Adam Winthrop (1498 - 1562)

Born 9 Oct 1498 in Lavenham, Suffolk, England

Ancestors

Husband of Agnes (Sharpe) Winthrop — married 20 Jul 1534 in Lavenham,Suffolk,England

Descendants

Died 9 Nov 1562 at age 64 in Groton Manor, Suffolk, England

Biography

Adam Winthrop was born in Suffolk, England.

Adam Wynthropp was born on 9 Oct 1498^[1] in Lavenham, Suffolk, England. He is the son of Adam Winthrop and Joane Burton.

Adam was apprenticed to a clothier in London about 1515. He prospered as a wool merchant in Lavenham which was a thriving centre of the English wool trade. He became a wealthy Suffolk clothier but he did not confine his talents to Lavenham. He was elected Master of the Clothworkers' Guild of the City of London.

The Worshipful Company of Clothworkers is one of the Great Twelve City Livery Companies – companies wielding great economic and political power. In 1515, the Court of Aldermen of the City of London settled an order of precedence for the forty-eight livery companies then in existence. The Worshipful Company of Clothworkers was incorporated by Royal Charter on 18 January 1528 and ranks as number twelve.

The medieval livery companies originally developed as guilds and were responsible for the regulation of their trades, controlling, for instance, wages and labour conditions. Until the Reformation they were closely associated with religious activities, notably in support of chantry chapels and churches and the observance of ceremonies, notably the mystery plays .

The original craft of the Clothworkers was the finishing of woven woollen cloth: fulling it to mat the fibres and remove the grease, drying it on tenter frames (from which derives the expression ‘to be on tenterhooks’), raising the nap with teasels (Dipsacus) and shearing it to a uniform finish. The Ordinances of The Clothworkers’ Company, first issued in 1532 and signed by Sir Thomas More, sought to regulate clothworking, to maintain standards and to protect approved practices.

Livery Companies are governed by a Master, a number of Wardens, and a Court of Assistants, which elects the Master and Wardens. The chief operating officer of the company is known as the Clerk.

Prosperous wool merchants of Adam’s generation were responsible for most of Lavenham's memorable buildings, including the 16th century Guildhall, a notable half-timbered building, and the church of St. Peter and St. Paul, perhaps the finest "wool church" in the land and completed in 1525.

Adam married Alice Henny on 16 Novmber 1527. Their son Thomas was born 8 November 1528, but he died in April 1529.^[2]

Adam married Agnes Sharpe on 20 Jul 1534. He was 36 and she was 18 at the time of their marriage. They seem to have had two children, John and Adam.

"Adam Winthrop received a large grant of monastic lands including the manor of Groton, as a result of Henry VIII's split from Rome."^[3]

By 1537, he was Steward of the Clothworkers' Company. He was later fined and imprisoned for either illegally importing wool or religious reform.

Adam joined the gentry in 1544.^[4] This was easily accomplished by means of a Coat of Arms awarded by the Royal College of Heralds and a manor grant bought from the King. The Winthrops were henceforth esquires and Lords of Groton Manor in Suffolk, England.

Adam died on 9 Nov 1562^[5] at Groton Manor at the age of 64. He was buried there the next day. After his death, his wife Agnes married a brother of Sir Walter Mildmay. She died on 13 May 1565 in Springfield, Essex, England at the age of 49.

Ancestor of Jonathan Hopkinson Jr (Robert E Beeson).^[6]

Children:

1. Alice WINTHROP b: 15 NOV 1539 in St. Peter's, Cornhill, London, England
2. Bridget WINTHROP b: 3 MAY 1543 in Groton Manor, Suffolk, England
3. Mary WINTHROP b: 1 MAR 1544 in Groton Manor, Suffolk, England
4. John WINTHROP b: 20 JAN 1546 in Groton Manor, Suffolk, England
5. Adam WINTHROP b: 20 JAN 1546 in Groton Manor, Suffolk, England^[7]
6. Adam WINTHROP b: 10 AUG 1548 in Groton Manor, Suffolk, England
7. Catherine WINTHROP b: 17 MAY 1550 in Groton Manor, Suffolk, England
8. Susannah WINTHROP b: 10 DEC 1552 in St.Peter's, Cornhill, London, England^[8]

Sources

1. ↑ Muskett Page 3
2. ↑ Muskett Page 4
3. ↑ "American Jezebel: The Uncommon Life of Anne Hutchinson, the Woman Who Defied the Puritans" by LaPlante, Eve, published 2004, Harper Collins.
4. ↑ Hoskins: Page 7
5. ↑ Hoskins: Page 7 says only 1562
6. ↑ Is this a reference to the authors of the text above? No source is given for the information above.
7. ↑ Is this correct? Adam a twin of John's who died at birth maybe?
8. ↑ Not at Groton Manor?

• Hoskins, Edwin Ray, A Hoskins Family Record, Scipio Center?, New York, 1963. On Hathitrust.org
• Hollister, Gideon. The History of Connecticut, From the First Settlement of the Colony to the Adoption of the Present Constitution (Case, Tiffany & Co., Hartford, 1857) Vol. 1, Page 296
• Find-A-Grave: Adam Winthrop
• Muskett, Joseph James. "Evidences of the Winthrops of Groton, Co. Suffolk, England, and of families in and near that county with whom they intermarried" 1894-1896.