John Winthrop First Governor of the Masschusetts Colony

THE COMING MAN. 15
the initials, refer to the supplying of that deficiency ;
but the matter was solved by its coming to light in
another letter that the "A. B." stood for a certain
Aunt Branch, otherwise unknown to history.
The young woman (she was four years his senior)
who thus changed John Winthrop's plan, — and
here again whatever folly under influence of youthful
passion he may have been chargeable with in the
case is rather gratifying to us than the — reverse, was
Mary Forth, daughter of an ancient and distinguished
family in Essex, who brought him " a large portion
of outward estate." Of the six children she bore
him, four grew up, — John, Henry, Forth, and Mary
who became the wife of Thomas Dudley's son in
Massachusetts.
The record of Winthrop's outward life for a number
of years succeeding his marriage is very scanty.
He
pursued the practice of the law; was made (says
Cotton Mather) justice of the peace at the age of
eighteen. Part of the time he resided at Great
Stambridge, Essex, the home of his wife, though he
" kept his first court " in Groton in October, 1609,—
which seems to imply that he became lord of the
manor on attaining his majority.
But of his inward life we have a full account. It is
minutely described in a remarkable journal
of his
soul, called by him " Experiencia," which he began
in 1606 and continued till 1628; is rehearsed also
in another spiritual autobiography called u Christian
Experience," written in later years in New England.
Though in the case of all such self-revelations of the