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John Winthrop (12 January 1587/8〔 – 26 March 1649) was a wealthy English Puritan lawyer and one of the leading figures in the founding of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, the first major settlement in what is now New England after Plymouth Colony. Winthrop led the first large wave of immigrants from England in 1630, and served as governor for 12 of the colony's first 20 years of existence. His writings and vision of the colony as a Puritan "city upon a hill" dominated New England colonial development, influencing the governments and religions of neighboring colonies. Born into a wealthy landowning and merchant family, Winthrop was trained in the law, and became Lord of the Manor at Groton in Suffolk. Although he was not involved in the founding of the Massachusetts Bay Company in 1628, he became involved in 1629 when the anti-Puritan King Charles I began a crackdown on Nonconformist religious thought. In October 1629 he was elected governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, and in April 1630 he led a group of colonists to the New World, founding a number of communities on the shores of Massachusetts Bay and the Charles River. Between 1629 and his death in 1649, he served 19 annual terms as governor, and was a force of comparative moderation in the religiously conservative colony, clashing with the more conservative Thomas Dudley and the more liberal Roger Williams and Henry Vane. Although Winthrop was a respected political figure, his attitude toward governance was somewhat authoritarian: he resisted attempts to widen voting and other civil rights beyond a narrow class of religiously approved individuals, opposed attempts to codify a body of laws that the colonial magistrates would be bound by, and also opposed unconstrained democracy, calling it "the meanest and worst of all forms of government".〔 The authoritarian and religiously conservative nature of Massachusetts rule was influential in the formation of neighboring colonies, which were in some instances formed by individuals and groups opposed to the rule of the Massachusetts elders. Winthrop's son, John, was one of the founders of the Connecticut Colony, and Winthrop himself wrote one of the leading historical accounts of the early colonial period. His long list of descendants includes famous Americans, and his writings continue to influence politicians today. ==Life in England== John Winthrop was born on 12 January 1587/8〔In the Julian calendar, then in use in England, the year began on March 25. To avoid confusion with dates in the Gregorian calendar, then in use in other parts of Europe, dates between January and March were often written with both years. Dates in this article are in the Julian calendar unless otherwise noted.〕〔Moore, p. 237〕 to Adam and Anne (née Browne) Winthrop in Edwardstone, Suffolk, England. His birth was recorded in the parish register at Groton.〔Bremer (2003), p. 403, notes the distinction that not all of the Winthrop children were recorded in the Edwardstone parish register.〕 His father's family had been successful in the textile business, and his father was a lawyer and prosperous landowner with several properties in Suffolk.〔Bremer (2003), p. 67〕 His mother's family was also well-to-do, with properties in Suffolk and Essex.〔Bremer (2003), p. 70〕 When Winthrop was young his father became a director at Trinity College, Cambridge.〔Bremer (2003), p. 68〕 When Winthrop's uncle John (Adam's brother) emigrated to Ireland, the Winthrop family took up residence at Groton Manor.〔Bremer (2003), p. 73〕 Winthrop was first tutored at home by John Chaplin and was assumed to have attended grammar school at Bury St. Edmunds.〔 He was also regularly exposed to religious discussions between his father and clergymen, and thus came at an early age to a deep understanding of divinity. He was admitted to Trinity College in December 1602,〔Bremer (2003), p. 79〕 matriculating at the university a few months later. Among the students that he would have interacted with were John Cotton, and John Wheelwright, two men who would also have important roles in New England.〔Bremer (2003), p. 82〕 He was a close childhood and university friend of William Spring, later a Puritan Member of Parliament, with whom he would correspond for the rest of his life.〔Andrew Thrush and John P. Ferris, 'SPRING, Sir William (1588-1638)', ''The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1604-1629'' (2010), from History of Parliament online (Accessed 11 March 2014).〕 The teenage Winthrop admitted in his diary of the time to "lusts ... so masterly as no good could fasten upon me."〔Bremer (2003), p. 83〕 Biographer Francis Bremer suggests that Winthrop's need to control his baser impulses may have prompted him to leave school early and marry at an unusually early age.〔Bremer (2003), pp. 84, 90〕 In 1604 Winthrop journeyed to Great Stambridge in Essex with a friend.〔Bremer (2003), p. 88〕 They stayed at the home of a family friend, and Winthrop was favorably impressed with their daughter, Mary Forth.〔Bremer (2003), p. 89〕 Winthrop left Trinity College to marry Mary on 16 April 1605 at Great Stambridge. Mary bore him five children, of whom only three survived to adulthood.〔Moore, pp. 268–270〕 The oldest of their children was John Winthrop, the Younger, who became a governor and magistrate of Connecticut.〔Mayo (1948), pp. 59–61〕〔''Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society'', p. 2〕 Their last two children, two girls, died not long after birth, and Mary died in 1615 from complications of the last birth.〔 The couple spent most of their time at Great Stambridge, living on the Forth estate.〔Bremer (2003), p. 91〕 In 1613 Adam Winthrop transferred the family holdings in Groton to Winthrop, who then became Lord of the Manor at Groton.〔Bremer (2003), pp. 98–100〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「John Winthrop」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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