John Lothropp

Infobox Christian biography
name = John Lothropp


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other_names = John Lothrop; John Lathrop
birth_date = 1584
birth_place = Etton, Yorkshire, United Kingdom
death_date = 1653
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nationality = English
denomination = Congregationalist
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spouse = Hannah House, Ann Hammond?
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children = Jane, Anne, John, Barbara, Thomas, Samuel, Joseph, Benjamin, Elizabeth, Barnabas, Abigail, Bathsheba, John
website =

John Lothropp (also Lothrop or Lathrop, born Etton, Yorkshire, 1584; died 1653) was an English Anglican clergyman, who became a Congregationalist minister and emigrant to New England. He was the founder of Barnstable, Massachusetts.

Early life

He was baptized December 20, 1584. He attended Queens' College, Cambridge, where he matriculated in 1601, graduated with a BA in 1605, and with an MA in 1609.

Minister in England

He was ordained in the Church of England and appointed curate of a local parish in Egerton, Kent. In 1623 he renounced his orders and joined the cause of the Independents. Lothropp gained prominence in 1624, when he was called to replace Reverend Henry Jacob as the pastor of the "First Independent Church" in London, a congregation of sixty members which met at Southwark. Church historians sometimes call this church the Jacob-Lathrop-Jessey Church, named for its first three pastors, Henry Jacob, John Lothropp and Henry Jessey.

They were forced to meet in private to avoid the scrutiny of Bishop of London William Laud. Following the group's discovery on April 22 1632 by officers of the king, forty two of Lothropp's Independents were arrested. Only eighteen escaped capture. They were prosecuted for failure to take the oath of loyalty to the established church. They were jailed in The Clink prison. All were released on bail by the spring of 1634 except Lothropp, who was deemed too dangerous to be set at liberty. While he was in prison, his wife Hannah House became ill and died. His six surviving children were according to tradition left to fend for themselves begging for bread on the streets of London. Friends being unable to care for his children brought them to the Bishop who had charge of Lothropp. The bishop ultimately released him on bond in May of 1634 with the understanding that he would immediately remove to the New World.

Emigration

Lothropp was told that he would be pardoned upon acceptance of terms to leave England permanently with his family along with as many of his congregation members as he could take who would not accept the authority of the Church of England.

The State Papers in the new Record Office, Fetter Lane, London, have preserved some of the Star Chamber records of John Lothropp's imprisioned days. The last record probably was the order of the court which opened the way for his escape to America. The record found on page 71 of Governor Winthrop's Journal, quotes John Lothropp, a freeman, rejoicing in finding a "church without a bishop," . . . "and a state without a king."

Lathrop accepted the terms of the offer and left for Plymouth, Massachusetts. With his group, he sailed on the "Griffin" and arrived in Boston on September 18 1634. He married Anna Hammond (?) (1616-1687) shortly after his arrival.

Lothropp did not stay in Boston long. Within days, he and his group relocated to Scituate where they "joyned in covenaunt together" along with nine others who preceded them to form the "church of Christ collected att Scituate."{Huntington, 1884 p27} The Congregation at Scituate was not a success. Dissent on the issue of baptism as well as other unspecified grievances and the lack of good grazing land and fodder for their cattle caused the church in Scituate to split in 1638.

Lothropp petitioned Governor Thomas Prence in Plymouth for a "place for the transplanting of us, to the end that God might have more glory and wee more comfort."{Otis, 1888 p198} Thus as Otis says "Mr. Lothropp and a large company arrived in Barnstable, October 11, 1639 O.S., bringing with them the crops which they had raised in Scituate."{Otis, 1888 p198} There, within three years they had built homes for all the families and then Lothropp began construction on a larger sturdier meeting house by Coggin's (or Cooper's) Pond, which was completed in 1644. This building, now part of The Sturgis Library in Barnstable, Massachusetts is one of John Lothrop's original homes and meeting houses, and is now also the oldest building housing a public library in America.

"He was a man of humble and broken heart spirit, lively in dispensation of the Word of God, studious of peace, furnished with godly contentment, willing to spend and be spent for the cause of the church of Christ."{Huntington, 1884 p33}

Genealogy

His grandfather Robert Lathropp (1510-1556) married into the noble family of Thomas Aston (born 1480). He married Hannah House in England, on October 10 1610. They had eight children:

# Jane Lothropp, born 29 September 1614 in Egerton, Kent, England
# Anne Lothropp, born May 1616 in Egerton, England
# John Lothropp, born February 1617/18 in Egerton, England
# Barbara Lothropp, born October 1619 in Egerton, England
# Thomas Lothropp, born February 1620/21 in Eastwell, Kent, England
# Samuel Lothropp, born 1622 in Egerton, England
# Captain Joseph Lothropp, born April 1624 in Eastwell, Kent, England
# Benjamin Lothropp, born December 1626 in Eastwell, Kent, England

Jane married "Mayflower" passenger Samuel Fuller, son of Edward Fuller.

After Hannah's death, Lothropp married again, to Ann Hammond (?) in 1635. They had five children.

9. Elizabeth Lothropp, born in Scituate, MA
10. Barnabas Lothropp, born June 1636 in Barnstable, MA
11. Abigail Lothropp, born 2 November 1639 in Barnstable, MA
12. Bathsheba Lothropp, born February 1640/41 in Scituate, MA
13. Captain John Lothropp, born 9 February 1643/44 in Barnstable, MA

Descendents

While Lathrop's fame may not have lasted much beyond his life, famous descendants continue to influence the world through this day. His direct descendants in America number more than 80,000, including:{Price, 1984,p38-39)
* Presidents of the United States:
** Ulysses S. Grant
** Franklin D. Roosevelt
** George H. W. Bush
** George W. Bush
* Revolutionary War traitor Benedict Arnold
* Mormon prophet Joseph Smith
* State governors:
** Mitt Romney
** George W. Romney
** Thomas E. Dewey
** Sarah Palin [http://ibtimes.com/articles/20081009/sarah-palin-sarah-palin-and-princess-diana-sarah-palin-genealogy-sarah-palin-039-ancestors.htm]
* US Senator Adlai Stevenson
* Secretary of State John Foster Dulles
* CIA Director Allen Welsh Dulles
* Poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
* Artist Lewis Comfort Tiffany
* Physician, author Benjamin Spock
* Wife of the founder of Stanford University Jane Stanford
* Inventor Eli Whitney
* US Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes
* Founder of General foods Marjorie Merriweather Post
* Founder of Fuller Brush Company Alfred Carl Fuller
* Financier John Pierpont Morgan
* Music Therapist Aimee Lathrop

Family Tree

See also

*Barnstable, Massachusetts
*Congregationalism
*Plymouth Colony
*Lowthorp for a discussion of the origins and spelling variations of the name Lo-Lathrop.

Bibliography

* Huntington, Rev E. B. AM"A Genealogical Memoir of the Lo-Lathrop Family in this country embracing as far as known the descendants of The Rev. John Lothropp of Scituate and Barnstable, Mass., and Mark Lothrop of Salem and Bridgewater, Mass. the first generation of descendants of other names." ; Ridgefield Ct. 1884. A searchable online version of this book is available to the Lothropp Foundation website listed above.
*Price, Richard. John Lothropp: "A Puritan Biography And Genealogy"." Salt Lake City, Utah, 1984.
*Otis, Amos. "Genealogical Notes of Barnstable Families". 1888.
*Holt, Helene "Exiled : the story of John Lathrop, 1584-1653, a novel" 1987

Notes

External links

* [http://www.lothropp.org Lothropp Foundation]
* [http://pricegen.com/resources/johnlothropp.htm John Lothropp (1584-1653): A Puritan Biography & Genealogy]
* [http://www.barnstablecapecod.com/history.htm Barnstable county history page]
* [http://www.sturgislibrary.org/general/history.php Sturgis Library History]
* [http://www.exlibris.org/nonconform/engdis/jacobites.html History of the Jacob Lathrop Jessy Church]
* [http://www.newenglandancestors.org/education/articles/research/special_guests/gary_boyd_roberts/56_659_456.asp Notable Descendants of Rev. John Lathrop/Lothropp, Founder of Barnstable, Massachusetts]
* [http://www.usgennet.org/usa/il/topic/history/LathropJohn.html Immigrant Ancestor Rev. John Lathrop]
* [http://users.erols.com/jlathrop/genealogy.html Lathrop Genealogy ] Lathrop history and resources for genealogical research.

Persondata
NAME = Lothropp, John
ALTERNATIVE NAMES = Lothrop, John; Lathrop, John
SHORT DESCRIPTION = Congregationalist minister
DATE OF BIRTH = 1584
PLACE OF BIRTH = Etton, Yorkshire, United Kingdom
DATE OF DEATH = 1653
PLACE OF DEATH =