Winthrop, John
John (1588-1649), a colonial governor of Massachusetts. He was born near Groton, sixty miles northeast of London, in a region famous for the rise of Puritanism. His father, a man of substance and repute, wrote in quaint phrase: "John, the only sonne of Adam Winthrop and Anne his wife, was borne in Edwardston abovesaid on Thursday about 5 of the clocke in the morning the 12 daie of January anno 1587 in the 30 yere of the reigne of Qu: Eliza:" This was the year of the Spanish Armada.
At the age of fifteen, young John went to Trinity College, Cambridge, to study; and at seventeen he married, seemingly to his father's delight, and entered upon the practice of his profession. He was married four times. Correspondence between Margaret, the third wife, and Winthrop reveals the closest of companionship. When in London on legal business he appears to have lived in chambers. He ran errands for Margaret and rare Margaret sent him puddings, cheese, a turkey, and "syder," together with wearing apparel and house-wifely hints for the care of his linen and the preservation of his health.
Winthrop was a man of intelligent character and influence. When, in 1629, the Puritan leaders secured a charter for the Governor and Company of the Massachusetts Bay in New England they decided to undertake emigration on a large scale and to transfer the management of the company to America. In looking about for a fit person to send out as governor the choice fell on Winthrop. Winthrop was in receipt of an income from Groton Manor and his practice of about $3,500, equal to $15,000 at the present day, but he wound up his business and set sail from Yarmouth with a company of 900 persons. After a tempestuous passage of eighty-seven days, during which seventy out of 200 cattle were tossed about to their death, the party landed at Salem. John Endicott, acting governor of a smaller party that had preceded, turned the management over to Winthrop at once. Save in off years, Winthrop was elected governor annually up to the time of his death.
Winthrop was a shrewd, patient, unselfish ruler. He obtained supplies from England, founded small settlements in supporting distance of each other, carried on a thrifty trade, not for himself, with the Indians, and gave himself and his property untiringly to the interests of the colony. During his life he was always and easily the first man in the colony, but his road was not strewn with roses. In matters of government, Winthrop, like Carlyle and Ruskin, was opposed to a pure democracy. He held that the wiser portion of the community should be allowed to govern the rest. He insisted that obedience should be yielded the dignitaries of the church, and to him the church was the same as the state. His personal theory of government is often quoted: "The best part is always the least, and of that best part, the wiser part, is always the lesser." The spirit of equality or democracy was strong in the colony, and Winthrop was set aside for a term or two; but he had the sound sense and the bigness of soul to yield to the will of the people. On one occasion he was impeached, with other magistrates, for exceeding the magisterial authority. The occasion was trifling, the appointment of a captain of the Hingham train band, and the pastor of Hingham was the accuser. Winthrop was acquitted by the legislature or "General Court." At the conclusion of the trial he resumed his place of authority and begged "leave for a little speech," which for dignity, plain dealing, simple sublimity, and devotion to duty, far outranks any effort of Webster, Everett, or Choate.
On yet another occasion Winthrop was accused of taking part in an unwarranted manner in a controversy known in New England history as the "sow business." It does not matter now who owned the "sow," or who or whether anybody killed the stray sow, but Winthrop was not above stating in public that, while he was more than ever convinced that his view of the matter was correct, he none the less regretted having expressed himself in so partisan a manner and that he was sorry for it.
On one occasion Winthrop was assailed for leniency unbecoming the chief magistrate. Roger Williams was not mentioned by name, but it was understood that Winthrop had erred in suffering that disturber to go in peace and even with Winthrop's brotherly goodwill to Rhode Island. Sir Henry Vane, a man of lighter mood, took an active part in Boston politics and even superseded Winthrop for a time; Anne Hutchinson made trouble; but, all said, John Winthrop was the man under whom the colony throve; the one man who never talked of giving up and of going back to England; the man of all others who accepted results in good faith and let the past be past; and the man in whose uprightness, sense of justice, and unselfishness the people did not lose faith. He not only served for years without pay, but he sold his estates in England and spent his fortune ungrudgingly for the good of Boston and Massachusetts Bay. It is his due to say that John Winthrop was the greatest of Puritan colonists. The old Winthrop home in Boston Harbor, long known as "the Governor's Garden," is now the possession of the general government and is the site of Fort Winthrop.
Beginning when he was off the Isle of Wight on his outward journey, Winthrop kept a private journal of colonial transactions. In this he speaks of himself as of any other public official thus: "In this sickness, the governor's wife, daughter of Sir John Tindall, knight, left this world for a better, being about fifty-six years of age, a woman of singular virtue and specially beloved and honored of all the country." In the same impartial way he recorded just and wise observations of men and factions, a chronicler above vain glory, a traveler to the world to come, who would fain leave a blaze here and there to guide the foot-steps of those to come after. Two volumes were published in 1790. The manuscript of a third volume was long supposed to have been lost, but in 1816 was found in the tower of Old South Church and was incorporated in a new printed edition.
A son of the same name followed his father to the New World and was instrumental in the founding of the colony of Saybrook. He later served many years as governor of Connecticut. A great grandson, also of the same name, was one of the early graduates of Harvard and became a professor of that institution. He was a friend of Benjamin Franklin and of Count Rumford. See Williams; Roger; Pilgrims