John Winthrop, colonist, b. Edwardston, near Groton, Suffolk, England, 12 Jan., 1588. Studied at Cambridge university. Succeeded his father as lord of Groton Manor. Gave up or lost his position as an attorney of the court of wards in London, perhaps through his non-conformist sympathies, and was elected governor of the Massachusetts Company, 20 Oct., 1629. Sailed from Yarmouth in the Arbella with the company’s second supply, arriving at Salem, 12 June, 1630, and bringing the charter with him. Settled first at Charlestown, but had removed to Boston by November. Was active in the banishment of the so-called Antinomians in 1637, holding that the colony’s existence depended on its religious unity. Had previously taken part in Roger Williams’s banishment, but continued his private relations with the founder of Rhode Island, and was his life-long correspondent. In 1638 saved the colony’s charter, which had been called for from England, by a diplomatic letter excusing the sending of it. In 1643 headed the commissioners of Massachusetts who met with others from the Plymouth, Connecticut, and New Haven colonies and formed the old New England Union and Confederation, of which Winthrop was the originator and first president. Was elected governor of Massachusetts eleven times, and held many other important offices. His “Modell of Christian Charity,” written on the voyage from England, was first printed by the Mass. Hist. Society. The “History of New England,” a fount of information concerning events in Massachusetts for the period it covers, was written as a daily journal in three manuscript volumes. Of these the first two were copied and printed in 1790. On the discovery of the third in the tower of the old South church in 1816, the whole work was edited and printed by James Savage in 1825–6 (revised ed. 1853). “Life and Letters,” by Robert C. Winthrop, appeared in 1866. Winthrop’s speech defining civil liberty, made after his acquital from charges of unduly exercising his power as a magistrate, has become a classic. Died, Boston, Mass., 26 Mar., 1649.

Personal

  Upon this occasion we are now to attend to this duty for a governour…. who has been unto us a brother; not usurping authority over the church; often speaking his advice, and often contradicted, even by young men, and some of low degree; yet not replying, but offering satisfaction also when any supposed offences have arisen; a governour who has been unto us as a mother, parent-like distributing his goods to brethren and neighbours at his first coming; and gently bearing our infirmities without taking notice of them.

  Governor Winthrop had five sons living at the time of his decease, all of whom, notwithstanding the reduction of his fortune, acquired and possessed large property, and were persons of eminence. The high reputation of the first Governor of Massachusetts, has been well sustained by succeeding generations of his family; and no name, perhaps, in the history of New England has been more richly adorned by exalted public and private character, or more generally respected, than that of Winthrop.

  Certain is it that, among the millions of living men descended from those whom he ruled, there is not one who does not—through efficient influences, transmitted in society and in thought along the intervening generations—owe much of what is best within him and in the circumstances about him to the benevolent and courageous wisdom of John Winthrop.

  Born at Groton, in Suffolk, of a family honored in that neighborhood for its high character and its wealth, he had been trained to the law, as his father and his grandfather had been before him. He was a man of good books and of good manners; catholic in opinion and sympathy; a deeply conscientious man; not willing that his life should be a thing of extemporized policies and make-shifts, but building it up clear from the foundation on solid principle…. The native qualities of the man were lofty, self-respecting, grave; by culture and habit he expressed himself spontaneously in dignified and calm words; and at times when the thought lifted him, he rose to a stately unconscious eloquence. He was no artist, only a thinker and a doer. Of course he never aimed at effect. His moral qualities are plainly stamped upon his manner of expression—moderation, disinterestedness, reverence, pity, dignity, love of truth and of justice. The prevailing tone is judicial: he tells the truth squarely, even against himself. The greatest incidents in the life of the colony are reported; also the least. The pathos, and heroism, and pettiness of their life, all are here.

  His public statues in Boston and in the National Capital present him with the Holy Bible in one hand and the Charter of Massachusetts in the other. No emblematic expression could be more true. Without question he was primarily a man of religion. To himself the main purport of the work he wrought was religious. In his eyes Massachusetts was ever, before all things else, a Church. The State was for the sake of the Church, incident and subordinate to it. And this probably is the reason why he so quietly accepted and adjusted himself to changes in the interior civil polity of the commonwealth that were adverse to his judgment. They concerned the secondary interest. While in his political principles he was liberal in that large sense in which Puritanism was liberal, in his practical view of government, as between aristocracy and democracy he inclined to the former. Yet his temper was such as to make him a potent mediator between the aristocratic and democratic elements that were ever in conflict around him. By the moderating influence of his self-control, humility, disinterestedness, patriotism, the strife of rival parties was again and again so restrained as to save the State from serious detriment. In this respect he was a prototype of Abraham Lincoln. The particular service with which, above all his contemporaries, he stands identified is that of the defence of the Charter. Which is to say that he was the pre-eminent representative in the Massachusetts colony of the idea of independent self-government.

  Winthrop’s own personality comes out well in his Journal. He was a born leader of men, a conditor imperii, just, moderate, patient, wise.

Journal

  The antiquarian considered it a God-send, and the lovers of American literature at large were much delighted at this discovery. Here was something authentick; a history written day by day, as the events transpired, by one who knew the whole matter, and in which he acted no small part: a journal not written to please any set of men, or to assist the designs of a party.

  The Massachusetts Company proper, with their charter, had not left their final anchorage at the Cowes, near the Isle of Wight, in 1630, before the governor of that colony—John Winthrop—had made the first entry in a journal or history, which he continued from day to day, and from year to year, until his death in 1648–9. That work, too, remained in perishable manuscript for a century and a half. The original was in three volumes; the first two of which were printed, for the first time, at Hartford, in 1790, from an inaccurate copy, which had been commenced by Governor Trumbull, with a preface and dedication by the great lexicographer, Noah Webster, who subsequently confessed that he had never even read the original manuscript. It remained for one whom we now recognize, since the death of our veteran Quincy, as the venerable senior member of our Society, and its former President,—James Savage,—to decipher and annotate and edit the whole; for 10! in 1816, the third volume, of which nothing had been seen or heard for more than sixty years, turned up in the tower of the Old South Meeting-house! The Rev. Thomas Prince, the pastor of that church, who kept his library in that tower, and is known to have had all three of the volumes in 1755, died without returning this third volume to the family of the author, from whom I have the best reason to think they were all borrowed. And so in 1825–6, one hundred and ninety-five years after that first entry, on that Easter Monday, while the “Arabella” was “riding at the Cowes,” these annals of the first nineteen years of the Massachusetts colony were published in a correct and complete form. But as if to illustrate the risks to which they had been so long exposed, and to signalize the perils they had so providentially escaped, one of the original volumes was destroyed by a memorable fire in Court Street, before Mr. Savage had finished the laborious corrections and annotations to which he had devoted himself.

  Is a treasure beyond price among our early historic memorials…. For almost twenty years the story went forward, from 1630 until a few weeks before the writer’s death in 1649. It is quite evident that Winthrop wrote what he did with the full purpose of having it published as a history; but he wrote it amid the hurry and weariness of his unloitering life, with no anxiety about style, with no other purpose than to tell the truth in plain and honest fashion.

  These journals, by the most prominent men in the two colonies, naturally invite comparison. Bradford’s work is without doubt the better of the two. It is readable, and its literary style is excellent. Winthrop’s history is dull and often unreadable. It has more historical value than Bradford’s, simply because the Colony of Massachusetts Bay became of more importance than the Plymouth Plantation. Winthrop delights in recording miracles, apparitions, and monstrosities. He dwells on the darker side of Puritanism, while Bradford constantly aims to display its brighter phases. Winthrop’s history has proved a rich mine for later writers. Hawthorne probably conceived of his “Scarlet Letter” while perusing its pages.

  The “Journal,” to give it its original and appropriate title, is an invaluable document, no less for its historical detail than as a revelation of puritan modes of thought and administration.

General

  The author of two works: “A Model of Christian Charity,” written on board the Arabella, on the Atlantic Ocean; and “A Journal of the Public Occurrences in the Massachusetts Colony.”… Its value as an original historical document is extremely great. It is entitled to consideration also for its literary merits.

  Governor John Winthrop’s “History of New England” is, on the whole, less graphic and picturesque than Governor William Bradford’s “History of Plymouth Plantation;” but it has a smoother and more finished style…. Winthrop’s best treatise, “A Model of Christian Charity,” written on shipboard, need not long detain the literary student. It was one of the many religious tracts produced during the Puritan revival in England and America, and it surpassed some of its fellows in spirit and execution…. Winthrop was an intelligent man, and familiar with some part of the English literature of his day; thus he called George Wither “our modern spirit of poetry;” and he did not do discredit to the general spirit of intelligence which pervaded the Puritan movement. His letters—even those of affection—were written in a somewhat stately style, and abounded in religious allusions and Biblical quotations.