WINTHROP, JOHN ( 158S-1649). An Eng lish colonist in America, first Governor of the colony of Massachhsetts Bay. He was born at Edwardston. Suffolk, England, and his early life was spent at Groton Manor, in Suffolk. He studied for two years (1602-04) at Trinity Col lege, Cambridge. At the age of eighteen he ap pears to have been a justice of the peace. In 1626 he was appointed attorney in the Court of Wards and Liveries, presided over by Sir Robert Nannton. The drift of affairs in Parliament, the impending crisis in the political world, and his own sympathy with the Congregationalist movement, led him to take an interest in Ameri can emigration. The London proprietors of the Massachusetts Company, who had determined to transfer the seat of government to the New World, on October 30, 1629, elected John Win throp Governor. On June 22. 1630, with a tleet of eleven ships, Winthrop arrived at Salem. Soon afterwards he removed to Charlestown, whence in the September following he and his fel low colonists again removed—this time to the site of Boston. which place they founded. During twelve of the nineteen years which Governor Winthrop lived in Massachusetts he was Gov ernor of the colony. After 1630 he was annually elected until 1634, when he was ellosen Deputy Governor under Thomas Dudley (q.v.), Dudley was followed by John Haynes (1635) and Haynes by Sir Harry Vane (1636). During the latter's
efoverinirship Winthrop as Deputy Ifovernor led time opposition to the liberal policy adopted by Vane toward Anne Hutchinson (q.v.) and her followers. Ile had separated from the Church of England on leaving England, and was at this time thoroughly identified with the Puritan movement. lie opposed strenuously the new Antinomianism and on the issue thus raised was chosen Governor over Vane in 1637. lie retained the Governorship until 1610. was again Governor in 1642-44 and again from 1646 until his death. In 1643 the New England Confederation was formed under his auspices, and he became its first president. Winthrop's ,/wirria/ was first in a single volume (Hartford, 1790).
his was republished with newly discovered manuscripts under the title History of Ni,:' Eng land, 1630-49 (Boston, 1825-26), with notes by James Savage. Many of is papers have been published by the Massaehusetts Historical So ciety. Consult also R. C. Winthrop's valuable Life and Letters of John Winthrop (2 vols., 1564, 1867) ; and J. H. Twiehell, John Winthrop (1891), in "Makers of America" series. For his wife, Al A RGARET TYNDAL (1591-1647). con sult: Alice Morse Earle, Mnryaret Winthrop ( 1895) : and Anderson, Memorable Women of Puritan Times (15132), and Sonic Old Puritan Lore Letters (1893).