46 PIONEERS OF SCIENCE IN AMERICA. 



presided at commencement that year, and had he been a few 

 years younger (he was then fifty-five) would doubtless have 

 become president of the college. In a letter to Mr. Thomas 

 Hollis, in England, under date of July 10, 1769, Dr. Andrew 

 Eliot, a member of the corporation, remarks : " It is difficult to 

 find one every way qualified to undertake such a task. Mr. 

 Winthrop, Hollis Professor of Mathematics, will probably be 

 the successor to Mr. Holyoke. His learning and abilities are 

 unquestionable. He is older than we could wish, and is fre- 

 quently taken off from business by bodily infirmities." The 

 office was tendered to Prof. Winthrop, but he declined it. In 

 1774, when the chair was again vacant, it was offered to Win- 

 throp a second time, and again declined. 



The tide of discontent with the mother country was now 

 running high in the colonies, and Winthrop was clearly iden- 

 tified with the patriot cause. The Massachusetts Historical 

 Society's Collections (Series V, vol. iv) contain a correspond- 

 ence between the professor and John Adams. The letters 

 cover a period within which occurred the battle of Bunker 

 Hill, the evacuation of Boston, and the Declaration of Inde- 

 pendence ; and they show that Winthrop had a thorough under- 

 standing of public affairs, a fearless patriotism, and an eager 

 desire for American independence. In 1773 he was elected to 

 the Governor's Council, but, together with two other members, 

 all having been opponents of the Government, he was nega- 

 tived by Governor Gage, in compliance with a special mandate 

 from the English ministry. Prof. Winthrop was chosen a 

 delegate to the Provincial Congress in 1774, and in 1775 was 

 finally admitted to a seat in the Council. About this time he 

 was appointed Judge of Probate for Middlesex County, and 

 held the office for the remaining years of his life. His death 

 occurred in Cambridge, before the Revolutionary struggle was 

 decided, on May 3, 1779. 



The portrait which accompanies this sketch has been en- 

 graved from a photograph, furnished by Mr. Robert C. Win- 

 throp, of a painting by Copley, which belonged to the late 

 Colonel John Winthrop, of Louisiana, a great-grandson of the 

 professor, and his last descendant in the male line. 



