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and circumstantial detail of events within that period than any compilation which has been or can be made from it; the principles and conduct of this truly great and good man therein appear in the light in which he himself viewed them; while his abilities for the arduous station which he held, the difficulties which he had to encounter, and his fidelity in business, are displayed with that truth and justice in which they ought to appear.

He had five sons living at his decease, all of whom, notwithstanding the reduction of his fortune, acquired and possessed large property, and were persons of eminence. Many of his posterity have borne respectable characters, and filled some of the principal places of trust and usefulness.*

* [The high reputation of Governor Winthrop has been well sustained by the succeeding generations of his family. While I am writing these pages, death has called away one of them, long known and revered among us, Hon. Thomas Winthrop, for many years Lieutenant-governor of Massachusetts, and president of the Massachusetts Historical Society. His son, Hon. R. C. Winthrop, is now the able representative of Suffolk district in Congress.-H.]

XXV. JOHN WINTHROP, F.R.S.,

GOVERNOR OF CONNECTICUT.

JOHN WINTHROP, eldest son of Governor Winthrop by his first wife, was born at Groton, in Suffolk, Feb. 12, 1605.* His fine genius was much improved by a liberal education in the universities of Cambridge and Dublin,† and by travelling through most of the European kingdoms as far as Turkey.‡

* [Feb. 12, 1605-6.-Savage's note to Winthrop, i., 64.— H.]

+ [His father's letters, yet preserved, were addressed to him at Trinity College, Dublin, from August, 1622, to March, 1624. -Journal, ii., 336-345. From these letters it appears that his college life was prudent, frugal, and studious, and that here he received and cherished "the seeds of the fear of God."-H.]

[From Dublin he returned to London, where he manifested a strong passion for travelling, and especially for going to sea. In June, 1627, we find him "attending upon Captain Best in his majesty's ship the Dire Repulse," but in what capacity does not appear. He probably sailed in the convoy of the Duke of Buckingham.-Journal, ii., 347, 348. In 1628, his adventurous temper yet unsatisfied, he was earnestly disposed to "settle with a plantation," which we presume to have been that of Plymouth or of Massachusetts, but was dissuaded by his father.—Ib., ii., 352. We have (Ib., 354) the draught of a letter from him "to Sir Peter Wich, lord ambassador at Constantinople," dated at "the Castles of Hellespont," in which he states that he was to sail

was governor.

He came to New-England with his father's family, Nov. 4, 1631; and, though not above twenty-six years of age, was, by the unanimous choice of the freemen, appointed a magistrate of the colony, of which his father He rendered many services to the country, both at home† and abroad, particularly in the year 1634, when, returning to England, he was, by stress of weather, forced into Ireland, where, meeting with many influential persons at the house of Sir John Closworthy, he had an opportunity to pro

that day for Venice. "The writer," says Savage, in his note upon the letter, "had no doubt accompanied this very celebrated minister either as secretary of legation or as private secretary, probably the latter." The letter expresses thanks for favours received, and implies intimacy.

The experience of life acquired in these travels, united with the piety of his own temper, led him to say, in a letter to his father, August 16, 1629, touching the planting of New-England, "And for myself, I have seen so much of the vanity of the world, that I esteem no more of the diversities of countries than as so many inns, whereof the traveller, that hath lodged in the best or in the worst, findeth no difference when he cometh to his journey's end; and I shall call that my country where I can most glorify God, and enjoy the presence of my dearest friends."—Ib., i., 359.-H.]

* [He was elected to the magistracy May 8th, 1632.-Winthrop's Journal, i., 76.—H.]

† [In March, 1633, he, with twelve other persons, began a settlement at Ipswich.-Ib., i., 100. Felt's History of Ipswich. --H.]

mote the interest of the colony through their means.*

* [The following is Governor Winthrop's account of this interview (Journal, i., 172): “Mr. Winthrop went to Dublin, and from thence to Antrim, in the north, and came to the house of one Sir John Clotworthy, the evening before the day when divers godly persons were appointed to meet at his house to confer about their voyage to New-England; by whom they were thoroughly informed of all things, &c. From thence he passed over into Scotland, and so through the north of England; and all the way he met with persons of quality, whose thoughts were towards New-England, who observed his coming among them as a special providence of God."

....

Sir John Clotworthy was a member of the Parliament which met November, 1640, and seconded Pym in his impeachment of the Earl of Strafford.-May's History of the Parliament of 1640, p. 48. Clarendon, in his History of the Rebellion (i., 138, fol.), calls him "a gentleman of Ireland, and utterly unknown in England ;" and says that "he was, by the contrivance of some powerful patrons, returned to serve for a borough in Devonshire, that so he might be enabled to act his part against the lord-lieutenant." He must have been, therefore, a thorough Puritan and a fearless man. From his residence in Ireland, he was a very suitable witness against Strafford. We next hear of him near the scaffold at the execution of Laud, disturbing the last hours of that venerable prelate with "uncivil and unseasonable" questions "concerning his assurance of salvation, and whereon the same was grounded."-Fuller's Church History, iii., 472, Lond., 1837. In 1646 he was one of the Parliamentary commissioners for Ireland, and discharged from that office at his own request.-Whitelock's Memorials, 240, ed. 1682. He was charged with embezzlement, and, at the instance of Fairfax, his conduct was made the subject of Parliamentary inquiry. In 1648 he was committed to prison by Parliament for favouring too much the proposed addresses to the

The next year he came back to New-England, with powers from the Lords Say* and

king; though Clarendon (iii., 184, fol.) classes him with "the most active members in the House of the Presbyterian party, and who had as maliciously advanced the interests of the Parliament against the king as any men of their rank in the kingdom."-H.]

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* [William Fiennes, second Baron, and first Viscount, Say and Sele, by patent from King James, July 7, 1624. The family was a very ancient one, but the title had been disused for a long time, till it was restored in the person of Richard Fiennes, the father of the subject of this note.-Burke's Peerage. William Fiennes was born at Broughton, Oxfordshire, about the year 1582; received his early education at Wykeham School, near Wynton, which had been founded by his ancestor, the celebrated William de Wykeham, and entered New College, Oxford, as a fellow-commoner, in 1596. Here he spent 'some time in logicals and philosophicals," afterward travelled on the Continent, and, having returned to the possession of a 'fair estate," was early married, and became a firm and avowed Puritan. Such is the testimony of Wood (Athena Oxonienses); but Miss Aikin, in her Memoirs of James I. (vol. ii., p. 210), speaks of him as "necessitous and haughty." He seems early to have manifested a tendency to liberal principles in politics, and, perhaps for that reason, suffered a temporary imprisonment by order of the king in 1622.-Wood. Carte (vol. iv., p. 203) says he was a nobleman "of great parts and infinite ambition." James, finding that violence could not intimidate Lim, may have hoped to secure the one by bribing the other with the offer of a higher title. For a while this policy may have prevented any offensive exhibition of his principles. Clarendon asserts, that for several years after 1624 he "lived narrowly in the country" (i., 162, fol.). Yet in the next reign he appears again a firm opponent of the arbitrary measures of the government, and a vehement antagonist of the prelacy. In 1637,

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