LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN WINTHROP.*
THIS volume is a valuable contribution both to American and English archaeology. By one of those strange settings-aside of all ordinary chances and casualties that sometimes occur, the private correspondence and diaries of the Winthrop familyprevious to their memorable settlement in New England have been pre- served in such fullness as to render the recent visit of Mr. Robert Winthrop to Suffolk more like the return of a wanderer to the. home of the associations of which he had never lost sight, than the pilgrimage of a native of one continent to the graves of his ancestors of two centuries ago in another. It is now two hundred and thirty-four years since) John Winthrop left his country house at Groton, and a network of relatives and connections which covered two counties, for the leadership of a hazardous enterprise in a distant country, amidst every possible discouragement ; and after the lapse of six entire generations it is strange to and his lineal descendant returning to England with a mass of written materials throwing more light on Suffolk life in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries than even local antiquaries have succeeded in doing. With the history of John Winthrop and his family subsequently to their establishment in New. Eng7 land both countries are familiar, and local research has done much in ascertaining the external history of the Suffolk Win- throps, but it is only now that this voluminous correspondence of John Winthrop, ranging over the most sacred relations of domestic life and unfolding the inmost recesses of his nature, shows us really what a great man England lost and America gained in the settlement of Massachusetts. No tie that binds England and America together is of light importance, and the Winthrop history is no slight one.
The early pedigree of the Winthrops is neither explicit nor trustworthy. It is only satisfactorily proved that the existence
of a family of that name in England, if not co-extensive with that of the Nottinghamshire village of Wiuthorpe, at least dates from the year 1200.. The first authentic datum in their history is the fact that one Adam Winthrop, " son of a worthy gentle- s The Life and Letters of John Winthrvp, Governor of the Massachusetts Ilse Company, at their Emigration to New England, 1631. By Robert C. Winthrop. 7„,/... Boston : Ticknor and Field. London: Trobner and Co. 11364.
man of the same name," was settled at Lavenham, in Suffolk, in the reign of Henry VIII. He seems to have been a prominent member of the body of Clothworkers, who play so important a part in the annals of that part of' Suffolk during the sixteenth century, and attained in 1551 the honourable position of Master
of the Clothworkers' Company. This Adam seems to have been a man of much mercantile enterprise, at one time even incurring imprisonment in the Fleet and a fine of six hundred pounds for "negotiations with foreigners, contrary to the King's edict,"— the severe sentence being attributed in default of other evi- dence to certain illegal transactions in the wool trade. At the dissolution of the monasteries, however, ho was fully compensated by the grant of the manor of Groton, in Suffolk, formerly the property of the wealthy Abbey of Bury St. Edmund's. He married twice—a habit in the family—and had in all thirteen children, whose descendants so increased and multiplied as to soon surround the direct line of Winthrop with a tangled web of cousinships, which all the copious diaries and extracts from family Bibles before us fail to-render quite intelligible. In 1563, this Adam—the second of the name—died, vir bonus et verse religionis amens, as the family pedigree tells us, leaving Groton to his second son, who had settled in Ireland. His youngest son, the third Adam in succession, was born "in the street called Gracious" (Gracechurch), in the year 1548, and seems to have followed the profession of a briefless barrister until close upon the age of fifty—at least in 1594 his " gaynes in law" fell short of eight pounds. In the following year,bowever, he finally abandoned his profession and settled down at Groton, which had then come into his possession, and for the remainder of his days he led a life which corresponded, perhaps, in those days to that of the typical " chairman of quarter sessions," regarded now as so eminently respectable, but scarcely awe-inspiring, a member of society. The innumerable marriages of other branches of his family had brought him into connection with most of the county families of any mark in the locality, while his own marriage with the sister of Dr. Still, Master of Trinity College, Cambridge, and Bishop of Bath and Wells, procured him acquaintance with men of higher rank and note in the world than he, perhaps, would otherwise have mixed with. During the thirteen years of his residence at Groton, besides noting as auditor of Trinity College, and taking a most active part in all county business, lie occu- pied himself largely with agriculture, and seems altogether to have filled the position of a country gentleman of superior attainments, good connections, and business habits. His former profession and London career gave him considerable advantages over the average squires of the district, and tended to place him on terms of friendly intercourse with the judges and bar when On circuit, while his intimate relationships with both the old county families as well as the new local order of successful cloth- -workers gave him a widely extended influence. His private diary for this period is preserved almost entire, in an appendix to the volume before us, and gives a most interesting picture of the life of a country gentleman of the sixteenth century. Worthy Adam Winthrop was not by any means given to moralizing or making remarks on the events which he chronicled ; if they seemed to him deserving of note he recorded them in his almanack, in just as few words as would answer the purpose, and no more. That he still took an interest in Court and politics is evident by the number of paragraphs relating thereto, and his kindly feeling for the poor of the village is evidenced by the constant recurrence of bulletins concerning the health of "father" or " mother " So-and-so, of Groton. Business memoranda, local gossip, notes and the text of the sermon when some one of his favourite preachers discoursed "pie et docte" as his phrase runs, and vain endeavours to keepup with the ever accumulating stream of family births, deaths, and marriages, compose the bulk of his journals. The holding of a court at any neighbouring manor, the coronation of James I., the death of a favourite dog, the birth of' a second cousin once removed, the serving for dinner of a "pike iij quarter of a yarde long, ut puto," or the fact that " Johane Betts my maids did wound John Wailleys my man in the lied wth her patten, for the wch she was very sorry," are all recorded with equal brevity and sententiousness.
But all this is chiefly noticeable as giving an idea of the kind of life amidst which Adam's eldest son, the future governor of Massachusetts, was brought up, at least during the earlier years of his childhood. His father's journals give us the mere dates of his birth, entry at Cambridge at the age of fourteen, at mar- riage at that of seventeen, and it is from his own correspondence and writings of a subsequent date, so strangely preserved, that gain a thorough knowledge of his character. John Winthrop certainly gave promise of no ordinary career at a very early age during his residence at Cambridge, according to his own account he seems to have been a strange combination of the stern fanatic of the " wild and dissolute " youth. He was deeply read in divinity, but with that searching, malignant self-examination in which minds of his time and stamp delighted, he ascribes his proficiency to " mere vanity," as he also does his writing, if occa- sion was, of " savoury and godly counsel."
It is not difficult to imagine how a nature of this kind was affected by a series of domestic bereavements which marred the prosperity of his early manhood. His habit, commenced at eighteen, of daily writing down in minute detail his "Christian experiences " gradually developed itself into the one absorbing work of his life. The most trivial dereliction of religious duty, a momentary wandering of thought at prayer or meditation, or a single thought of regret for worldly pleasures, are all mercilessly exposed in what he considered their true light of deadly and soul- destroying sins. Whatever real or imaginary shortcoming served in any degree for the exercise of the virtues of self-abase- ment and humiliation, it was recorded with a relentlessness approaching that of persecution. After the loss of his second wife, whose illness and death-bed he describes with-most touching simplicity and beauty of language, there seemed every proba- bility of his settling down into a confirmed and gloomy fanatic.
But he was destined to take a much more active part in the affairs of this world than either he or his family dreamt of at that time. His sons, one of whom was being educated at Dub- lin, and the other at Cambridge, diverted his thoughts from the perpetual spiritual introversion into which they had fallen, while the increased expenses of a growing family necessitated more attention to the business affairs of life. Two years after the death of his second wife he married again, and entered upon practice at the bar, in which he met with considerable apparent success, and during the whole of the ten years (1620-30) which preceded his departure for New England, an unbroken corre- spondence with his wife tells us the whole rise and progress of the scheme which was to end in the " plantation " of North America, and the way in which he became connected with it, and ultimately Governor of the Massachusetts Company. As in every other step he took in life, it was not without a full belief in his special call from above that he entered upon the under- taking, and the long and elaborate arguments with which he an- swered the objections of those who attempted to dissuade him from his object show how deeply and earnestly he had reflected before his decision.
The paper in which these arguments were formally stated by Winthrop is, indeed, a most important document, viewed as an exposition of the causes and views which led to the colonization of the North American Continent. It is the last act of Winthrop's life in the home of his fathers, before he finally transferred all his energies and powers to the service of the Lordin another and an un- known country, and passed from the province of the family anti- quarian to that of the national historian, and it is worthy of the most careful study. He first sets forth the missionary view of the question, " To helpe on the comminge of the fulnesse of the Gentiles," and the necessity of counteracting the labours of the Jesuits. The notion so prevalent in those days, that the dis- tracted state of the English Church portended some great and overwhelming national religious calamity, also influenced him, and seemed to him to urge a " flight into the wilderness." It is clear that the acquired gloominess of his temperament had no small share in his motives, for the following must have been a des- ponding view to take of life in England two hundred years ago :-
"This Land growes weary of her Inhabitants, soe as man, whoa is the most pretious of all creatures, is here more vile & base then the earth we treads upon, & of lease prise among us then an horse or a sheepe : masters are forced by authority to entertain servants, parents to mainetaine there owne children, all townes complains of the burthen of theire poore, though we have taken up many unneasisarie yea unlawfull trades to mainetaine them, & we use the authoritie of the Law to hinder the increase of or people, as by urginge the Statute against Cottages, & inmates, & thus it is come to passe, that children, servants & neighboures, especially if they be poore, are compted the greatest burthens, which if thinges weare right would be the cheifest earthly bleasinges."
We cannot close the volume without expressing our thanks to Mr. It. Winthrop for having presented to the English people so deeply interesting a record of one of whom England, as well as America, has good reason to be proud.
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