Adam WINTHROP Esq [26304]

  General Notes:

Lord of the Manor, Adam Winthrop, III. Esq
Birthdate: August 10, 1548 (74)
Birthplace: Groton Manor, Suffolk
Death: March 28, 1623 (74) Groton Manor, Suffolk, England
Place of Burial:St Bartholomew Churchyard, Groton, Suffolk,
England Immediate Family: Son of Adam Winthrop, of London, later of Groton Manor ; Adam Winthrop and Agnes or Anne or Alice Mildmay Husband of Alice Winthrop and Anne Winthrop Father of infant Still Winthrop ; Sarah Winthrop ; infant Anne Winthrop ; Anne Fones, (Younger) ; Gov. John Winthrop, Massachusetts Bay Colony and 3 others Brother of Agnes Warriner ; Alice Mildway ; Bridget Alabaster ; Mary Celie ; John Winthrop, of Groton Manor, later of Aghadowne and 3 others Half brother of Thomas Winthrop ; William Winthrop ; Christopher Winthrop ; Bridget Winthrop and Thomas Winthrop Occupation: Attorney, Master of Clothworkers/ Lawyer, Farmer.
Ref: Mark Harold Melmed Last Updated: May 25, 2017

Adam Winthrop's Library
Adam Winthrop (1548-1623) was the father of John Winthrop (1588-1649), the first governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. He was the youngest son of Adam Winthrop (1498-1562), Master of the Clothworkers. Born in London in 1548, he probably spent some of his youth at Groton, in Suffolk, his father having purchased the former monastic manor in 1544 and taken up residence there in around 1552 . The elder Adam Winthrop died in 1562 and his widow, young Adam's mother, married William Mildmay. Young Adam inherited little land from his father. At the time he was enrolled in a private grammar school run by John Dawes in Ipswich. In 1567 he matriculated fellow commoner at Magdalene, Cambridge where he stayed for a few years, making friendships with John Still, John Knewstub, and Henry Sandes among others.

In 1574 Adam married Alice Still and around then presumably began legal studies at the Inns of Court. In 1575 the fellows of St John's College, where John Still was Master, appointed Adam steward of the college's Kentish manors. In 1577 his wife Alice died and two years later he married Anne Browne, son of Henry Browne, former clergyman of Groton. In 1584 Adam was called to the outer bar of the Inner Temple following a recommendation to the benchers from Robert Dudley, the earl of Leicester. He was one of the signatories of a declaration of loyalty to the Queen signed by the barristers of the Inner Temple in 1585. He was already active in the Groton area as a minor landowner and estate manager for his brother John, who had inherited Groton Manor. He also performed legal services for local landowners, including presiding over manor courts. Adam was one of the supporters of a lectureship at Boxford held by his friend Henry Sandes and was in contact with other members of the Dedham classis and also with John Knewstub, now at Cockfield and leader of a Suffolk classis. In 1592 he was appointed auditor of Trinity college and began annual journeys to Cambridge to check the college accounts. This appointment was undoubtedly due to the influence of John Still, who was Master of Trinity. Still was also archdeacon of Sudbury, presiding over the ecclesiastical jurisdiction that included Groton and Boxford.

Following his brother John's migration to the Munster Plantation in 1595, Adam assumed a larger role in local affairs. He would hold local offices such as overseer of the poor, coroner, and searcher for cloth, and served on commissions. Over time he had contacts with many of the leading families of the Stour Valley region and his son, John (born in 1588) would marry into the Clopton, Forth, and Tyndal families. Adam was also in contact with his nephew, William Alabaster, during the period of that individual's flirtations with the Church of Rome. Adam's own religious views were those of a reformer, in sympathy with the views of local clergymen like Knewstub, Sandes, and Richard Rogers. In this he followed the lead of his older brother William (1529 - 1582 ), a Londoner who was a friend of John Foxe, a churchwarden of St Michael's Cornhill, and who had extensive involvements with the stranger churches in London. Adam acquired numerous volumes of theology and practical divinity and shared them with clerical kin and friends. He continued to correspond with John Still after the latter became Bishop of Bath and Wells. Indeed, Adam briefly held an appointment as receiver for that diocese but does not appear to have taken up the responsibilities of the post. In 1610 his brother John sold Groton Manor to Adam's son John with Adam handling much of the detail and subsequently assisting his son in management of the estate. In 1616 both Adam and his son John were included on a patent roll listing of the Suffolk Commission of the Peace. This is the only such listing that includes Adam Winthrop. He died at Groton on 28 March 1623.

The Library of Adam Winthrop has been reconstructed from references to books that he made in his diary and from an examination of collections that passed down in the family. Of these collections the largest are those in the possession of the Massachusetts Historical Society, the New York Society, and Allegheny College. Examination of the actual volumes has made it possible to identify by signature, annotation and other means books that belonged to Adam Winthrop. The books and the annotation provide an insight into the reading and ideas of a gentleman and country barrister who was a supporter of Puritan reform in the Elizabethan and Jacobean periods and well connected with lay and clerical leaders of the movement in East Anglia. This compilation does not include the various almanacs that Adam Winthrop owned and annotated, many of which are in the Winthrop Papers at the Massachusetts Historical Society.
From: http://muweb.millersville.edu/~winthrop/awl.html

  Research Notes:

From Deats, Underhill Genealogy...
Adam and Anne's tomb can still be seen outside Groton Church. He became Lord of the Manor of Groton, and his extensive diaries and letters (see "The Winthrop Papers") not only provide us with a vivid picture of his life there, but also show that he ws a man of learning, as conversant in Latin as in English. He had read law at the Inner Temple, and was made barrister 1583/84. Besides legal services to his local community, Adam was for 16 years an advisor on legal and financial matters to Trinity and St. Johns Colleges, Cambridge University. Adam's only son, John, became Governor of the Massachussetts Bay Colony, and founder of the Winthrop Family of New England; his son, John, Jr., was for many years the Governor of Connecticut. Among Adam's daughters, mention should be made of Lucy, who married Emanuel Downing. Their son, later Sir George Downing, was British ambassador to the Netherlands under both Cromwell and Charles II, and gave his name to Downing Street, London. Of Adam's children to reach adulthood, the eldest was his daughter, Anne. Coats of Arms: The Feakes bore sable, a fess dancette or, in chief three fleur-de-lys argent. The Fones family bore azure, two eagles displayed in chief and a mullet in base argent. The Winthrops bore argent, three chevrons gules, over all a lion rampant sable, armed and langued azure. From F.E.Weekes...... Adam Winthrop, 3rd, the father of our Massachussetts Governor, and of Anne who married Thomas Fones, and the third son of Adam Winthrop and Agnes Sharpe, was born in London.....on Friday 10 August 1548. Of his early life and fortunes we have but few details. His father died when he was but fourteen years of age, and his mother lived only three years afterwards.......Of course he had but a brief enjoyment of parental care and culture. The family traditions, as perpetuated by Cotton Mather, represent him to have been a lawyer; and he has sometimes been recorded as a sergeant-at-law......He seems to have resided almost altogether at Groton, and to have occupied himself mainly with agricultural pursuits. (At some time, uncertain, he became the lord of the manor of Groton.) There are abundant proofs that this Adam Winthrop was a man of good education andof high social standing. [ ? ] furnishes evidence that he was not without some humble pretensions as a poet, his verses having been thought worthy of preservation in a miscellany of the poetry of the time. There are in existence many of theold "Winthrop Almanacs" containing memoranda. Adam kept a diary from 1594 until 1610. Some of the entries are of interest. He was auditor of Trinity College, Cambridge, for sixteen or seventeen years. He held other offices, as shown by the diary........."1608. the xvth of April I kept a Court for my brother Snelling at Shimplinge." ......."1602. On Wednesdaye the xxiiii of Marche Queen Elizabeth died & James the vith Kinge of Scotland was proclaymed the next day at London & on Saturday at Sudbury with the great rejoicings of all men." (One entry is of interest here as it concerns the Fones connection.) "1608. The i of November my Daught'r Fones' daught'r was christened. Sir Robert Crane and his Lady were present & she was the witnesse with Mres. Sampson & Mres. Bronde & myselfe. She named the childe Dorothey." On the 16th of December 1574, this Adam Winthrop married Alice Still, daughter of William Still......She and her first-born child died 24th of December 1577. On the 20th of February 1579 Adam Winthrop married, for his second wife, Anne, the daughter of Henry Browne, of Edwardston, clothier. We know little of Henry Browne. Two years after the birth of the second of these daughters, and under date of 1587, the following record is found in the very words of the happy father: "John, the only sonne of Adam Winthrop and Anne his wife, was borne in Edwardston above said on Thursday about 5 of the clocke in the morning the 12 daie of January anno 1587 in the 30 yere of the reigne of Qu: Elizabeth.: (Edwardston ws a little country village adjoining Groton, and the mother may have gone there to visit her parents, or Adam may have had a country residence there.)
Ref http://longislandsurnames.com/getperson.php?personID=I1078&tree=Dodge

Adam married Anne BROWNE [26305] [MRIN: 9449], daughter of Henry BROWNE of Edwardstone SFK [26310] and Unknown, about 1579. (Anne BROWNE [26305] was born in 1558 in Edwardstone SFK and died on 19 Apr 1629 in Groton SFK.)

Adam next married Alice STILL [26306] [MRIN: 9450] in 1574. (Alice STILL [26306] died in 1577.)