Thomas Fones citizen and apothecary of London 14 April 1629. Having already by acts executed in my life time disposed of the greater part of my personal estate to and among my children and to the use and benefit of my wife I do hereby commit the tuition, education, care and tutelage of my son Samuel Fones2 during his minority unto his uncle John Wynthrop of Groton in the County of Suffolk Esquire, John White3 of the Middle Temple London, Esquire, and James Thurlby4 citizen and grocer of London, and do earnestly desire these my loving friends to have a special care that he be brought up in learning and in the fear of God and knowledge of his ways; and do charge and require my son, upon my blessing, to subject himself unto 83them and to be ruled by them in all things. And the tuition and education of my daughters Elizabeth and Martha I do commit unto my said loving brother John Wynthropp until they shall be married or attain their full age of one and twenty years. The tuition of my youngest daughter Mary I commit to my loving wife her mother. My loving wife Priscilla Fones and my loving brother John Wynthropp to be executors, etc. Witnesses: John Smith, Ri. Fitch, Tho: Smith. Probate 29 April 1629.

1.

P. C. C., 28 Ridley; see Muskett, 83, for Thomas Fones, who died April 15, 1629. For an account of his debts and funeral expenses, see Vol. I. 143–44; see also infra, page 42, note 5 supra page 43, note 10 . There is a writ of diem clausit extremum concerning his estate in the Public Record Office, C 142/449/15.

2.

Died in 1693; will in Muskett, 85.

3.

John White (1590–1645), often called “Century White” from his work, The First Century of Scandalous Malignant Priests (1643). He was educated at Oxford and the Middle Temple and became a leader among the Puritans. It is probable that the charter of the Massachusetts Bay Company was procured under his advice; he may actually have drafted it. He attended early meetings of the company in London, but did not emigrate. The name of his first wife, “Katherin daughter of Barfoote of Essex,” suggests kinship with the Winthrops (see Vol. I. 289, 291–292). D. N. B. Visitation of London (H.S., Pub. , XVII), II. 346.

4.

James Thurlby's connection with the Fones family arose from the marriage of his brother Robert to Ursula, sister of Priscilla Fones and daughter of Dr. John Burgess the Puritan clergyman and physician. See Vol. I. 259, note 35 260, note 16 , and Visitation of London, II. 288.

Epitaph of Adam and Anne Winthrop1

UNKNOWN

1629

Coelum Patria Christus Via Hic jacet corpus Adami Winthrop Ar. filii Adami Winthrop Armigeri qui hujus Ecclesiae Patroni fuerunt et Domini Manerii de Groton Praedictus Adamus filius uxorem duxit Annam Filiam Henrici Browne de Edwarduston per Quam habuit unum filium et quatuor filias Hanc vitam transmigravit Anno Domini 1623 Aetatis suae 75 Anna vero uxor ejus obiit 1628 1629 Hic quoque consepulta est Beati sunt pacifici nam ii Dei filii Vocabuntur 1.

Inscription, with arms, on the Winthrop Tomb, Groton, now greatly worn away by the action of the elements; L. and L. , I. 4; Muskett, 22. Robert Charles Winthrop, writing of his visit to Groton in the summer of 1847, says, “The inscription was almost illegible; but enough could be deciphered to verify an ancient copy.”

There are good views of the Winthrop Tomb, from a little distance and close at hand, in Vol. I. facing 216 and 280. The worn original inscription is on the upper surface of the tomb. The modern inscription on the south side reads: “In the adjoining Chancel was buried Adam Winthrop, Esq. who died in 1562 aged 64; Master of the Clothworkers Company of London, First Lord of this Manor and Patron of this Church after the Reformation, And in this Tomb On which the original Inscription is nearly defaced Were buried his son Adam Winthrop, Esq. who died in 1623, aged 75, Also Lord of this Manor, and Anne his wife, Parents of Governor John Winthrop of New England. Near this spot were interred others of the same family.” Within the church, in the large window of stained glass at the east end of the chancel, we read: “Deut. xxx. 16 Acts xx. 17–38 In memory of JOHN WINTHROP Lord of the manor of Groton 1618 first Governor of Massachusetts and Founder of Boston in New England 1630 from his American descendants.” The south window of the chancel is a memorial to Winthrop's first and second wives. On the south side of the church, from east to west, the three windows commemorate the families Winthrop and Forth, Winthrop and Clopton, Winthrop and Tyndal. On the west or front, the north stained glass window has the inscription “Sears and Winthrop Anno 1786”; the south window, of nineteenth-century work, “Adam Winthrop 1562.”

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