John Winthrop 1588-1649
The Puritans who settled Boston in 1630 came to the New World with plenty of supplies and equipment. There were more than a thousand new colonists in the Massachusetts Bay settlements by the end of the year. These people had the strength of numbers and did not suffer the terrible privations of the Plymouth colony, but they still had to beat back the wilderness and squeeze a living from the thin soil of New England.
What William Bradford was to the Plymouth colony, John Winthrop was to Massachusetts Bay. Both colonies were fortunate in having good, resourceful governors. John Winthrop was re-elected governor many times between the time his flagship, the Arbella, dropped anchor in Boston harbor and his death in 1649.