Photograph as originally submitted to this page in the Historical Marker Database www.HMdb.org. Click on photo to resize in browser. Scroll down to see metadata.

Photographer: Allen C. Browne
Taken: August 9, 2015
Caption: John Winthrop
Additional Description: This undated portrait of John Winthrop by an unknown artist hangs in the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC.

“His contemporaries thought he was the most powerful individual in Massachusetts, and historians agree on John Winthrop's profound importance in early New England. He was the founder and first governor (reelected eleven times) of a colony established by reformed Protestants, or Puritans, so that they could practice their religion free from the interference of the English church. This did not make Winthrop and the Puritans believers in religious freedom, a concept most regarded as incompatible with political and social stability. In his use of the biblical phrase a ‘City upon a Hill,‘ Winthrop did not proclaim the colony a model, but warned that failure would allow others ‘to speak evil’ of God. He was not a modern ‘democrat,” but transformed the colony from a mercantile corporation to a common wealth, and believed that leaders ultimately owed their position to the voters.” — National Portrait Gallery
Submitted: August 29, 2015, by Allen C. Browne of Silver Spring, Maryland.
Database Locator Identification Number: p325584
File Size: 1.293 Megabytes

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