Winthrop, John

Winthrop, John (1588–1649), a member of an English upper‐class family, attended Cambridge and took his position in the English social scheme as lord of the manor at Groton and as an important lawyer. His Puritan sympathies worked against his success, however, and he determined to join the Massachusetts Bay Company. Selected as governor, he sailed on the Arbella (1630), after collaborating with the other leaders in writing The Humble Request of …the Company Late Gone for New England (1630), affirming their belief in Puritanism, and disclaiming any intention of separating from the Established Church. While at sea Winthrop wrote A Modell of Christian Charity, pointing out what the colony should be and the manner of the colonists' necessary cooperation. For nine of his remaining 19 years he was governor, and during the other ten deputy‐governor.

Since the charter of the company had been transferred to New England, and was not, as in other colonies, held by an English corporation, this Puritan commonwealth had in it the seeds of democracy. Winthrop and the other upper‐class leaders, however, had their own ideas on how a democracy should operate, and they attempted to create a sort of benevolent despotism, despite the opposition of the freemen, the original stockholders who held the franchise. Because of John Cotton, the company became increasingly an aristocratic theocracy. Quarrels with the freemen were frequent, and their leader, Sir Henry Vane, was governor until he sided with Anne Hutchinson, after which Winthrop resumed power. His manuscript war with Vane has been printed, and his contribution to the controversy was compiled at the time by Thomas Weld. In 1642 occurred the cause célèbre of Goody Sherman, whose stray sow had been impounded by wealthy Robert Keayne. The aristocratic Court of Assistance vetoed the action of the larger and more democratic General Court, which sided with the poor woman, and thus definitively established its power and created a precedent for American legislatures. Winthrop indicated his views at the time, proclaiming, “If we should change from a mixt aristocratie to a mere Democratie, first we should have no warrant in scripture for it: there is no such government in Israel …a Democratie is, amongst most civil nations, accounted the meanest and worst forms of government.” He founded the New England Confederation⧫ (1643), but exceeded his authority when, without referring to his colonists or the Confederation, he took sides in a local French dispute in Acadia. Such actions as this, and his writing of a discourse on Arbitrary Government (1644), so inflamed the people that he was impeached, although he escaped conviction by delivering a speech on liberty, thus satisfying the colonists to such an extent that they elected him governor annually until his death.

His most famous piece of writing is his Journal, of which the first two parts were published in 1790, and the complete work as The History of New England (2 vols., 1825–26). This important source book, begun on the Arbella voyage and continued intermittently until his death, is composed of brief jottings. It records not only the great events but also the minute happenings, for as a Puritan he conceived of formal history as specific and concrete anecdotes, all equally important, since all occur through the will of God. The Winthrop Papers, a scholarly edition of his Journal, was published by the Massachusetts Historical Society (5 vols., 1929–47). Winthrop figures frequently in literature, as in Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, Howe's Masquerade, and Endicott and the Red Cross.

John Winthrop (1606–76), his son, was educated in England and Ireland, served in the British navy, traveled widely on the Continent, and emigrated to join his father in Boston (1631). During a trip to England (1634), he was appointed by Lord Say and Sele and Lord Brooke to be governor of the plantation that they founded in Connecticut. Although he returned to the colonies (1635), he barely visited Connecticut but continued to make his home in Massachusetts. After another trip to England (1641–43), he settled in Connecticut, built an iron works, and, although holding posts in both colonies, became definitely associated with the new one on resuming the post of governor (1657). From 1659 until his death, he was annually elected governor, and in 1663 won his colony so liberal a charter that it became virtually an independent state. In his time he was known for his scientific investigations, and he was the first colonial to be elected a Fellow of the Royal Society.

John Winthrop (1638–1707), his son, commonly known as Fitz‐John Winthrop, was prominent as a soldier in Cromwell's parliamentary army and as a commander of colonial troops. He was governor of Connecticut (1698–1707).