The Winthrop Fleet: Massachusetts Bay Company Immigrants to New England 1629-1630

Like his book on the Pilgrim Migration: Immigrants to Plymouth Colony 1620-1633, recently reviewed here,  Robert Charles Anderson wrote another book telling the story of early New England, not through traditional histories, but through the genealogies of those early inhabitants. The Winthrop Fleet: Massachusetts Bay Company Immigrants to New England 1629-1630 provides more than 200 genealogical and biographical sketches of Winthrop Fleet immigrants. To understand what this means, here is brief background to the fleet and the Massachusetts Bay Company, as provided on the jacket of this book:

“In early 1629 the Massachusetts Bay Company received a royal charter that allowed the Massachusetts Bay Company to carry on the work, begun earlier in the decade by the Dorchester Company and then the New England Company, of developing permanent settlements in New England. During 1629 the Massachusetts Bay Company sent settlers to Massachusetts Bay, mostly young, single men, servants either of the Company itself or of particular merchants and gentlemen associated with the Company. Included among these 1629 immigrants were three ministers of Puritan leanings, reflecting the religious beliefs of the Company’s leaders.

By late 1629 John Winthrop of Groton, Suffolk, had been made Governor of the Company, and planning began in earnest for sending a larger group of settlers to New England. In the spring of 1630 Winthrop led more than a dozen vessels, with about seven hundred passengers, across the Atlantic. This small armada of 1630 has come to be known as the Winthrop Fleet. The somewhat broader settlement activities of 1629 and 1630, of which the Winthrop Fleet was the larger part, have been termed the Winthrop Migration.

This volume describes the organization of the Winthrop Migration and the Winthrop Fleet in some detail, and provides detailed genealogical and biographic information on each of the more than two hundred families and individuals who came to New England in 1629 and 1630 as part of this movement.”

Like the Plymoth book, this tome builds on previous Great Migration volumes. Early work has been revised and supplemented with new research. The life sketches for each person covered in this book follow a rigid guideline. There are three sections for each sketch. The first section answers questions on the movements of the individual or family; including, last know residence in England. The second area of coverage follows education, wealth, offices held and other biographical information. The final section covers genealogical data from birth through marriage, children, and death. Information covered in these sections may include any of the following:

Key information provided in these life sketches includes such information as:

• Origin – last know place of residence in Holland or England
• Migration Date and Ship
• First Residence
• Removes – where a colonist moved to if resided in more than one New England settlement
• Return Trips – any temporary or permanent move back to England, to the Caribbean, or other non-New England colony
• Occupation
• Church Membership
• Freeman – records of admission to freemanship as entered into court minutes
• Offices – any know civil or military service at town, county or colony level
• Education – attendance at any university in England, namely Cambridge or Oxford, and mostly found among ministers
• Estate – predominately from land and/or probate records
• Birth and Death
• Marriages and Children
• Associations – sketch information related to other subject by marriage or blood to other New England immigrants prior to 1643, and when the relationship existed prior to migration
• Comments – any information not fitting other categories, such as court records, activities of trade, listing of errors or discrepancies, evidence and arguments for specific genealogical conclusions, and/or suggestions for further reading
• Biographical Notes – for families with sufficient published information to require separate discussion. Especially true where 19th century genealogies are corrected by more recent published genealogies.

Careful study of resources from multiple records was involved in selecting the individuals included in this book. Attempts were made to ensure all possible accuracy. The following six sources were primarily used in creating the list of individuals and family covered:

• Lists of those requesting freemanship on 19 October 1630 and the list of those admitted to freemanship on 18 May 1631
• The Massachusetts Bay court records in New England from 23 August 1630 to 18 May 1631
• List of admissions to Boston church in late 1630 and early 1631
• The early Roxbury church records
• The Charlestown church records
• The Winthrop Papers

A copy of The Winthrop Fleet: Massachusetts Bay Company Immigrants to New England 1629-1630 is available through Family Roots Publishing; Price: $63.65.

Table of Contents

List of Sketches

Preface and Acknowledgements

Scope

• Criteria for Inclusion
• Goal

Methods

• Constructing a Sketch
• Chronological Analysis
• Documentation and Citation

Sources

• Passenger Lists
• Lists of Freemen
• Colony and Court Recods
• Notarial Records
• Town Records
• Vital Records
• Land Records
• Church Records
• Journals and Letters
• Miscellaneous

How to Use this Book

• Key to Sketch Headings

Key to Titles

Introduction: The Place of the Winthrop Fleet in the Great Migration

• I Structure of the Great Migration
• II Narrative of the Winthrop Migration
• III Structure of the Winthrop Migration
• IV Overview

Genealogical Sketches

Appendix

Indexes

• Index of Surnames
• Index of First Names
• Index of Places
• Index of Ships