Margaret Tyndal Winthrop was a 17th-century Puritan, the wife of John Winthrop, the first governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony.
Background
Margaret Tyndal was born into an Essex gentry family: her father Sir John Tyndal was a Master of the Court of Chancery, and her mother Anne Egerton was related to several of the leading Puritan clergy of the time. Anne was the sister of Stephen Egerton, who in turn married Sarah, daughter of Thomas Crooke.
Career
The pair are notable for the survival and character of the love-letters which they wrote to each other. Margaret was taught to read and write, and encouraged to habits of study and piety. Many of their love-letters to each other - in which the couple put their love of God before their love of each other - have survived.
John Winthrop sailed for New England in 1630, while Margaret remained in England for a year to wrap up family business.
"Prior to parting, the two agreed to set aside five to six o"clock every Monday and Friday to think of one another and enter into spiritual communion with each other till the time they were reunited." Margaret arrived in New England on 2 November 1631, having sailed on the Lyon, and was admitted to Boston church as member #111. She and John Winthrop had seven children: Stephen, Adam, Deane, Nathaniel, Samuel, Anne, William, and Sarah.
Margaret died in Boston on 14 June 1647, aged about fifty-six. Despite their deep mutual affection, John chose to make a fourth marriage to Martha Rainsborough, sister of Thomas Rainsborough, but he outlived Margaret by less than 2 years.