John Winthrop Journal 1630-Jan 1636; Analysis of Roger Williams
- Part 1: 1630-Jan 1636 — with quotes and page clips from a copy of his journal published in 1790.
- Part 2: 1636-1644 — with quotes and page clips from a copy of his journal published in 1790.
- Part 3: 1645-1649 — with quotes from a copy of his journal published in 1908.
RESEARCH PAPER: John Winthrop, the first governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, served as governor for 12 of its first 20 years. Better still for historians, he kept a journal covering nearly the last nineteen years of his life, from March 29, 1630, to January 11, 1649. He died in Boston on March 26, 1649, just over two months after his final entry. This article explores Roger Williams through the eyes of that journal. Dozens of letters between Winthrop and Williams have also survived, but this study is narrower in scope. It focuses on what Winthrop chose to record about Williams in his own running account of events. That perspective matters. Winthrop was not a neutral observer, and his journal gives us more than facts alone. It gives us Roger Williams as seen by one of the central architects of Puritan New England. Used by historians since its first publication in 1790, and later expanded in subsequent editions, the journal remains one of the most important windows into early colonial New England.