John Winthrop (1606-1676)

John Winthrop the Younger Governor of Connecticut

Vital Statistics

 * First son of John Winthrop 1585A, First Governor of Massachusetts Bay Colony and his wife Mary Forth.
 * Born 12 Feb 1606 in Groton England.
 * Died 5 Apr 1676 attending conference of governors in Boston, MA.
 * Married 1st, Martha Fones, 8 Feb 1631 at Groton Manor, Suffolk Co, England
 * Married 2nd, Elizabeth Read, 12 Feb 1635 at St Matthew Church, Essex, England

Children of John Winthrop and Martha Fones

 * None known?

Children of John Winthrop and Elizabeth Read

 * John-Fitz Winthrop (1638-1707)
 * Wait-Stil Winthrop (1642-1717)
 * Mary Winthrop 1644A (1644-1703)

Biography
He was born in Groton, England, as the son of John Winthrop, the founding governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. He was educated at the Bury St Edmunds grammar school and at Trinity College, Dublin, 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, for one year, of Connecticut, 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. 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 membership in 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 April 5 1676 in Boston, whither he had gone to attend a meeting of the commissioners of the United Colonies of New England.

A great-granddaugther Rebecca Winthrop {1712-1776} married Gudron Saltonstall Jr {1708-1785} son of Governor of Connecticut [Gurdon Saltonstall] {1666-1724} of the Massachusetts Nathaniel Saltonstall family. Gudron and Rebecca were the parents of Dudley Saltonstall {1738-1796}.