John Winthrop the Younger

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Gov. John Winthrop, the Younger
Grist mill built by Winthrop in New London in 1650 as it appeared in 1910
First page of a diary kept by Winthrop of his journey from Boston to Saybrook, Connecticut, in 1645

John Winthrop (12 February 1606 – 6 April 1676), generally known as John Winthrop the Younger, was governor of Connecticut.

He was born in Groton, England, the son of John Winthrop, founding governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. He was educated at the Bury St Edmunds grammar school and at Trinity College, Dublin and studied law for a short time after 1624 at the Inner Temple, London, accompanied the ill-fated expedition of the Duke of Buckingham for the relief of the Protestants of La Rochelle, and then travelled in Italy and the Levant, returning to England in 1629.

In 1631 he followed his father to Massachusetts and was one of the "assistants" in 1635, 1640 and 1641, and from 1644 to 1649. He was the chief founder of Agawam (now Ipswich, Massachusetts) in 1633, went to England in 1634, and in the following year returned as governor of both the Connecticut Colony and the Saybrook Colony[1] under the Saye and Sele patent, sending out the party which built the fort at Saybrook at the mouth of the Connecticut River. He then lived for a time in Massachusetts where he devoted himself to the study of science and attempted to interest the settlers in the development of the colony's mineral resources.

He was again in England in 1641–1643, and on his return established iron works at Lynn and Braintree, Massachusetts. In 1645 he obtained a title to lands in southeastern Connecticut and founded there in 1646 what is now New London, whither he removed in 1650. In 1650 Winthrop built a grist mill in the town and was granted a monopoly on the trade for as long as he or his heirs maintained the mill. This was one of the first monopolies granted in New England.[2] He became one of the magistrates of Connecticut in 1651; in 1657–1658 was governor of the colony; and in 1659 again became governor, being annually re-elected until his death. In 1662 he obtained in England the charter by which the colonies of Connecticut and New Haven were united. Besides being Governor of Connecticut, he was also in 1675 one of the commissioners of the United Colonies of New England. While in England he was elected to a Fellow of the newly organized Royal Society, to whose Philosophical Transactions he contributed two papers, "Some Natural Curiosities from New England," and "Description, Culture and Use of Maize." He died on 6 April 1676 in Boston, where he had gone to attend a meeting of the commissioners of the United Colonies of New England.[3]

Winthrop married (as his second wife) Elizabeth Reade (1615-1672). A grandson by their 2nd son Waitstill, John Winthrop F.R.S., (1681-1747) married Ann Dudley, daughter of Joseph Dudley and granddaughter of Thomas Dudley, both governors of Massachusetts, one of a number of unions between the two families. John and Ann's daughter, Katharine Winthrop, (1711-1781) married (1st) Samuel Browne of Salem and (2nd) Epes Sargent of Goucester[4]. Her eldest child by Sargent was revolutionary war colonel Paul Dudley Sargent. Another daughter, Mary Winthrop (1712–1776), married Gurdon Saltonstall, Jr. (1708–1785), son of Governor of Connecticut Gurdon Saltonstall (1666–1724) of the Massachusetts Nathaniel Saltonstall family. Gurdon and Mary were the parents of Dudley Saltonstall (1738–1796), a revolutionary war naval commander.

[edit] References

His correspondence with the Royal Society was published in series I, vol. xvi. of the Massachusetts Historical Society's Proceedings. See T. F. Waters's Sketch of the Life of John Winthrop the Younger (Ipswich, Mass., 1899).

  1. ^ http://www.oldsaybrookchamber.com/Content/Saybrook_History.asp
  2. ^ Technical World Magazine. Armour Institute of Technology. 1910. pp. 96–97. http://books.google.com/books?id=zqAEAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA96&dq=technical+world+magazine+john+winthrop. Retrieved 23 June, 2009. 
  3. ^ Waters, Thomas Franklin (1899). A sketch of the life of John Winthrop, the Younger. Cambridge, MA: Ipswich Historical Society. p. 75. OCLC 13130747. http://books.google.com/books?id=MrcCAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA75#v=onepage. Retrieved 2010-01-07. 
  4. ^ Sargent, Emma Worcester (1923). Epes Sargent of Gloucester and his Descendants. Boston, Massachusetts: Houghton Mifflin.

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Political offices
New office Governor of the Saybrook Colony
1635-39
Succeeded by
George Fenwick
Preceded by
John Webster
Governor of the Connecticut Colony
1657-58
Succeeded by
Thomas Welles
Preceded by
Thomas Welles
Governor of the Connecticut Colony
1659-76
Succeeded by
William Leete
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