Author's Introduction
Welcome to the Routledge website for John Winthrop. The materials in this collection are meant to supplement John Winthrop: Founding the City upon a Hill. Unlike the documents at the end of the biography, the spelling and grammar in the documents collected here have not been modernized; however, when needed for clarity, modernized spellings, definitions, and explanations are included within brackets. Footnotes have also been added when an explanation was needed that was longer than could be conveniently included within the text.
Much of Winthrop’s writing, which was never intended for publication in its original form, is far from polished. The spelling and grammar are irregular and inconsistent. Also, because he is writing in the early seventeenth century, his usage of vowels differs from modern conventions. The reader will often, but not consistently, need to make the following adjustments: i=j, u=v, v=u, y=i, and i=y. All of this might initially confuse or at least slow down the reader, but the advantage is that Winthrop’s authentic writings can actually be perused, revealing the rough, unedited man that a modernized version would otherwise obscure. The exception to this is Winthrop’s A Short Story of the Rise, reign, and ruine of the Antinomians, Familists & Libertines, an account of the trial of Anne Hutchinson. This was published in Winthrop’s lifetime and bears the marks of the editor’s craft.
The works of other writers contained here are of uneven literary quality. Some writings, such as those of John Smith and Nathaniel Ward, were intended for publication, and the versions that appear here are from later, edited editions. The reader should find their works readily accessible. Other writings, while easily understandabale, will be less decorous.
In addition to the documents, there are also maps, portraits, a photograph of the first page of Winthrop’s journal, and links to various other website material – including speeches by John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan – that students of Winthrop and early New England may find helpful.
All biblical references are to the Geneva Bible (1560), the Bible early puritans preferred and Winthrop used – as did Shakespeare, Milton, and Bunyan.
Michael Parker