Program Information

During the 1630s, English Puritans by the thousands left their homeland to build a new home in Massachusetts. Many were inspired by their leader, John Winthrop.

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Transcript

Lead: During the 1630s, English Puritans by the thousands left their homeland to build a new home in Massachusetts. Many were inspired by their leader, John Winthrop.

Intro.: A Moment in Time with Dan Roberts.

Content: Though the name puritan originated as a disparaging nickname in the complaints of those who opposed them, the faction that came to be known as Puritans were loyal members of the Church of England who believed that the Reformation did not go far enough and wished to "purify" that communion of any remaining Catholic tendencies in theology, liturgy, and church government. Unlike the Pilgrims, who were separatists, the Puritans did not wish to break away from the national church but agitated for change from within.

John Winthrop was born to parents of Puritan sentiments in Suffolk, England, in 1588. He attended Cambridge and practiced law in London. As a young man Winthrop, as did many Puritans, grew disenchanted with the hope of reforming the Church. His ideas clashed with the political and social establishment in England and he began to make plans to emigrate to North America. In 1629 Winthrop a group of like-minded men founded the Massachusetts Bay Company and were granted a royal charter to colonize in New England. Winthrop was named governor of the new colony in 1630, led 700 settlers to Salem and, later in the year, helped establish Boston – a town that would grow rapidly during the Puritan Migration.

The survival and success of Massachusetts can be attributed to Winthrop’s organizational skills, excellent leadership, and his wise enforcement of English law. He served as governor twelve times between 1631-1648 and served on the Colony Council during intervening years. As a matter of policy, Winthrop and the colony’s leaders supported, in true Calvinist fashion, ensuring that the state apparatus was placed at the service of the church in controlling the personal lives of those who settled in the colony, but it would not be long before dissidents challenged the system and the purity of the city set on a hill. Next Time: Dealing with Dissent.

At the University of Richmond, this is Dan Roberts.

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