Winthrop, John (1588-1649), an American colonial leader, was a Puritan governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. He was appointed governor in 1629 by the Massachusetts Bay Company. In 1630, he sailed to Salem, a settlement in the colony, and led about a thousand English colonists to Massachusetts Bay. He succeeded John Endecott as governor and helped found Boston.
In 1631, the colony voted to allow Winthrop to remain as governor, a post he held numerous times during the rest of his life. As governor, Winthrop helped the colony maintain a certain amount of political independence from Britain. He also supported the banishment of Roger Williams and Anne Hutchinson from the colony. Williams and Hutchinson headed religious groups whose beliefs differed from the strict Puritanism of the colony’s leaders.
Winthrop was born on Jan. 12, 1588, in Edwardstone, England, in the county of Suffolk. He attended Cambridge University and practiced law. He died on March 26, 1649. A statue of him represents Massachusetts in the United States Capitol. Winthrop’s son John Winthrop, Jr., served as colonial governor of Connecticut.
