1 8 (Jgobcrnor Soijn Mtntftrop. 



father's talents, prudence, and virtues, with a fuperior 

 fhare of human learning," l — was himfelf the firft Gov- 

 ernor of Connecticut, and had, in this connection, a cer- 

 tain fcientific pofition and reputation. " The great Mr. 

 Boyle, Bifhop Wilkins, with feveral other learned men," 

 fays Dr. Eliot, K had propofed to leave England, and eftab- 

 lifh a fociety for promoting natural knowledge in the new 

 colony of which Mr. Winthrop, their intimate friend and 

 affociate, was appointed Governor. Such men were too 

 valuable to lofe from Great Britain; and, Charles II. hav- 

 ing taken them under his protection, the fociety was there 

 eftablifhed, and obtained the title of the Royal Society of 

 London. . . . Mr. Winthrop fent over many fpecimens of 

 the productions of this country, with his remarks upon 

 them: c and, by an order of the Royal Society, he was in 

 a particular manner invited to take upon himfelf the charge 

 of being the chief correfpondent in the Weft, as Sir 

 Philiberto Vernatti was in the Eaft Indies.' ? His name,' 

 fays the fame writer, Dr. Cromwell Mortimer, Secretary of 

 the Royal Society, in his flattering dedication of the forti- 

 eth volume of the Philofophical Tranfaftions to the Gov- 

 ernor's grandfon, f had he put it to his writings, would 

 have been as univerfally known as the Boyles's, the Wil- 

 kins's, and Oldenburghs', and been handed down to us 

 with fimilar applaufe.' " 2 There is, in the volume of 

 Philofophical Tranfa<5tions for 1670, "An Extract of a 



1 Winthrop's Journal, by Savage, edit. I, vol. i. p. 64, note. See also Ban- 

 croft's character of the younger Winthrop, in History of the United States, vol. 

 ii. p. 52. 



2 Eliot. Bios;. Diift., in loco. 



