   john winthrop (12 january 1587/8 â 26 march 1649) was a wealthy english puritan lawyer and one of the leading figures in the founding of the massachusetts bay colony, the first major settlement in new england after plymouth colony. winthrop led the first large wave of migrants from england in 1630, and served as governor for 12 of the colony's first 20 years of existence. his writings and vision of the colony as a puritan "city upon a hill" dominated new england colonial development, influencing the governments and religions of neighboring colonies. born into a wealthy landowning and merchant family, winthrop was trained in the law, and became lord of the manor at groton in suffolk. although he was not involved in the founding of the massachusetts bay company in 1628, he became involved in 1629 when the anti-puritan king charles i began a crackdown on nonconformist religious thought. in october 1629 he was elected governor of the massachusetts bay colony, and in april 1630 he led a group of colonists to the new world, founding a number of communities on the shores of massachusetts bay and the charles river. between 1629 and his death in 1649, he served 12 annual terms as governor, and was a force of comparative moderation in the religiously conservative colony, clashing with the more conservative thomas dudley and the more liberal roger williams and henry vane. although winthrop was a respected political figure, his attitude toward governance was somewhat authoritarian: he resisted attempts to widen voting and other civil rights beyond a narrow class of religiously approved individuals, opposed attempts to codify a body of laws that the colonial magistrates would be bound by, and 
1587_births 1649_deaths American_political_philosophy Colonial_governors_of_Massachusetts DudleyaWinthrop_family Lieutenant_Governors_of_colonial_Massachusetts New_England_Puritanism People_from_Suffolk People_from_colonial_Boston,_Massachusetts Pequot_War Puritans