WINTHROP, Fitz-John [1638-1707] -- Colonial governor

Winthrop, Fitz John--son of Gov. Winthrop, of Connecticut. He early became an important man in the colony, and was a magistrate when young. He depended not so much upon the exalted reputation of his honored father as upon his own exertions, for preferment and honors. His doctrine was the same as that of the Wolcotts--that all men were self-made who became eminent--that the son of a great man was no better than the son of a pauper, except that his advantages were preferable for accomplishing the object. Fitz. John appears early to have imbibed a military spirit, and possessed every qualification for an important military officer; he was educated in the art of war--was bold, brave and daring to a fault, and received the commission of Captain when young. The first important appointment which brought him particularly before the public, was an appointment by the General Assembly of Connecticut in 1664, with his honored father, Matthew Allyn, sen'r., Gold, Richards, Howell and Young, some of the most important men in the colony, to meet His Majesty's Commissioners in New York, and hear the differences and settle the boundaries of the Patent of the Duke of York and the colony of Connecticut, by which decision Long Island was awarded to the Duke of York, &c., and the boundaries of Connecticut settled. We next find Mr. Winthrop, in 1683, appointed by the King of England, and associated with Cranfield, the Commader-in-Chief of New Hampshire, with Dudley, Stoughton, Randolph, Shrimpton, Palmes, Pyncheon, jr., and Saltonstall, as a committee to quiet all disputes regarding the Narragansett country, as Commissioners of Charles II. In 1693 the colony of Connecticut found it necessary to address King William and Queen Mary with reference to the militia of the colony, and to send an Ambassador to England for this special purpose. Maj. Gen. Fitz John Winthrop was at once selected and appointed for the important mission. While in England, in 1697, he laid before the Council of Trade a memorial giving an answer to the Duchess of Hamilton's petition to the King regarding her claims to Narragansett, so far as the people of Connecticut were concerned, though this matter was not included in his instructions. He managed the affair with great adroitness and good judgment. Gen. Winthrop was appointed Major General in 1690 over the army designed against Canada. In 1698, such was his popularity that he was elected Governor of Connecticut, and continued to be re-elected until his death, in 1707. He was the last of the eminent men of the name in Connecticut, though Massachusetts yet has her Winthrops. [Connecticut Puritan Settlers, 1633-1845]