John Winthrop (January 12, 1587 – March 26, 1649) was an English Puritan and lawyer who became one of the leading figures in the founding of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, the second English settlement in New England. He was born into a poor merchant family of merchant landowners and trained in the law. He became involved with the Massachusetts Bay Company in 1629 when King Charles led a crackdown on Nonconformist religious thought.  He was elected governor of that group that same year and sailed with a group of colonists to the New World in April 1630, where they founded Boston and other communities throughout Massachusetts Bay and the Charles River. He was a well respected political figure and served as governor for 12 of the first 20 years of its existence.  He was considered a moderate, clashing with both the liberal and conservative factions of the religiously conservative colony, and would likely be considered authoritarian by modern standards. He wrote one of the important histories of the early colonial years, which, along with “A Model of Christian Charity”, continue to influence American politics to this day.