Martha Johanna WINTHROP

Other Events and Attributes:

• Death: 1653, Greenwich, Fairfield Co., Connecticut

Martha married Thomas LYON about 1647. Thomas (son of ? LYON and ? UNKNOWN) was born in Dec 1621 in Perth, Perth and Kinross,Scotland; died on 08 Nov 1690 in Rye, Westchester Co., New York; was buried in Lyon-Rawson Cemetery, Greenwich, Connecticut. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

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Henry Winthrop did not accompany his father to America in 1629 but followed him on the "Talbott", arriving at Salem on July 2, 1630. On the same day, seeing a small boat across a bay he attempted to swim over to it but , being seized by cramps, was drowned in full sight of his friends, none of whom was able to swim. The young widow was still in England, having given birth on May 9, 1630 to a daughter who was christened with a double name, Martha Johanna, unusual for this period...

Henry married Elizabeth Winthrop FONES on 25 Apr 1629. Elizabeth (daughter of Thomas FONES and Anne WINTHROP) was born on 21 Jan 1609/10 in Groton, co Suffolk, England; died on 1 Feb 1673 in Astoria, Queens County, New York; was buried in Hallett's Burying Ground,Astoria, Queens Co., New York. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

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Elizabeth Fones married (1) her cousin Henry Winthrop (son of Governor JOHN WINTHROP, whose sister Anne was Elizabeth's mother), 25 April 1629, who then left her to accompany his father to Massachusetts Bay, and immediately died swimming ashore there. She joined the Winthrop family in Massachusetts Bay as a very young widow with an infant.
She married 2nd Robert Feake between 2 November 1631 and 27 January 1631/2 in Boston, MA. They had five children: Elizabeth Underhill, Hannah Bowne, John, Robert, & Sarah.
George E. McCracken went into great detail on Robert Feake, and particularly on the matter of his "divorce," arguing that the couple had in fact received only a legal separation, and that Elizabeth (Fones) (Winthrop) Feake was not free to remarry. In 1966 Donald Lines Jacobus reviewed the same problem, and came to the conclusion that Robert Feake and his wife did obtain a divorce from the Dutch government, that she had married William Hallett by August 1649, and that the marriage was performed by John Winthrop Jr., her former brother-in-law.
Source: Anderson's Winthrop Fleet.

Elizabeth is buried with her 3rd husband William Hallett at Hallett's Cover in the Hallet Burying Ground on Long Island. They had two sons, William & Samuel.

Her biography by Missy Wolfe: Insubordinate Spirit: A True Story of Life and Loss in Earliest Americs, 1610-1665 (Guilford CT: gpp, 2012). See also a video "That Winthrop Woman," published by



Governor John Winthrop, after loosing his son, Henry, was faced with the prospect of having ultimately to support his widowed daughter-in-law and her child, the thrifty governor naturally looked about for suitable candidate to be her second husband, and when his eye lighted upon a young man of pious character, goodly estate, and great promise, the future Governor William Codington, he attempted to interest him in the widow. Shortly afterwards William Coddington went to England and visited the widow but he married, instead, another. Thus Elizabeth was still a widow when on Nov. 2, 131, she arrived in the Bay with her daughter as passengers on the ship "Lyon". In less than three months, however, she had found her second husband, Robert Feake, and had married him.

Elizabeth chose to come to New England and she soon remarried. Her second husband, Robert, Feake, was described as 'a man whose God-fearing heart was so absorbed with spiritual and heavenly things that he had little thought of the things of this life, and took neither heed nor care of what was tendered to his external property' and so allowed his wife to dominate him. In 1642 ' in the absence and illness of her husband' she signed the act of submission to the Dutch required in the settlement of Greenwich, Connecticut. When her husband's health declined o the point where he could not manage his own affairs, an agreement was apparently made with William Hallett to care for him. Robert's behavior was reported by his step-son-in-law Thomas Lyon, who had married Elizabeth's daughter, Martha Johanna Winthrop, as distracted and 'going away sodingly.' In 1647 Robert abruptly returned to England and although he later came back it was considered a desertion, and in April 1648 Lyon wrote to his grandfather-in-law, Gov. Winthrop of Massachusetts, that his mother-in-law was carrying on with a man (William Hallett) she claimed she had married and by whom she was pregnant. The existence and legality of the marriage was questioned, but records show that she had obtained a divorce according to Dutch law by May 1647. By July 1648 Elizabeth, William Hallett, her child by him and children by earlier husbands sought refuge in Pequot (New London) with John Winthrop the Younger, who was both her first cousin and her brother-in-law. When the Connecticut Court issued a warrant they removed to New Amsterdam, but before they left it is thought likely that John Winthrop a magistrate legally married Elizabeth and William.

Other Events and Attributes:

• Birth: 12 Jan 1587/8

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Massachusetts Bay Colony Governor. He was instrumental in leading the first large wave of colonists from England to the Massachusetts Bay Colony, the first major settlement in New England after the Plymouth Colony. He was born at Edwardstone, Suffolk, England, to a wealthy landowning and merchant family. In December 1602, he was admitted to Trinity College but soon left and married his first wife, Mary Forth, in April 1605. During this time, he became deeply religious in the Puritan faith. In 1613, he received the family holdings in Groton, and became Lord of the Manor there. He soon followed his father's path as a lawyer in London, having been enrolled at Gray's Inn to study law. In 1624, Charles I ascended the English throne and was opposed to all religious groups who did not ascribe to the doctrine of the Church of England. In March 1629, Charles I dissolved the English Parliament and his continued religious intolerance and crackdown on the Puritans resulted in a decision for the some of the leaders of the Massachusetts Bay Company (who were mostly Puritans) to emigrate to New England. Winthrop was chosen as governor and on April 8, 1630, he sailed from the Isle of Wight with four ships that were part of a larger fleet of 11 ships, carrying 700 people to New England, arriving at Salem in June. They chose to settle at the present-day city of Boston, near the Charles River. In the early months the colony struggled with disease, losing about 200 people, including his son, Henry. He served as governor of the colony for 12 of its first 20 years of existence, being elected on four different occasions. He was generally civil and diplomatic towards the Native American population. However, cultural differences and trade issues, along with land ownership rights of the colonists that conflicted with the hunter-gatherer rights of the natives eventually evolved into a war with the Pequot tribe in 1637, which ended with the destruction of the tribe, whose survivors were sold as slaves to the West Indies or became enslaved by the colonists themselves. During his life, he continuously wrote accounts of historical events and religious manifestations. His major contributions to the literary world were "A Modell of Christian Charity" (1630) and "The History of New England" (1630-1649; also known as "The History of John Winthrop"), which remained unpublished until the late 18th century. He was married four times and had 16 children, his first three wives preceding him in death. He died of natural causes. (bio by: William Bjornstad)

John married Mary FORTH on 16 Apr 1605 in Edwardstone, Suffolk, England. Mary was born on 1 Jan 1590 in Great Stambridge, Essex, England; died on 26 Jun 1615 in Groton, Suffolk, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

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Thomas Fones was at an early age apprenticed to a grocer in London. He was freed from the apprenticeship in 1602. However, he did not pursue the grocery trade becoming and apothecary.

Thomas married Anne WINTHROP on 25 Jan 1604 in St. Peters Church, London England. Anne (daughter of Adam WINTHROP and Anne BROWNE) was born on 16 Jan 1585 in Edwardstone, Suffolk, England; died on 16 May 1618 in Groton, Suffolk, Enlgnad; was buried in Unknown. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]