Rev. John Lothropp (1584–1653) – or Lothrop, or Lathrop – was an English

Anglican Anglicanism, also known as Episcopalianism in some countries, is a Western Christianity, Western Christian tradition which developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the ...

clergyman, who became a Congregationalist minister and emigrant to

New England New England is a region consisting of six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York (state), New York to the west and by the ...

. He was among the first settlers of

Barnstable, Massachusetts Barnstable ( ) is a List of municipalities in Massachusetts, town in the U.S. state of Massachusetts and the county seat of Barnstable County, Massachusetts, Barnstable County. Barnstable is the largest community, both in land area and population ...

in 1639. Lothropp was a strong proponent of the

separation of church and state The separation of church and state is a philosophical and Jurisprudence, jurisprudential concept for defining political distance in the relationship between religious organizations and the State (polity), state. Conceptually, the term refers to ...

. This idea eventually became the mainstream view of people in the United States of America, because of the efforts of Lothropp and others. Lothropp influenced the culture of New England, and through that, upon the rest of the country. He has had many notable descendants, including at least six US presidents, as well as many other prominent governors, government leaders, leaders of

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, informally known as the LDS Church or Mormon Church, is a Nontrinitarianism, nontrinitarian Restorationism, restorationist Christianity, Christian Christian denomination, denomination and the ...

, and businesspeople.

Biography

Early life

Lothropp was born in Etton, East Riding of Yorkshire. He was

baptised Baptism (from ) is a Christians, Christian sacrament of initiation almost invariably with the use of water. It may be performed by aspersion, sprinkling or affusion, pouring water on the head, or by immersion baptism, immersing in water eit ...

on 20 December 1584. He attended

Queens' College, Cambridge Queens' College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Queens' is one of the 16 "old colleges" of the university, and was founded in 1448 by Margaret of Anjou. Its buildings span the R ...

, where he matriculated in 1601, graduated with a BA in 1605, and with an MA in 1609.

Ministry and incarceration

He was ordained in the

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the State religion#State churches, established List of Christian denominations, Christian church in England and the Crown Dependencies. It is the mother church of the Anglicanism, Anglican Christian tradition, ...

and appointed

curate A curate () is a person who is invested with the ''care'' or ''cure'' () of souls of a parish. In this sense, ''curate'' means a parish priest; but in English-speaking countries the term ''curate'' is commonly used to describe clergy who are as ...

Egerton, Kent Egerton is a village and civil parish in the Ashford District of Kent, England. The village is on the Greensand Ridge 9 miles (14.4 km) north of Ashford and stretches three miles south into a lower plain towards the West Stour. The pari ...

. In 1623 he renounced his orders and joined 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 Southwark ( ) is a district of Central London situated on the south bank of the River Thames, forming the north-western part of the wider modern London Borough of Southwark. The district, which is the oldest part of South London, developed ...

. Church historians sometimes call this church the Jacob-Lathrop-Jessey (JLJ) Church, named for its first three pastors, Henry Jacob, John Lothropp and Henry Jessey. They met in private to avoid the scrutiny of the Bishop of London,

William Laud William Laud (; 7 October 1573 – 10 January 1645) was a bishop in the Church of England. Appointed Archbishop of Canterbury by Charles I of England, Charles I in 1633, Laud was a key advocate of Caroline era#Religion, Charles I's religious re ...

. Following the group's discovery on 22 April 1632 by officers of the king, forty-two of Lothropp's Independents were arrested; only eighteen escaped capture. The arrested were prosecuted for failure to take the Oath of Supremacy. Evidence gleaned by the historians Burrage and Kiffin and from the Jessey records indicate many were jailed in the Clink prison. As for Lothropp, the question is unresolved. English historian Samuel Rawson Gardiner, whose book ''Reports of Cases in the Courts of Star Chamber and High Commission'', gives an account of the courtroom trial and cites information from the trial record that the convicted dissenters were to be divided up and sent to various prisons. Historian E. B. Huntington suggests Lothropp was incarcerated in either the Clink or Newgate Prison. Further, it may be that Lothropp actually served time in both prisons since it was customary to move prisoners from one prison to another due to space availability. In the end, the precise location of Lothropp's imprisonment is not confirmable from primary documentation. While Lothropp 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 Begging (also known in North America as panhandling) is the practice of imploring others to grant a favor, often a gift of money, with little or no expectation of reciprocation. A person doing such is called a beggar or panhandler. Beggars m ...

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. After about a year, all were released on bail except Lothropp, who was deemed too dangerous to be set at liberty. The Bishop ultimately released him on bond in May 1634 with the understanding that he would immediately remove to the

New World The term "New World" is used to describe the majority of lands of Earth's Western Hemisphere, particularly the Americas, and sometimes Oceania."America." ''The Oxford Companion to the English Language'' (). McArthur, Tom, ed., 1992. New York: ...

. Since he did not immediately leave for the New World, a court order was subsequently put out for him. Family tradition and other historical reflections indicate he then "escaped."

Emigration

Lothropp was told that he would be

pardon A pardon is a government decision to allow a person to be relieved of some or all of the legal consequences resulting from a criminal conviction. A pardon may be granted before or after conviction for the crime, depending on the laws of the j ...

ed 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. Lathropp accepted the terms of the offer and left for

Plymouth, Massachusetts Plymouth ( ; historically also spelled as Plimouth and Plimoth) is a town in and the county seat of Plymouth County, Massachusetts, United States. Located in Greater Boston, the town holds a place of great prominence in American history, folklor ...

. With his group, he sailed on the ''

Griffin The griffin, griffon, or gryphon (; Classical Latin: ''gryps'' or ''grypus''; Late and Medieval Latin: ''gryphes'', ''grypho'' etc.; Old French: ''griffon'') is a -4; we might wonder whether there's a point at which it's appropriate to talk ...

'' and arrived in

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

on 18 September 1634. 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." John Lothropp married Ann (surname unknown) (1616–1687).''Great Migration 1634–1635, I-L''. (Online database. AmericanAncestors.org. New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2008.) Originally published as: ''The Great Migration, Immigrants to New England, 1634–1635, Volume IV, I-L'', by Robert Charles Anderson. Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2005
John Lothrop pages 345–351
/ref> Lothropp did not stay in Boston long. Within days, he and his group relocated to Scituate where they "joined in covenaunt together" along with nine others who preceded them to form the "church of Christ collected att Scituate." The Congregation at Scituate was not a success.

Dissent Dissent is an opinion, philosophy or sentiment of non-agreement or opposition to a prevailing idea or policy enforced under the authority of a government, political party or other entity or individual. A dissenting person may be referred to as ...

on the issue of

baptism Baptism (from ) is a Christians, Christian sacrament of initiation almost invariably with the use of water. It may be performed by aspersion, sprinkling or affusion, pouring water on the head, or by immersion baptism, immersing in water eit ...

as well as other unspecified grievances and the lack of good

grazing In agriculture, grazing is a method of animal husbandry whereby domestic livestock are allowed outdoors to free range (roam around) and consume wild vegetations in order to feed conversion ratio, convert the otherwise indigestible (by human diges ...

land and

fodder Fodder (), also called provender (), is any agriculture, agricultural foodstuff used specifically to feed domesticated livestock, such as cattle, domestic rabbit, rabbits, sheep, horses, chickens and pigs. "Fodder" refers particularly to food ...

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, 11 October 1639 O.S., bringing with them the crops which they had raised in Scituate." There, within three years they had built homes for all the families and then Lothropp began construction on a larger, sturdier meeting house adjacent to Coggin's (or Cooper's) Pond, which was completed in 1644. This building, now part of the Sturgis Library in

is one of John Lothropp's original homes and meeting houses, and is now also the oldest building housing a

public library A public library is a library, most often a lending library, that is accessible by the general public and is usually funded from public sources, such as taxes. It is operated by librarians and library paraprofessionals, who are also Civil servic ...

in the USA.

Genealogy

Children

Lothropp married Hannah House/Howse in England, on 10 October 1610. They had eight children: # Thomas Lothropp, baptised 21 February 1612/3 in Eastwell, Kent, England, by his grandfather Rev. John Howse, parson there. Record from Bishop's Transcript records at Canterbury. # Jane Lothropp, baptised 29 September 1614 in

, England; married ''

Mayflower ''Mayflower'' was an English sailing ship that transported a group of English families, known today as the Pilgrims, from England to the New World in 1620. After 10 weeks at sea, ''Mayflower'', with 102 passengers and a crew of about 30, reac ...

'' passenger Samuel Fuller (1608–1683), son of ''Mayflower'' passenger Edward Fuller (1575–1621). # Anne Lothropp, baptised 12 May 1616 in Egerton, England; buried in Egerton 30 April 1617. # John Lothropp, baptised 22 February 1617/8 in Egerton, England # Barbara Lothropp, baptised 31 October 1619 in Egerton, England # Samuel Lothropp, born about 1621 in Egerton, England # Captain Joseph Lothropp, baptised 11 April 1624 in Eastwell, Kent, England # Benjamin Lothropp, born December 1626 in Eastwell, Kent, England After Hannah's death, Lothropp married again, to Ann Hammond in 1635. They had five children:

Barnabas Lothropp, baptised 6 June 1636 in Scituate, Massachusetts
Unnamed daughter, buried 30 July 1638.
Abigail Lothropp, baptised 2 November 1639 in
Barnstable, Massachusetts Barnstable ( ) is a List of municipalities in Massachusetts, town in the U.S. state of Massachusetts and the county seat of Barnstable County, Massachusetts, Barnstable County. Barnstable is the largest community, both in land area and population ...
Bathsheba Lothropp, baptised 27 February 1641/42 in Barnstable, MA
Elizabeth Lothropp, born about 1643
Captain John Lothropp, baptised 18 May 1645 in Barnstable, MA
Unnamed son, buried 25 January 1649/50 in Barnstable. Died immediately after birth.

Descendants

Lothropp's direct descendants in America and elsewhere number more than 80,000, including: *Rev. John Lathrop (1740–1816), great-great-grandson; congregationalist Boston minister *Rev. R.A. Torrey *Rev. Robert P. Shuler *

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: **

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** James A. Garfield **

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* Revolutionary War figure

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* Early leaders of

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** Hyrum Smith ** Wilford Woodruff ** Oliver Cowdery ** Parley P. Pratt ** Orson Pratt * State governors: **

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** Thomas E. Dewey ** Jon Huntsman Jr. ** William W. Kitchin **

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** George W. Romney **

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* US Senator Adlai Stevenson III * Secretary of State

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* CIA Director Allen Welsh Dulles * Joseph F. Smith, 6th President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints *

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, 10th President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints * Ezra Taft Benson, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture and 13th President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints * Roman Catholic cardinal Avery Dulles * Old West gunfighter and lawman Wild Bill Hickok * Poet

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*Educator, president of

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, and American diplomat Kingman Brewster Jr. *Historian, College Administrator, and president of

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, Catherine Drew Gilpin Faust * Speaker of the United States House of Representatives Galusha A. Grow, father of the

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* Historical, Asahel Lathrop Latter-day Saint PioneerThe Barbour Collection of Connecticut Town Vital Records: Stafford 1719–1850, Tolland 1715–1850 * Artists

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, co-founder of

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* Author and doctor Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. and his son, US Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. * Novelist Michael MacConnell * Financier and Pianist Connor Quinn * Founder of Post Cereal Company C. W. Post * Marjorie Merriweather Post, founder of

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* Alfred Carl Fuller, founder of Fuller Brush Company * Founder of University of Chicago Law School, Founder of the Harvard Law Review, and Royall Professor of Law at Harvard University Law School Joseph Henry Beale * Financier John Pierpont Morgan * The Allred family, including actor Corbin Allred and polygamist sect leaders and brothers Rulon C. Allred and Owen A. Allred * Actresses Dina Merrill,

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and Jake Gyllenhaal * Singers Nick Carter and Aaron Carter * Serial killer

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Family tree

Bibliography

* Huntington, Rev E. B., A.M. "''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. *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 biographical novel'' 1987

Notes

External links

Lothropp Foundation

John Lothrop
in Great Migration: Immigrants to New England, 1634–1635.
Sturgis Library History

Notable Descendants of Rev. John Lathrop/Lothropp, Founder of Barnstable, Massachusetts

Lathrop history and resources for genealogical research. * {{DEFAULTSORT:Lathrop, John 1584 births 1653 deaths Alumni of Queens' College, Cambridge People from the East Riding of Yorkshire American Congregationalist ministers 17th-century English Anglican priests English separatists 17th-century Congregationalist ministers Clergy from colonial Massachusetts People from Barnstable, Massachusetts American city founders Immigrants to Plymouth Colony Clergy from Yorkshire English emigrants to Massachusetts Bay Colony People from Eastwell, Kent