was con servative and somewhat aristocratic, but just and magnanimous in his political guidance even under circumstances of great difficulty. In 1634-35 he was a leader in putting the colony in a state of defence against possible coercion by the English Government. He opposed the majority of his fellow-townsmen in the so-called "Antinomian Controversy" of 1636-37, taking a strongly con servative attitude towards the questions in dispute. He was the first president of the Commissioners of the United Colonies of New England organized in 1643. He defended Massachusetts against threatened parliamentary interference once more in 46. The colony's early success was due largely to his skill and wisdom.

Winthrop's

Journal, an invaluable record of early Massachusetts history, was printed in part in Hartford in 1790; the whole in Boston, edited with valuable notes by James Savage, as The History of New England from 1630-1649, in 1825-26, and again in 1853 ; and in New York, edited by James K. Hosmer, in 1908. Many letters to him are found in the Winthrop Papers published by the Massachusetts Historical Society (Collections, series 4, vols. vi. and vii.; series 5, vol. i., 1863-71). His biography has been written by Robert C. Winthrop, Life and Letters of John Winthrop (1864, new ed. 1869) ; and by Joseph H. Twichell, John Winthrop (1892). See also Mrs. Alice M. Earle, Margaret Winthrop (1895).