year and a half afterwards, arriving in November, 1631,
with his eldest son and others of his children, having lost on the
voyage an infant whom he had probably never seen. Her death, in a
prevailing sickness, June 14, 1647, drew from her husband this tribute
to her:--"In this sickness the Governour's wife, daughter of Sir John
Tindal, Knight, left this world for a better, being about fifty-six
years of age: a woman of singular virtue, prudence, modesty, & piety &
specially beloved & honored of all the country." Though in the December
of the same year we find the Governor again married, now to the Widow
Martha Coytemore, we refer the incident to wilderness-straits and the
exactions of necessity or expediency in domestic life.

But we must return to Margaret, the bride. It seems that there was some
objection offered to Winthrop's suit by the lady's relatives. In one of
the two charming letters which are preserved as written during his
courtship to her, he refers to some "unequall conflicte" which she had
to bear. These two letters, with one addressed to the lady by Father
Adam, are unique as specimens of Puritan love-making. Solomon's Song is
here put to the best use for which it is adapted, its only safe use.

The family-letters, which now increase in number, and vastly in their
cheerfulness and radiance of spirit, and the birth of more children,
present to us the most captivating glimpses of the English life of our
first Chief Magistrate. From a will which he made in Groton in 1620, of
course superseded after his change of country, it appears that he had
then five sons and one daughter. The Lordship of Groton had been
assigned to him by his father. This was the year of the hegira of the
Plymouth Pilgrims, but we have as yet no intimation that Winthrop was
looking in this direction.

For more than a decade of years the family-history now passes on, for
the most part placidly, interspersed with those incidents and anxieties
which give alike the charm and the import to the routine of existence to
any closely knit fellowships sharing it together. Enough of the fragrant
old material, in fast decaying papers, has come to light and been
transcribed for security against all future risks, to preserve to us a
fair restoration of the lights and shades of that domestic experience.
Time has dealt kindly in sparing a variety of specimens, so as to give
to that restoration a kaleidoscopic character. Winthrop's frequent
visits to Lo