John Winthrop – 1588-1649

One of England’s persecuted Puritans, Winthrop joined the Massachusetts Bay Company in 1629 and was elected first governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. From the founding of the colony until 1648, he was chosen governor 12 times and was regarded by the colonists as a stern but loving father. Without doubt, his strong hand helped to ensure the survival and prosperity of the colony, but he was also a force for Puritan intolerance and came into conflict with such advocates of liberality and non-orthodoxy as Roger Williams and Anne Hutchinson.