Winthrop

Winthrop, name of 3 distinguished American colonists. John Winthrop (1588-1649), led the English Great Migration to Salem in 1630, founded Boston, and was 12 times elected governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. His journal, The History of New England, is an important historical source. His eldest son, John Winthrop (1606–76), went to Massachusetts Bay in 1631. After being named commissioner general of the new colony at Say-brook in 1633, he became governor of Connecticut (1657, 1659–76), receiving in 1662 a charter from Charles II uniting New Haven and Connecticut. His son Fitz-John Winthrop (1638–1707), left Massachusetts to join Oliver Cromwell's army in England, returning (1663) to fight the Dutch, the French, and the Native Americans. He was Connecticut's agent in London (1693–97) and a popular governor of Connecticut (1698–1707).