Fitz-John Winthrop
Fitz- John Winthrop ( born March 14, 1637/1638 in Ipswich, Massachusetts, † November 27, 1707 in Boston, Massachusetts ) was the Governor of the Colony of Connecticut 1698-1707.
Career
Fitz- John Winthrop, son of John Winthrop III. and his second wife Elizabeth ( Reade ) Winthrop, was born on March 14, 1637 or 1638 in Ipswich, Massachusetts. However, Boston is listed as his birthplace, as Ipswich (then Agawam ) was founded just in 1633 in Massachusetts.
Fitz- John Winthrop had several sisters and a brother named Waitstill Winthrop. His grandfather, John Winthrop, Sr., was governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Fitz- John's father, John Winthrop, Jr., was a talented and well known physicist, the General Assembly was in Connecticut operate, and the Office of the Governor of the Colony of Connecticut for eighteen years held namely 1657 and 1659-1676. John Winthrop, Jr. was a successful businessman, so his promotion and advice were in high demand. However, he was due to his work often away from home, sometimes for extended periods. The frequent changes in their professional career and projects have meant that his family had to move several times in Fitz- John's youth, from Ipswich to Boston and from there to London. In the fall of 1646, as Fitz- John was eight years old, his family settled in Winthrop's Neck on the Thames River in New London area.
Due to the parades and the absence of the father, the education of boys has been somewhat neglected. The House at Winthrop's Neck was at the center of several farms, which all belonged to her father. The focus of Fitz- John was not in the study, but on the farms, he spent a lot of time outdoors, a preference that remained him get his whole rest of his life. It was in 1653 when he was only sixteen years old, sent with his brother, Wait Still, for one and a half years in the Fitch 's School for Boys in Hartford. It should also be mentioned that he was an average student. Then the boys were sent to Cambridge, Massachusetts, where Waitstill attended a private school for boys and Fitz- John passed his exams for admission to Harvard University. Fitz- John, they did not exist, since prevented him from his lack of education. A cousin, who was a Scholar, was hired for a year as a tutor, but this fell ill and died.
Fitz- John remained some time in Boston with relatives. He showed no particular interest in more Harvard to visit as he anyway just there mainly applied in order to please his father. Preferred activities and spending time outdoors were the reason, as the Loyalists in 1658 in England soldiers needed to help the King reclaim his throne of Cromwell again, the Fitz- John looked at this as an opportunity. Because of family relationships, he was appointed Lieutenant in Richard Cromwell's army, where he rose eventually to the rank of captain. The army withdrew from southern Scotland from down to London and helped King Charles II in 1660 on his throne. Fitz- John's unit was disbanded, but he remained in England to visit other relatives.
Fitz- John was still in England when his father came to London in 1661 to receive the charter certificate for Connecticut, which had the merger of the New Haven Colony with the Colony of Connecticut result. In April 1663 both returned to New London, where Fitz- John decided to participate in the colonial policy. He first worked as a judge and in October 1664 as one of Connecticut's border commissioners, which should solve the disputes over land claims along the New York - Connecticut border. Was a result of their work that Long Iceland, formerly a part of Connecticut, New York was awarded.
Fitz- John continued his work as part of Connecticut's government and was elected in 1671 as one of New London's coordinators to the General Court of the Colony of Connecticut. He was quite good in his work in the legislature, but preferred military campaigns against the creation of laws. In 1672 he became the head of the New London County Militia. In the following year, 1673, he was promoted to Sergeant - Major of Long - Iceland and helped distribute with the Dutch of the field.
Scholars said that of John Winthrop, Jr. sons, Waitstill came closest to him. Fitz- John had many qualities of his father, however, was a fresh air fanatic, a soldier, and especially his own master. He lived at a time where even church and state were not separated, and where accurate monitoring of public and private life prevailed. Still, he could disregard the moral conventions, what different penalties by church or state authorities brought usually associated as the son of a wealthy and influential family. This is also perhaps the reason why he was not punished ex officio, as he went down in 1677 with Elizabeth Tongue marriage. She was the daughter of wealthy New London innkeepers, George and Margery Tongue, and fifteen years younger than he. The couple had a daughter named Mary. Elizabeth, the deeds and letters signed as Elizabeth Tonque later from 1698, died on 25 April 1731.
Although people usually looked at Fitz- John as someone with a cheerful personality and much gesundenen sense, he was slightly debauched and could especially hold a grudge against those who were against him. The last attitude gave him less trouble in his many business ventures. He also had health problems that plagued him all his life an unknown illness for which he took an all-purpose remedy, which created his father, who was a physician.
King Charles II of England, who had returned to his throne, New England wanted to centralize under a single governor and eliminate the various governors of the different colonies. About 1686 he had created the Dominion of New England with a single governor, who at that time was Sir Edmund Andros, and had his office in Boston. Andros ruled with a council of 27 members from the various colonies. The only council member from Connecticut was Fitz- John Winthrop, a great supporter of the royal plan and a friend of Andros.
The Dominion of New England government was not very popular. As this was in 1689 but fell again, Fitz- John was in New Londond and apparently had his participation in this will not affect his future popularity. He was in fact elected in 1690 as an assistant in the next General Court. His personal character was once again in this office, as he did not attend any more meetings, which were held in Hartford. At the next election he was not re-elected once. Nevertheless, he led in the Colony of Connecticut on his service and commanded his troops in an invasion of Canada. The campaign consisted of men from New York, Connecticut and Massachusetts, and he had to finish the end, the French support for the Indian raids on these colonies. Fitz- John marched north along the Hudson River, but as the troops were given limited food and means of transport, he was forced to retreat. Governor Leisler of New York, who was jealous of Winthrop, took the retreat as a pretext for treason (English treason ) to accuse him. Leisler imprisoned Fitz -John and put him in a military court (English court- martial ) in Albany, but a large group of fellow Mohawks freed him. Then came Fitz- John returned to Connecticut, where he could cleanse his name again and received the thanks of the General Assembly. In the following spring came a new royal governor of New York, the accused Leisler for treason, convicted and put to death.
During the campaign to Canada from 1690 another political crisis was brewing. The colonization of Connecticut had begun without a charter document of the crown. New York and Massachusetts, both chartered from the beginning, often tried to invade the territory. Through the charter document of 1662, which was, bersorgt by Fitz- John's father, John Winthrop Junior, briefly sprouted on hope that Connecticut would be protected against the encroachments of the part of Massachusetts or New York, but the two colonies gave up their claims with respect to Connecticut's land not. With the argument that the creation of a central government of the Dominion of New England Connecticut Charter had made invalid, Massachusetts and New York attempted to annex the Connecticut territory.
Massachusetts and New York officials had friends at court and in August 1692 reached the new governor of New York, Benjamin Fletcher, that the power he was given to command the military forces of New York and Connecticut. Robert Treat was then Governor of the Colony of Connecticut and strictly refused the surrender his command of Connecticut's troops. Treat and the Connecticut General Assembly turned to Fitz- John Winthrop for his diplomatic skills, as well as relations on the farm. He should go to England and to have to explain the validity of Connecticut's charter of 1662 of King William and Queen Mary to be legal. Winthrop left in late 1693 Connecticut to England and only wore his case before early 1694. A report was prepared by the royal authorized representative and the second Attorney-General, and ratified by the King and Queen, confirmed the validity of the charter of 1662 of the Colony of Connecticut. Connecticut was allowed to continue to govern themselves.
Fitz- John remained in England for three more years. When he returned to Connecticut, him five hundred pounds have been awarded by a recognized union General Assembly. He was in 1698 elected governor of the Colony of Connecticut, and re-elected until his death in 1707 year.
If his civil marriage and health problems affected his ability to govern a little, brought about Fitz- John ultimately a lot as governor. The charter of 1662 was threatened during his ten years in office three times, but each time were able to Winthrop and the assembly to successfully defend them. Winthrop set off a series of efforts from Connecticut's political and judicial structures to reorganize. The Assembly extended in 1698 the term of office of the governor between two legislative periods in 1699 and divided into two chambers. The twelve assistants of the General Court, a chamber, the House of Lords (English Upper House ) and the elected deputies of the towns another chamber, the House of Commons (English Lower House). Opponents criticized initially this change, as no one was sure which House over which key points had the official authority. Then corrections were made so that these houses Connecticut's first step towards a modern legislature with a Senate and House of Representatives were.
Winthrop put 1702 down as governor when accused by neighboring governors, not enough to provide soldiers for a war against France. Connecticut voters rejected his resignation and he stayed. During a trip to Boston to see his brother remarried Waitstill and the marriage of his son to attend, Fitz- John became ill. He died on November 27, 1707 and was buried near his father and grandfather to the King's Chapel Burying Ground in Boston, Massachusetts.