i8 
(governor 3ofjn aKtntijrop. 
father's talents, prudence, and virtues, with a fuperior 
fhare of human learning," 1 — 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, " 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 : ( 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.' r 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 Tranfactions to the Gov- 
ernor's grandfon, * 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 limilar applaufe.'" 2 There is, in the volume of 
Philofophical Tranfactions 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, Biog. Di<5L, in loco. 
