Waubonsee Community College

John Winthrop, America's forgotten founding father, Francis J. Bremer

eng

Includes bibliographical references and index

individual biography

illustrations

index present

non fiction

John Winthrop

bibliography

50866816

Francis J. Bremer

America's forgotten founding father

This volume is a biography of John Winthrop. Winthrop (1588-1649) obtained a royal charter, along with other wealthy Puritans, from King Charles I for the Massachusetts Bay Company and led a group of English Puritans to the New World in 1630. The author chronicles Winthrop's early life, showing how his first four decades in England shaped his views and actions as the first governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. The author focuses on Winthrop's youthful spiritual struggles, carefully recorded in a journal, including his early decision to pursue a religious vocation and his sudden, unexplained decision to give that up to marry his first wife when he was only 17. After he gained the respect of his peers as an even-handed magistrate, he was elected governor of the new Massachusetts Bay Colony, where for eight years he governed with a judicious hand, mediating in religious and political feuds, including the expulsions of Roger Williams and Anne Hutchinson for their dissenting views. The author uses previously unavailable materials in the Winthrop archives to vividly recreate the religious and political reform movements in early 17th-century England