John Winthrop: Magistrate, minister, merchant
The Midwest Quarterly; Pittsburg; Winter 1999; Mark W Crilly

Volume:
40
Issue:
2
Start Page:
187-196
ISSN:
00263451
Subject Terms:
History
Personal profiles
Judges & magistrates
Clergy
Entrepreneurs
Personal Names:
Winthrop, John

Abstract:
Crilly discusses the life and livelihood of colonial minister and merchant John Winthrop.
Winthrop's interests were centered on material as well as spiritual prosperity, and he
used his priviledge as governor and magistrate to secure wealth for his family, friends
and community.

Full Text:
Copyright Pittsburg State University, Department of History Winter 1999

SCHOLARS HAVE TENDED to characterize the English colonization of
Massachusetts in 1629 as an intellectual sojourn, a movement propagated by
religious non-Separatists of the Church of England who sought to purify and
reform church practices in the New World. Perry Miller, for instance, contends that
the religious aspirations of the early colonists gave them the impetus to migrate to
New England. Miller asserts in his seminal book, The Puritans, that the rift existing
between members of the established Church of England and the non-separatists
resulted from a "relatively small number of ideas." But, he adds, this "small
number of ideas [in] which there was dispute made all the difference between the
Puritan and his fellow-Englishman." In fact the difference meant so much,
according to Miller, that these Puritan men and women "pulled up stakes in
England" and migrated to America (7). And in his book The New England Mind,
Miller continues to argue that the Puritan settlers were of a like mind with a "truly
unified and coherent" sensibility (6). Philip Gura's polemics on Puritan radicalism
delineated in A Glimpse at Sion's Glory differ slightly from Miller's argument of a
unified body of thought in colonial New England. But Gura contends that "New
England was settled in the belief that it was to become nothing less than a
fulfillment of biblical prophecy, a land in which life of the spirit informed all
behavior and so would mark the spot of the New Jerusalem" (13).

While Miller and Gura's analyses offer perspicuous insights into rather perplexing
and fatiguing Puritan theological concerns, their foci ignore the economic
considerations of the early colonists. In New England Merchants in the
Seventeenth Century, Bernard Bailyn analyzes the settlers' commercial
enterprises, but contends that the leadership of the first settlers of the
Massachusetts Bay Company was "securely in the hands of men whose main
occupation was not trade" (19), suggesting that the leaders were motivated by
spiritual aspirations rather than mundane concerns. Yet analysis of various social
discourses suggests that members of the ruling oligarchy, led by John Winthrop,
were able not only to secure intellectual or spiritual fortunes for the colonists, but
also by dint of their position in the social hierarchy, were able to amass material
fortunes for themselves. Whether he was driven by the spirit or was supported by
the colonists he led, by means of lay sermons, legal documents, and letters, John
Winthrop, who orchestrated the expedition to the new land, secured the interest of
a small group of New World venturers.

John Winthrop had practiced law in and around London prior to his affiliation with
the trading organization called the Massachusetts Bay Company, the company
which he would eventually control. The company, formerly the Dorchester
Company, had settled Salem and later became the Massachusetts Bay Company.
Exactly how Winthrop became associated with those of the "Company of New
England" is speculative, but he is presumed to have had business acquaintances
whose relations owned the company. In The Puritan Dilemma Edmund Morgan
notes that Winthrop was content to associate with men of importance. In 1617
Winthrop was in "Suffolk as one of the country's justices of the peace, a post
reserved for persons of importance-and importance meant property" (16). During
his years practicing law and serving the burgeoning merchant class, he secured
ties with business ventures with whom he was to become partners.

In any event the Company had suffered financial difficulties and was in dire need
of refinancing. In an effort to resuscitate the company into a profitable
organization, adventurers, or to use modern parlance, investors, bought interest
in the company. In The Massachusetts Bay Company and Its Predecessors
Francis Rose-Troup offers an insightful analysis on Winthrop, noting that the
investors of the original company, because of Winthrop's finesse with the pen, lost
ownership of the land that they had been allotted by previous grants from the King
of England and their voice in the conduct of the company as well. As Rose-Troup
argues, part of this relinquishment resulted from their later acceptance of
Winthrop's charismatic arguments and their desire to recapture what capital they
could out of a nearly bankrupt company.

The initial charter for the newly established Massachusetts Bay Company was
written by John Winthrop. Within the body of this charter, he cleverly equivocated
on issues regarding with whom and where control of the company should reside.
Those who invested in the new company were merchants from London who
intended to run the operation from England. Such absentee control ran counter to
Winthrop's intentions. The Life and Letters of Winthrop reveals that he
maneuvered to gain control from investors in England. In a letter several years
later Winthrop wrote,

For it being the manner for such as procured patents for Virginia, Bermudas and
the West Indies, to keep the chief government in the hands of the company
residing in England (and so this was intended and with much difficulty we got it
rescinded) this clause is inserted in this as all other patents where by the
Company in England might establish a Government and Officers here in any form
used in England as Governor and council . . . which Mr. Endicott establishes here.
(II, 443)

Winthrop effectively rescinded the terms of the patent, taking control of the
company from those who based their investments on the assumption that the
company would remain in London. Winthrop's designs are apparent. The contents
of this letter reveal that he had deceived his partners.

Shortly before departing for New England, Winthrop addressed the members of
the Massachusetts Bay Company. Winthrop maintained, as revealed in his
papers, that the investors would regain their money after seven years and that
until that time, "every adventurer [should] enjoy his freedom and land, and to
trade in any commodity at his pleasure." He added, "Religion persuades it"
(174-77). Winthrop's intentions are irrefutable. In a clandestine meeting with
eleven other members of the company, he was voted governor. They agreed in
terms not specified in the initial charter to remove themselves and their families to
New England in exchange for unspecified privileges, but once in New England
each became a magistrate or a trader, or both. The terms of the agreement
provided expenditures for the adventurers. After costs, profits would be split 52
1/2 percent to 47 1/2 percent between those who emigrated to the New World and
those who remained in England to work. Having gained full control of the
Massachusetts Bay Company, Winthrop sailed with several hundred devotees for
New England.

Winthrop carefully utilized various discourses to inculcate "virtues" appropriate for
establishing and maintaining a social hegemony that placed him at the helm. On
board the Arabella he wrote and delivered to the colonists "A Model for Christian
Charity" in which he pronounced that,

God Almighty in his most holy and wise providence, has so disposed of the
condition of mankind, as in all times some must be rich, some poor, some high
and eminent in power and dignity; others mean and in subordination. (Puritans,
195-99)

This speech was one means by which he secured the development of a stratified
social system as well as asserted the privilege of property. God, Winthrop
presumed, invariably intended to "manifest the work of his spirit" that "other men
might have needs of others" (Greene, 66). With his lay sermons, if this one is any
"model," Winthrop became not only the voice of the church, but of the state, acting
simultaneously as governor of Massachusetts, financial consultant, and major
stockholder in the Massachusetts Bay Trading Company.

Once Winthrop and the settlers arrived, the shareholders split up into
communities: Richard Saltonstill located at Watertown, William Pynchon founded
Roxbury, Thomas Dudley and his magistrate son-in-law Simon Bradstreet settled
Cambridge (Newtown), and Roger Ludow nestled in at Dorchester. John Endicott
had already settled Salem under the previous company. Winthrop settled Boston.
As Robert Wall asserts, with these men as magistrates of various towns, the
Massachusetts Bay Company was transformed into a commonwealth.

Citizens who held stock distinguished themselves from those who did not and
labeled themselves freemen. The others were by law subjugated under the
freemen. The freemen became, in effect, part of the ruling class, which exerted its
authority over the rest of the citizenry. Essentially, the company controlled the
government because only freemen, or shareholders, could be elected to the
General Court. Thus control became centralized in the hands of the shareholders.
In his personal papers, Winthrop defined this arbitrary government he formed as a
place "where a people have men set over them without their choice, or allowance:
who have power to Govern them and Judge their causes without a rule" (IV, 468).

Forces, however, began to work against Winthrop. For instance, Deputy Governor
Dudley, perturbed by Winthrop's gubernatorial policies and fearful of Winthrop's
new vision for taking control of the government, provoked the freemen to dissent
against him. They eventually voted Winthrop out of office in 1634. John Cotton, in
a show of support for the stability of Winthrop's government and in an effort to
gain votes for him, delivered an election day sermon on his behalf Despite
Cotton's efforts, Winthrop lost the election because of the ire the freemen felt over
certain improprieties on the part of Winthrop. They were primarily annoyed at
Winthrop because he persistently tried to subject them to his authority and
because they feared his creation of lifetime tenure. In addition, the freemen were
annoyed by ostensible acts of nepotism when Winthrop appointed his son a
member of the magistrates. With the aid of his son's vote, Winthrop had been able
to secure his power.

Along with assuring his status as Governor, Winthrop gained recognition for his
entrepreneurial skills, as his Papers suggest, when he began trading various
commodities during the first four years of the settlement. He sold iron, flannel,
figs, rags, canvas, shoes, boots, lead, currants, raisins, corn, cattle, and stockings
to the new mass of emigrants and to the London Port Company. Winthrop's
son-in-law James Downing and brother Emmanuel were part of this London
operation. The freemen and the citizens provided Winthrop with a market to sell
English goods while England was furnished with furs delivered by the
Massachusetts Bay Company. Despite being voted out of office for two years,
1634-35, Winthrop's business was conducted without interruption. And before the
end of 1637 he was reelected to the governorship. Shortly thereafter, he was
voted a life term as magistrate of Massachusetts, a position which he rotated with
Endicott and Dudley.

In 1637, Dudley and Winthrop took control of vast amounts of property around
Boston. When Winthrop was elected Governor of Massachusetts, Dudley was
elected Deputy. That year, as the Massachusetts Records reveal, they each
granted themselves one thousand acres of land. With a rapidly growing populace
the need for land drove up property prices, making their timing of the investments
questionable. The same record reveals that Winthrop granted another 3000 acres
to his wife, from which they profited handsomely when prices escalated.

With his governorship restored, Winthrop acted promptly to thwart the threat of
ministerial power over the magistrates. He wrote, as documented in his Papers,

Christ's kingdom is not of this world, therefore his officers of this kingdom cannot
judicially inquire into affairs of the world. Such power would confound these
jurisdictions, which Christ has made distinct: for as he is King of Kings and Lord of
Lords, he has set up another kingdom in this world wherein magistrates are his
officers and they are accountable to him. (III, 506-507)

Ministers were judicially inefficient, he continues, because "churches could not call
in foreign witnesses; nor examine witnesses upon oaths, nor require the view of
the Records of the Court" (507). Winthrop placed himself, and the magistrates as
well, above the moral administrators, the ministers.

That same year Winthrop wrote "A Defense of the Court," stating "wherein that
none should be received to inhabit within this jurisdiction but such as should be
allowed by some of the magistrates" (Heimert, 164). The "Defense" excluded
those, like Anne Hutchinson and John Wheelwright, whose consciences did not
conform to his policies. His empire would not withstand the financial risks if these
dissenters were allowed to voice their ideas publicly. Hutchinson's religious
anti-authoritative ideas would call into question economic authority and could
undermine Winthrop's power in the colony. Her religious views had serious
political ramifications that threatened the stability of the markets. According to
Heimert, Winthrop's "A Defense of the Court" was the means to "preserve the
welfare" and counter economic threats ( 164). Winthrop's doctrines diametrically
opposed democracy and free speech. He felt threatened by anyone who might
usurp his power, so he enacted the laws to secure that ideal. To this point, Life
and Letters reveal his political views:

Now if we should change from a mixed Aristocracy to a mere Democracy: first we
would have no warrant in scripture for it. A Democracy is . . . accounted the
meanest and worst of all forms of Government. (II, 430)

Freedom of speech was permitted, as long as it was within the existing social
codes of belief.

With the expansion of demand from national and international sources, certain
traders developed outposts that were strategically located to facilitate barter with
the Indians, who provided the traders with furs, corn, and other items. For people
such as William Pynchon, Ruth McIntyre noted, the growth of the community at
Roxbury and the environs of Boston led to greater competition. Pynchon relocated
to the west along the Connecticut River, at Agawam which later became
Springfield. At roughly this same time, Winthrop's son John, who had been
operating a post north of Boston at Ipswich, relocated at Saybrook, near the delta
of the Connecticut River so that by 1637 a trading circle was formed that included
Pynchon at Springfield, Winthrop, Jr. at the Saybrook delta plantation, Winthrop,
Sr. in Boston, and Matthew Cradock in London. From the European hub of
London, trade was transacted with regions such as Holland and India. From
Boston and New London, trade was conducted with Barbados and the West
Indies.

Pynchon situated himself along the Connecticut River where the Indian trail
passed to the westward regions from the Bay area. He used Winthrop's thirty-ton
bark, The Blessing of the Bay, to transport himself, cargo, and crew from Roxbury,
Massachusetts, to Agawam, up the Connecticut River. He stationed himself north
of Hartford where Thomas Hooker had previously settled. Pynchon was able to
sever Hooker's direct involvement with the Indians, enabling him to begin
conducting business with them. Continuous disputes ruptured between Pynchon
and Thomas Hooker from that time forward.

McIntyre's study reveals that Pynchon learned the Indian language, cooperated
with them fully, and became a trustworthy business associate, much to the
chagrin of Hooker down river. Hooker tried every means possible to drive
Pynchon from the area. He tried to tax Pynchon's cargo that was being shipped
down river to John Winthrop, Jr. at the Saybrook plantation. At one time, Hooker
squabbled over the price of corn that Pynchon was marketing. A corn shortage
developed after the Pequot War in 1637. Because of Pynchon's close and
amicable association with the Indians, he was the only one with whom the Indians
would trade.

When the price of a bushel of corn had risen from 5 shillings to 5 shillings 6
pence, Hooker claimed Pynchon was manipulating corn prices. So Hooker sued
Pynchon under Connecticut jurisdiction. After a heated trial, Pynchon was
convicted of deliberately raising prices, breaking a magistrate's oath, and was
fined 40 pounds of corn. Because of prolonged conflicts between Pynchon and
the Connecticut River magistrates over jurisdiction and taxes, Pynchon sought the
aid of his associates in Boston. Shortly thereafter, Agawam was incorporated into
Massachusetts, thereby silencing Hooker. Winthrop, in a savvy political maneuver,
suggested in a letter to Hooker that if Hooker had been more lenient or had
"offered more encouragement," the state of Connecticut could have gained
jurisdiction over Agawam.

During the ensuing years, business was brisk for Pynchon, as well as for the two
Winthrops. The younger Winthrop built an iron industry in New London,
Connecticut, during the 1640s that delivered iron to various ports around the
globe. Pynchon lived virtually unmolested by Hooker and built a trading empire of
his own. John Winthrop maintained control of the political and financial concerns
of the Bay area. William Pynchon transferred his trading company and his
property over to his son John and his son-in-law, Henry Smith, after Winthrop's
death in 1649. Pynchon, no longer under the auspices of John Winthrop, became
engaged in a religious squabble with the new magistrates and was virtually
railroaded out of Massachusetts by the new group. His book, The Meritorious
Price of Redemption, was banned from the province as heresy. In 1652 he
returned to England rather than stay and contend with the new regime.

Scholars of the Puritan colonization, such as the late Perry Miller and more
recently Philip Gura, have analyzed the settlers in terms of their religious
propensities. John Winthrop's diaries have justified such an analysis as his papers
are replete with spiritual and pious writings. Miller, commenting upon the
dictatorship that Winthrop had established, wrote that "it was a dictatorship, not of
a single tyrant, or of an economic class, or of a puritan faction, but of the holy and
regenerate class" (Puritans, 183). Further analysis of his writings suggests that
Winthrop's interests were centered on material as well as spiritual prosperity and
that he used his privilege as governor and magistrate to provide for the wealth of
his family, friends, and community. If on occasion Winthrop sacrificed personal
integrity and social dignity to protect or advance his own welfare and that of
others-his political, theological, and entrepreneurial acumen, which he properly
mixed to establish and preserve the New World colony, exonerates him.

[Reference]
BIBLIOGRAPHY

[Reference]
Bailyn, Bernard. The New England Merchants in the Seventeenth Century. Cambridge: Harvard
University Press, 1955.
Gura, Philip F. A Glimpse of Sion's Glory: Puritan Radicalisn in New England, 1620-1660. Middletown,
Connecticut: Wesleyan University Press, 1986.
Greene, Jack P. Settlements to Society 1607-1763: A Documentary History of Colonial America. New
York: Norton, 1975.
Heimert, Alan, and Andrew Delbanco. The Puritans in America Cambridge: Harvard University Press,
1985.

[Reference]
McIntyre, Ruth. William Pynchon: Merchant and Colonizer. Springfield, Massachusetts: Connecticut
Valley Historical Museum, 1961.
Miller, Perry. Errand Into the Wilderness. New York: Harper and Row, 1956.
-. The New England Mind: The 17th Century. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1954.

[Reference]
The Puritans. Rev. Ed. New York: Harper and Row, 1963. Records of the Governor and Company of the
Massachusetts Bay Company. Rpt. as Mas
sac)wsetts Colony Record: 1630-1641. 6 vols. Massachusetts Historical Society. Morgan, Edmund S.
The Puritan Dilem, mz: The Story of John Winthrop. Boston: Little, Brown, 1958.
Rose-Troup, Francis. The Massachusetts Bay Company and Its Predecessors. New York: Gratten,
1930.

[Reference]
Vella, Michael W. "Heresy and The Meritorious Price of Redemption (1650)." The Meritoious Price of
Redemption. By William Pynchon. A Facsimile Edition. Lang: New York, 1992. xix-xxx.
Wall, Robert Emmet, Jr. The Massachusetts Bay: The Crucial Decade, 1640-1650. New Haven: Yale
University Press. 1972.
Winthrop, John. History of New England. Ed. James Kendall Hosmer. 2 vol. New York: Scribner,1908.

[Reference]
-. The Life and Letters of John Winthrop. ed. Robert C. Winthrop. 1864. 2 vols. New York: Da Capo,
1971.
The Winthrop Papers 149&1649. Boston: The Massachusetts Historical Society, 19291947.