Winthrop Family Mary C. Crawford. The Winthrop Family ing to take his degree. At eighteen we find him living at Famous Families of Massachusetts Great Stambridge in the County of Essex with the family of Mary Forth, his first wife, whom he had married April 16, 1605. 2uds Boslon: Lattle from Co., 1930. The Forths were very wealthy people for that day and of & high standing in the community. Mary bore her young CHAPTER III husband six_ children, the eldest of whom, John, Jr., was, like his father, to become an outstanding figure in Massa- THE WINTHROP FAMILY chusetts and colonial history. The first Mrs. John Winthrop No book like this one would be even conceivable without died in 1614 when the future governor was only twenty-five. Vol.I. recognition of all that Governor Winthrop, for nineteen Within a year he married again, according to the custom of years leader and guide of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, has the period. His second wife, Thomasine Clopston, lived meant in the life of the Commonwealth and the nation.1 less than a year, her infant being buried with her. Born in England January 12,2 1588, John Winthrop had As a result of these successive and severe bereavements for forty years been an integral part of the expanding Eng- Winthrop, whose profession up to this time had been that lish nation before he came over here to found the colony of a lawyer, seriously contemplated abandoning the law and which, this year particularly, is SO proud to do him honor. taking orders as a clergyman. His introspection, at this His family name can be traced in various spellings for more stage of his development, is recorded in a manuscript of than seven centuries before his day. Adam Winthrop, his "Religious Experiences" which covers a period of three father, was Lord of the Manor of Groton in Suffolk County, years and makes intensely interesting reading. as his father had been before him. The three Adam Win- To understand these "Religious Experiences" and the throps whom we find in succession in the sixteenth century subsequent life of the man who wrote them it is necessary were all of them, in fact, men of mark. The second Adam to appreciate the fact that Winthrop came of intensely reli- was Master of the Clothworkers' Company. The third gious parentage. Adam Winthrop, his father, was a man Adam was a lawyer. Governor John Winthrop, born at of deep personal piety and Anne Winthrop, his mother, could Edwardston, near Groton, was Lord of the Manor of Groton. not live happily, as we see from a letter sent to her husband Because the Winthrop family is rich in letters and other before their son was born, away from the daily inspiration historical data, we know that John Winthrop entered of her Bible. Trinity College, Cambridge, before he was fifteen and that The mingling of love for God with ardent human affection it was an early love match which prevented him from stay- so constantly to be noted in Governor John Winthrop is seen here also: 1 Though Mr. and Mrs. Frederic Winthrop (Sarah B. Thayer) and family of Number 299 Berkeley Street and Mrs. Thomas Lindall Winthrop of Number 38 Beacon Street constitute the only Winthrop households listed in the 1930 edition of I have reseyved, Right deare and well-beloved - Mrs. the Boston Social Register several prominent Winthrop families may be found in Adam Winthrop writes her absent husband - from you this New York. Old style of dating. Ten days should be added for the new style, but the week a letter, though short, yet very sweete & comfortable above date is that generally accepted as the time of John Winthrop's birth. wordes, whiche alwayes when you be present with me, are 3 The year 1930, during which Massachusetts is celebrating its Tercentenary. wont to flowe most aboundantlye from your loving hart - 52 53 Famous Families of Massachusetts The Winthrop Family wherebye I perseyve that whether you be present with me This letter was written to Margaret Tyndal, the future or absent from me, you are ever one towardes me, & your governor's third wife. He married her in 1618 and she bore hart remayneth allwayes with me. Wherefore layinge up this perswaision of you in my brest, I will most assuredlye, him eight children. The daughter of Sir John Tyndal and the Lord assistynge me by his grace, beare alwayes the lyke peculiarly Winthrop's mate, ¹ she it was who made him what loving hart unto you agayne, untyll suche tyme as I may he now became. "From the day that his faith was plighted more fully enjoye your loving presence but in the meane to her," as one sympathetic historian has said, "he learned tyme I will remayne as one having a great inheritaunce, or to step boldly out among his equals, to take his place in the riche treasure, and it beinge by force kept from him, or hee world's work." beinge in a strange Contrey, and cannot enjoye it, longethe contynually after it, sighinge and sorrowinge that hee is so After this marriage, and up to the time when he engaged long berefte of it, yet rejoyseth that hee hathe so greatt upon the New England enterprise, Winthrop's business was tresure pertayninge to him, and hopeth that one day the that of an attorney in the Court of Wards, practising tyme will come that hee shall enjoye it, and have the wholle on Fleet Street in London. Naturally his work took him benyfytt of it. So I having a good hoope of the tyme to com, doe more paciently beare the time present, and I praye much away from Groton, where Margaret and his young send me word if you be in helthe and what sucesse you have children lived, and as a result we find in the correspondence with your letters. I send you this weke by my fathers which passed between Groton Manor and the "Chamber at man a shyrte and fyve payer of hoses I pray send me a the Temple Gate" an almost complete record of the tem- pound of starch by my fathers man. You may very well poral, spiritual and affectional development of this remark- send my byble if it be redye - thus with my verye hartye able pair. Tender love letters, every one of them ! commendacions I byd you farewell comittinge you to al- mightye God to whom I commend you in my dayle prayers "I wish thy imployments coulde suffer thee to come as I am sure you doe me, the Lord kep us now & ever home," writes the wife. To which her husband responds Amen promptly, "such is my love to thee my deare spouse, as were Your loving wife it not that my imployment did enforce me to it, I could not Anne Winthrop. live comfortably from thee halfe thus long SO I kiss my sweet wife & rest alwayes Thy faithfull husband, John From his mother, then, Winthrop inherited an unusually Winthrop." affectionate nature and from his father an enduring tendency In an earlier book of mine 2 I have quoted several of the toward introspection and stern self-discipline. His Diary, love letters of John Winthrop and his wife Margaret, of which as frank and often as pathetic as Amiel's, constantly dis- many are extant and which are generally conceded to be plays the warring of a passionate nature with a consecrated among the choicest flowers of Puritan literature. In one other-worldliness. "The Love of this present world!" of these Margaret says naively "I have many reasons to he exclaims in the course of an exquisite love letter to the make me love thee I will name two: first because thou spouse from whom his work has parted him, "how it be- lovest God and secondly because thou lovest me." witches us, steales away our hearts from him who is the The autumn of 1629 found the future governor of the onely life & felicitye. O that we could delight in Christ our Lord and heavenly husband as we doe in each other, & 1 She died in 1647, two years before her husband. In the last months of his life Winthrop married a widow, Martha Coytmore, who survived him. that his absence were like greivous to us !" 2 "Saint Botolphs Town." L. C. Page and Company, Boston, pp. 17-33. 54 55 Famous Families of Massachusetts The Winthrop Family Massachusetts Bay Colony laying his plans 1 for emigration. England Company, March 4, 1629, by Charles I, but during New England now seemed to him a place provided by God the voyage he was elected for a second time. "to be a refuge for many whome he meanes to save out of The crossing consumed eighty-three days. There was the generall calamity." As early as January, 1629, he had plenty of opportunity for the governor to draft the simple written to his wife, "I must now begin to prepare thee for beginnings of what is known as his "History of New Eng- our long parting which grows very near." The following land",2 a journal from which we glean the most that we know month he wrote to her of the early days of the colonists. The first entry in this My SWEET WIFE, The Lord our God hath oft remarkable book was made on Easter Monday, March 29, brought us together with comfort, when we have been long 1630, in the harbor of the Isle of Wight, where contrary absent: and if it be good for us, he will do so still. When I winds had forced the ships of Winthrop's fleet to seek shelter was in Ireland, he brought us together again. When I was for two weeks. sick here in London, he restored us together again. How The Arbella's landing, June 12, 1630, at Salem Harbor is many dangers, near death, hast thou been in thyself and yet the Lord hath granted me to enjoy thee still. If he did thus described by the head of the expedition not watch over us, we need not go over sea to seek death or Saturday I2. About four in the morning we were near our misery : we should meet it at every step, in every journey. port. We shot off two pieces of ordnance and sent our skiff And is not he a God abroad as well as at home? Is not his to Mr. Peirce his ship. power and providense the same in New England as it hath Afterwards Mr. Peirce came aboard us, and returned to been in Old England My good wife, trust in the fetch Mr. Endecott,3 who came to us about two of the clock Lord, whom thou hast found faithful. He will be better to and with him Mr. Skelton and Captain Levette. We that thee than any husband and will restore thee thy husband were of the assistants and some other gentlemen and some with advantage. So I kiss my sweet wife, and bless of the women and our captain returned with them to Nahum- thee and all ours and rest keck [Naumkeag, afterwards Salem], where we supped with Thine ever a good venison pasty and good beer, and at night we re- Jo. Winthrop. turned to our ship, but some of the women stayed behind. In the meantime most of our people went on shore upon February 14, 1629 Thou must be my valentine the land of Cape Ann, which lay very near us, and gathered store of fine strawberries. This valentine letter is indeed remarkable when one remembers that Winthrop was now forty-one and Margaret To settle at Salem was out of the question because the thirty-seven. people there were far from flourishing.4 Accordingly, the The vessel on which the lover-husband sailed away in the 1 There had already been several settlements somewhat financed by British early spring of 1630 was the Arbella, named in compliment capital, but none of them had been a paying proposition. The Massachusetts Bay Colony was to be financed to the extent of one million pounds, which was a large to Lady Arbella, wife of Isaac Johnson, both of whom were sum in those days, provided John Winthrop would come here and live. He did among its passengers. Winthrop had already been chosen so at great personal sacrifice. With him came one thousand settlers. 2 The first and third manuscript volumes are now in the archives of the Massa- governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony in New England, chusetts Historical Society; but the second original volume was unfortunately which was operating under the charter granted to the New destroyed by fire. 3 See Endicott Family. 1 One of his preparations was to leave with friends fifteen hundred dollars for One of Winthrop's first acts was to send one of his ships back to England for the support of his wife until she should be able to follow him to the new world. more food stuffs in order that this earlier settlement should not fail. 56 57 Famous Families of Massachusetts newcomers moved farther down the coast, breaking up into small parties which settled at Lynn, Medford, Charles- town, Watertown, Roxbury, Dorchester and Cambridge (Newtown), where little groups of grass-thatched log huts, tents and other rude shelters soon foretold the beginning of colonial villages destined to grow into towns and cities. Be- fore Christmas all the ships had landed safely and nearly one thousand people of the Bay Colony began life in the new world. Governor Winthrop himself had settled, with others, at Charlestown. But, troubled by the lack of good water, he and his companions gladly accepted the invitation of William Blaxton, a lone squatter, to come across the Charles to the spot where he dwelt on a peninsula the Indians called Shawmut and which was also called Tri-Mountain because of its three hills. Thus Boston 1 was founded. Winthrop's first house in the new settlement was on the site now known as Number 53 State Street, where the Exchange Building stands to-day. Winthrop had been accompanied to the New World by three of his sons, Henry, Stephen, and Adam. ² In Novem- ber, 1631, the governor's wife and the rest of his family 3 arrived. In honor of this joyful occasion Governor William Bradford of the Plymouth Colony came up to visit the head of the Massachusetts Bay settlement. "Divers of the assistants and most of the people of the near plantations" 1 So named in honor of Lady Arbella Johnson of their party, whose English home had been in Boston, England. 2 Henry was drowned while in bathing the day after his arrival. From Adam Winthrop, Governor John Winthrop's fifth son, was descended that Adam who became a member of the Council of Massachusetts, Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas and Colonel of the Boston Regiment. His grandson, John (born 1714, died 1779), was Hollis Professor of Mathematics at Harvard. A distinguished astronomer and man of science, he received the first LL.D ever given by Harvard His brother James, who was wounded at Bunker Hill, became judge of the Middlesex Court of Pleas. 3 The Deane Winthrop House, now owned by the Winthrop Improvement and Historical Society of Winthrop, Massachusetts, was the home of Deane Winthrop (one of the younger sons of Governor John Winthrop) who died there in 1703. 58 The Winthrop Family came also to bid the Lady Margaret welcome, bringing with them "great store of provisions, as fat hogs, kids, venison, poultry, geese partridges etc. so as the like joy and manifestation of love had never been seen in New England. It was a great marvel," recorded the happy husband, "that so much people and such store of provisions could be gathered together at so few hours' warning." After nineteen years of devoted and untiring service in behalf of the Massachusetts Bay Colony - during twelve of which he had been governor - John Winthrop died, March 26, 1649, in his sixty-second year. He lies buried in what is now King's Chapel Burying Ground, in Boston. John Winthrop II, as reward for securing from Charles II the charter which united the colonies of Connecticut and New Haven, was chosen first governor of that administrative area and held the office for twenty years. He was the eldest of seven sons (who lived to manhood) of the first Governor Winthrop. Though six of the seven left issue, the male lines of the family gradually became extinct. So that to-day all descendants of the Massachusetts Bay governor who bear the name of Winthrop come down through John Winthrop the Younger, who had two wives and was the father of two sons and five daughters.2 The elder of the two sons, known always as Fitz-John to distinguish him from his father and grandfather, was for a number of years the agent of Connecticut in the Court of William III. From 1698 until his death in 1707 he was 1 An interesting versified account of the part that Governor John Winthrop, the Younger, played in obtaining the Connecticut Charter from the Court of King Charles II, written by Roger Wolcott, Winthrop's successor in the government of Connecticut, may be seen in the Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society for 1795. The poet tells us that "crystal rivers" ran down the cheeks of the noble Charles as Winthrop described the sufferings over here of his father These daughters were: Elizabeth, who married first, Reverend Antipas Newman, and second, Zerubbabel, second son of Governor John Endecott; Lucy, Mrs. Edward Palmes, of New London; Margaret, Mrs. John Curwin of Salem; Martha, Mrs. Richard Wharton of Boston; and Anne, Mrs. John Richards, of Boston. "A Short Account of the Winthrop Family", by R. C. Winthrop, Jr. 59 Famous Families of Massachusetts The Winthrop Family governor of Connecticut. Like his father and his grand- scended Theodore 1 Winthrop (born 1828), the poet, writer father, he is buried in Boston. and soldier, who was the first commissioned officer on the The younger son of Governor John of Connecticut, Union side to be killed in battle (at Big Bethel, Virginia, generally known as Wait Winthrop, was for some time Chief June IO, 1861). His brother, William, was a colonel in the Justice of Massachusetts. He married first, Mary, the United States Army and Judge Advocate General at Wash- daughter of Honorable William Browne of Salem, and ington (retired 1895). second, Katharine, daughter of Captain Thomas Brattle. Thomas Charles Winthrop, son of Francis Bayard Win- By the former he had a daughter, Anne, who became the wife throp, was the father of Robert 2 (born in New York, 1833; of Thomas Lechmere (brother of Lord Lechmere), and a son, died 1892), a banker and founder of the banking house of John Winthrop, to whose name the initials F.R.S. are gen- Robert Winthrop and Company ; also of Grenville, 1837- erally added for the reason that, failing to get on in Con- 1869, a banker who left one son, Grenville Bayard Winthrop, necticut he went back to England and there became an active now a lawyer of New York. member of the Royal Society. He married Anne Dudley, A particularly notable member of this family was Frederic one of the daughters of Governor Joseph Dudley, and by her Winthrop, born August 3, 1839, who was killed at the Battle had five daughters 1 and two sons. Basil, the younger of of Five Forks, Virginia, in the 71st Regiment of N.G.S.N.Y. these two sons, died unmarried, but John Still Winthrop volunteers. He entered the army as a private and at the (born in Boston, January 15, 1720) effectively carried down time of his death was Captain of the 12th Regiment V.S. the name through five sons, all of whom married and Infantry and Brevet Brigadier General of Volunteers, com- had children. John Still Winthrop also had five daughters manding the Fifth Brigade, Second Division of the Fifth who married, Anne, his second daughter, becoming the wife Army Corps of Regulars, at the Battle of Five Forks. In of David Sears.2 John Still Winthrop's first wife was Jane, 1867, the Senate of the United States, among the few brevets the daughter of Francis Borland of Boston and the grand- daughter of Honorable Timothy Lindall of Salem. 1 Also Henry Rogers Winthrop, 1811-1896. Buchanan Winthrop, 1841-1900, From this John Still Winthrop (1720-1776), eldest son of was his son. Henry Rogers Winthrop of New York (born 1876) is the son of John Winthrop, F.R.S., and Anne Dudley, and great-grand- Buchanan Winthrop and the present head of the Winthrop family in New York. (His college was Yale.) son of Governor John Winthrop the Younger, are descended 2 Robert Winthrop, founder of the banking firm of Robert Winthrop and Com- every one of the name of Winthrop living to-day who is also pany, had four sons and two daughters : I. Robert Dudley Winthrop, banker, born 1861, died 1912. descended from Governor John Winthrop of the Massa- 2 Grenville Lindall Winthrop, Member of the Bar, but non-practising; lives chusetts Bay Colony. John Still Winthrop's second son at Number 15 East 81st St., New York. 3. Frederic Winthrop (born November, 1868, and baptized Frederic Bayard, was Francis Bayard Winthrop (born 1754, died 1817), from but has ceased to use the Bayard). Frederic Winthrop was at one time a member whom, through his son, also named Francis Bayard, de- of the firm of Robert Winthrop and Company, bankers, but is now retired. He married Sarah B. Thayer and they have four children, including a son, Frederic, Jr., who graduated from Harvard with the class of 1928. 1 Mary, wife of Governor Joseph Wanton of Rhode Island; Anne, who never married; Katharine, who married first, Honorable Samuel Browne of Salem, and 4. Beekman, born 1874. Assistant Secretary of the Philippine Islands 1901- 1903. Acting Secretary October, 1902-April, 1903. Judge of the Court of First second, Colonel Epes Sargent; Rebecca, wife of Gurdon Saltonstall, son of Governor Instance, Philippine Islands, November, 1903-May, 1904. Governor of Porto Saltonstall of Connecticut; and Margaret, wife of Jeremiah Miller, Jr., of New Rico 1904-1907. Assistant Secretary of the Treasury 1907-1909. Assistant London. Secretary of the Navy 1909-1913. Member of the banking firm of Robert Winthrop 2 See Sears Family. and Company. 60 61 Famous Families of Massachusetts The Winthrop Family given after death, conferred upon Frederic Winthrop that of took up his residence in Boston, where, in 1786, he married major general. Elizabeth Temple, daughter of Sir John Temple, Baronet, Eugene Winthrop, who died in 1893, was a member of the and granddaughter of Governor James Bowdoin of Massa- banking firm of Drexel, Harjes and Company of Paris, chusetts. France. Thomas Lindall Winthrop was from 1828 to 1841 an Over- Of John Still Winthrop's other sons, William (born 1756) seer of Harvard and from 1826 to 1832, by annual election of died unmarried. Joseph (1757) settled in Charleston, South the people, lieutenant governor of Massachusetts. From Carolina, and left no male descendants. Benjamin (born 1835 until his death 2 he was president of the Massachusetts 1762) married Judith Stuyvesant, daughter of Peter Stuy- Historical Society. He had seven sons and seven daughters, vesant of New York, and they had six sons, only one of whom of whom Robert C. Winthrop, the youngest of the fourteen, had sons in his turn. This was Benjamin Robert Winthrop so long survived his brothers and sisters that, in his old age, (1804-1879). From him are descended Bronson Winthrop few who knew him remembered them at all. (born in 1863) who graduated from Trinity College, Cam- This Winthrop was a many-sided and singularly interest- bridge, England, in 1886 and is now an eminent lawyer in ing person. Born in Milk Street, Boston, May 12, 1809, in New York. the house of his great-uncle, the Honorable James Bowdoin, One Winthrop there was who remained loyal to England then United States Minister to Spain and Associate Minister during the Revolutionary War. This was Robert (born in to France, Robert Charles Winthrop grew up in the best so- 1764, died in 1832), who entered the British Navy (1779) ciety of early nineteenth-century Boston. At Harvard, from and attained the rank of Vice Admiral of the Blue. A son of which he graduated in 1828, his closest friend was Charles his also became a British Admiral. Chauncy Emerson, younger brother of Ralph Waldo Emer- It was from his Salem great-grandfather, Honorable son. At the reception which Honorable Thomas Lindall Timothy Lindall, that Thomas Lindall Winthrop, Lieu- Winthrop gave at Porter's Tavern, Cambridge, for his tenant Governor of Massachusetts, received his distinguish- graduating son, President John Quincy Adams was "among ing name. This Winthrop was unique in one other thing. He those present." started his college career at Yale and ended it at Harvard. Young Winthrop, ripe at nineteen for the legal pro- His class at the Cambridge institution was that of 1780, but fession, entered the office of Daniel Webster and there his health at this time was very delicate and before he remained until admitted to the Suffolk Bar in 1831. Web- had obtained his degree he sailed for Amsterdam on a journey ster was senator from Massachusetts at this time and neces- of recuperation, his port of departure being Nantucket ! sarily much in Washington, SO that a good deal of the routine The war with the mother country was then still on and his office business was discharged by his assistant. But at this vessel was captured. He was carried into an English port stage of his career, Robert Winthrop never allowed work to but soon released on parole, probably through the influence interfere with his social duties. He became a manager of of his English relatives, and before returning to this country subscription balls, wore some of the most conspicuous of the made the grand tour. Then, in partnership with his brother Joseph, he entered upon commercial pursuits at Charleston, 1 By whom she had been adopted and brought up from childhood. She died July 23, 1825. South Carolina. Soon, however, he again came north and In the house, Number I Walnut Street, which he had bought about 1829. 62 63 Famous Families of Massachusetts The Winthrop Family "party-colored waistcoats" 1 then in vogue, and (according Massachusetts Historical Society, of which Robert C. to one of his sisters) devoted a great deal of time to the art of Winthrop was president for many years, came from Mr. tying cravats. Peabody, the great banker stating that, not being himself In due time, however, he put up a barrister's sign of his a votary of history, his contribution was wholly a personal own on Court Street and married (March 12, 1832) Eliza testimony to a dear friend. Blanchard, whose mother, Mary Anne Cabot, was also the Mr. Winthrop died in 1894 at Number 90 Marlborough mother, by a former marriage, of John Clarke Lee of Salem. Street, Boston, which had been his winter residence for From about this time may be dated Mr. Winthrop's twenty years. He married 1 three times. His four chil- political activities. For, the world having discovered that dren - three sons and a daughter - were all by his first this descendant of early governors had rare gifts as a public marriage. speaker, he began to be ardently cultivated by men in public Robert C. Winthrop, second son and namesake, had been office. In the State election of 1834 he was elected a repre- his father's close companion throughout his long life. Born sentative from Boston to the General Court and served six December 7, 1834, at Number 7 Tremont Place, he went to years, the last three of them as Speaker. In 1840 he went to Washington with his parents at the age of six and cherished Washington as a Member of Congress. among his earliest recollections the memory of being taken Thus, at the unusually early age of thirty-one and at a to see President Van Buren, who showed him his watch and time when the country was about to undergo the most dis- seals to entertain him. With his father he visited England, tracting convulsions of its greatest struggle, we find this Scotland, Ireland, and the continent in 1847, and at fourteen gifted Winthrop a member of our national legislature. At listened in the Houses of Parliament to Peel, Palmerston and thirty-eight he was Speaker of the House of Representatives Stanley, saw the Duke of Wellington officiating at a State and at forty-one a United States senator. There seemed at military review, and was present at a rendering of "Elijah" this time no prize in public life to which Robert C. Winthrop conducted by Mendelssohn himself. It was at this time might not with reason, as well as confidence, aspire. Yet at that he was initiated into the delights of the theatre - to forty-two he suffered a sudden reverse in his chosen career which in youth and middle life he became much addicted Most of his contemporaries thought that his set-back (in and heard Jenny Lind sing, saw Fanny Ellsler dance, and 1851) was only temporary, a mere stroke of political ill luck, thrilled to the extraordinary acting of Rachel. but what actually happened was that, when he was defeated Thus he was far from being a raw "college boy" when he for reèlection to the Senate, Mr. Winthrop definitely retired graduated from Harvard in 1854, the orator for his class. for all time from public service. Then ensued a rather desultory study of the law, undertaken, The remaining years of his life were devoted to scholarship it would seem, from the hope expressed by the older Win- and to a variety of benevolent and philanthropic interests. throp that his son might acquire a taste for political life and Particularly he had to do with the administration of the follow in his footsteps. This did not happen. In the great Education Fund for the South, established by his 1 At the height of his career in Washington, he married for his second wife (on friend George Peabody. The largest gift ever made to the October 15, 1849) Mrs. Laura Welles, who had been born Laura Derby and whose sister was the wife of Reverend Ephraim Peabody (See Peabody Family). On 1 "Memoir of Robert C. Winthrop", by Robert Charles Winthrop, Jr. Little, November 16, 1865, he contracted a third marriage with Adele, the widow of John Eliot Thayer of Boston. Brown, and Company, Boston, p.9. 64 65 Famous Families of Massachusetts The Winthrop Family autumn of 1857 young Robert married Frances Pickering March 8, 1839), who became president of the Massachusetts Adams (daughter of Benjamin Adams, a near neighbor in Institute of Technology, was thus a grandson of Senator Pemberton Square), a charming and gifted girl but Jeremiah Mason. apparently of frail constitution. When they had been Because both were senators and both lived in Boston at married only two years and a half and while she and her about the same time, Jeremiah Mason is often confused with husband were still abroad on a protracted honeymoon, she Jonathan Mason.1 There seems, however, to have been no died in Rome of tubercular consumption. relationship. The nine years that intervened before Mr. Winthrop again took a wife were largely spent in European travel. He was Of his second wife (Jeremiah Mason's granddaughter) Robert C. Winthrop, Jr., wrote in 1902 "We have now been particularly at home in Paris during the period of the Second Empire and naturally Boston suffered by contrast. "Bea- married nearly a third of a century and I can truly say that I have never known a woman who possessed for me SO con Hill," comments Charles Francis Adams, 1 might be all irresistible a charm." very well, but it was not the Rue de Rivoli Washington Street had little in common with the Boulevard and as to From 1871 the Winthrops made their home in Boston, pass- the Champs Elysées it was then Tom Appleton announced ing their summers at Lenox and Beverly until, in 1894, they the new dispensation that when good Bostonians died they bought a house at Manchester-by-the-Sea. Mr. Winthrop now busied himself with historical writing and was an active went to Paris." and interested member of the Massachusetts Historical The dawn of 1868 found Robert C. Winthrop, Jr., back in Society, of which both his father and grandfather had been Boston, dismantling the dwelling house at Number I Pemberton Square which, for twenty years, had been his presidents. He died in Boston, June 5, 1905, at his home, father's home. In June, 1869, he married Elizabeth, oldest Number IO Walnut Street, and was buried from St. John's daughter of Robert Means Mason of Boston, whose father is 1 Jonathan Mason was born in Boston on August 30, 1752, graduated from Princeton in 1774, studied law under John Adams and was admitted to the Bar in remembered as Senator Jeremiah Mason, at one time at- 1777. He was many times a member of the Massachusetts Legislature and was torney general of New Hampshire. The sisters, Ida and Ellen sent to the United States Senate in 1800 and took an active part in the debates. Mason, who long made their home at Number I Walnut He remained in the Senate until March 3, 1803. Later he was elected to the Lower House of Congress where he served for three years. Street, Boston, were other daughters of Robert Means The Masons distinguished in musical circles belong to still another group. Mason and granddaughters of Senator Jeremiah Mason. Lowell Mason was born in Medfield, Massachusetts, January 8, 1792, the son of mechanic, with only meager opportunities for early education. Before he was a This Senator Mason went to Washington in 1813 as a twenty, however, he had learned to play on every musical instrument within his Federalist, remaining there until 1817, when he resigned to reach and after getting a start in his profession at Savannah returned to Boston resume the practice of his profession. In 1832 he removed (in 1827), where he soon attained great success as a teacher of music to the young and as an inspirer of musical institutes. After a visit to Europe in 1837, the results to Boston and continued to practise law until he entered his of which appeared in "Musical Letters from Abroad" (New York, 1853), he was seventieth year. His daughter Marianne married R. A. made Doctor of Music by the University of the City of New York, a degree then (1855) conferred by an American University for the first time. He was the author Crafts. James Mason Crafts (born in Jamaica Plain, of a number of books on church music and he assembled one of the most extensive 1 "Memoir of Robert C. Winthrop, Jr." and valuable musical libraries in the United States which, after his death (at Orange, 2 He married (June 13, 1868, while a young professor at Cornell) Miss Clemence New Jersey, in 1872), was presented to Yale College by his family. His son, William Haggerty of New York. They had four daughters of whom Mrs. Russell S. Mason (born in Boston, January 24, 1829), who was made Doctor of Music by Codman, of Number 59 Marlborough Street, is one. Yale in 1872, is distinguished as the first American ever to have given in this country concerts consisting entirely of piano music. 66 67 Famous Families of Massachusetts Memorial Chapel of the Episcopal Theological School of Cambridge which had been erected by his father-in-law, Robert Means Mason, in memory of his wife and children. One son and two daughters survived him. Other Winthrops who perpetuated the family traditions, as well as the family name, were John, well-known as an American physicist, who observed the transit of Mercury in CHAPTER IV 1740, and Theodore, a descendant of the second John, already THE ENDICOTT FAMILY referred to as the first commissioned officer on the Union side to be killed in battle. Born in New Haven, Connecticut, JOHN ENDECOTT (as the name was spelled in the first September 22, 1828, the son of that Francis Bayard Win- governor's own day) has been called "the Father of New throp who married Elizabeth Woolsey, niece of Presi- England." Born in old England 1 in I 1588, he was undoubt- dent Timothy Dwight of Yale, Theodore Winthrop as a edly a member of the landed-gentry class, there called "Es- young man spent some time in Europe and there made a quires", though practically nothing is known of him previous start as a writer. Like many authors who subsequently to his sailing for these shores. The title of Captain is, how- achieved fame, he met with little early encouragement and ever, always prefixed to his name in the earliest records of it was not until the eve of the outbreak of the Civil War that the Massachusetts Company, thus indicating that at some his powerful story, "Cecil Dreeme", found acceptance. time previous to his emigration to this country he had held James Russell Lowell was then editor of the Atlantic Monthly, a commission in the English army. and detecting in Winthrop the mark of original genius, While a resident in London he married Anna Gower, a lady commissioned him, as a recruit of the 7th New York Regi- of an influential family and a cousin of Matthew Cradock, ment, to write for the Atlantic an account of the march to governor of the Massachusetts Company in England. In Washington. Two articles, arresting in power and vivid 1628 Endecott embraced the principles of the Puritans and reality, had appeared when the author was killed. At- in association with Sir Henry Roswell, Sir John Young, tached as military secretary to the staff of General Butler, Simon Whetcomb, John Humphrey and Thomas Southcoat he had assisted his chief to plan the attack on Little and purchased "by a considerable sum of money" a grant from Great Bethel. During the height of the ensuing conflict, he the Plymouth Council in England for the settlement of the sprang upon a log to rally his men and was almost immedi- Massachusetts Bay. This grant was subsequently con- firmed by patent from Charles I. ately shot through the heart. Fitting end for a descendant of the first governor of the The motives which prompted the first settlers in colonizing Massachusetts Bay Colony ! New England were varied. Endecott led his band of fol- lowers thither in order to restore to Englishmen their civil liberties and to establish the right of the English noncon- formists to worship according to the dictates of their own consciences. Thus, with him, emigration was to a con- 1 Genealogists dispute the place. 68 69