English Background: A Puritan Death, John and Thomasine
American Realities, I,2 “The English Background: A Puritan Death, John and Thomasine Winthrop”
(This outline is not a “substitute” for reading the chapter, but it may help you review the story and understand it better.)
Overview: The first European immigrants to the United States carried with them Old World ideas and experiences that influenced the way they farmed their land, organized their governments, and worshiped their deity. One of these imported customs was the Puritan faith, a product of the Protestant Reformation. Nourished in thousands of European homes in the early seventeenth century, Puritanism grew to maturity in its native environment before it was brought to America. It taught men and women how to honor God and deal justly with one another and how to live fully on earth and prepare bravely for heaven. A living faith, it entered the lives of John Winthrop, a founder of Massachusetts, and his wife, Thomasine, molding their daily thoughts and preparing them for their separation in death
Outline
1. Puritanism and the Winthrops: Suffolk-England, God, Suffolk County, "as if there were no God,""aware of the presence of the Lord," John Winthrop, Thomasine Clopton (Winthrop), childbirth, Puritan God, East Anglican gentry, Groton Manor, 1588, increased production, trading companies, England’s first industrial revolution, "This dear, dear land."
2. Domestic Life at Groton Manor: Products made locally, pastoral land, Cambridge, Trinity College, Mary Forth (Winthrop), Thomasine Clopton, good wife, managing country estate, servants, Bible, God's favor, card games, performing religious works, domestic chores, men and grain cultivation, women and garden crops, religious training of the Sabbath, Pregnant Thomasine, another side to life at Groton, agrarian paradise, "stubborn wenche," "sturdy beggars,"
3. John Winthrop's Puritanism: Protestant Reformation, God's grace, own good works, John Calvin, English Reformers, Queen Elizabeth, King James, Puritans, status quo, "some notions of God," "voluptuous heart," stealing two books, "the word came into his heart with power, "abandoning hunting and cards, too frivolous, "possessed with the world," "tame his heart," singing psalms, reading religious tracts, “Wine is from God, but drunkenness is from the devil,” unmeasurable weeping, periods of ecstatic acceptance, struggle to "tame" his heart, Thomasine's religious life, path of moderation.
4. Thomasine: Childbirth and Death: Preparing for the new baby, midwife, "how careful she was," "keeper," weakened child, "patience," accepting her death, violent fever, physician, expected to die, vain hopes, "you break my heart," "she did love me well," condition was dangerous, ringing of the bell, John Donne, "it tolls for thee," Reverend Mr. Sands, well "grounded," the devil could find nothing to lay to her charge, "received her death's wound," "some hope left," "I am but a dead woman," completely dressed, increasingly disturbed, fighting with Satan, exhorted those around her, parting words, pious woman, in great pain, God had given her victory, reading scripture to her, "this is comfortable," "subjection" to her husband, sup with Christ in Paradise, "O husband..." "happy estate," "asleep in the Lord."
5. The Aftermath: John Winthrop in England and America: Intense self scrutiny, loss as punishment from God, "I will not set my mind on the world again," two small books, court session, my journeys, his time of great piety, grown familiar with Lord Jesus Christ, monastery or convent, life was precious as it was transitory, Margaret Tyndal, Sir John Tyndal, local magnate, Massachusetts Bay Company, governor of enterprise, eleven ships, Boston, life of the spirit, lived in tents, a paradise, Massachusetts Bay, governor, Arbella, aristocratic conception, justice and mercy, "must be knit together," city upon a hill, spending the night in the forest, wolf, Indian mats, unable to sleep, singing psalms, alone by a fire.
(This outline is not a “substitute” for reading the chapter, but it may help you review the story and understand it better.)
Overview: The first European immigrants to the United States carried with them Old World ideas and experiences that influenced the way they farmed their land, organized their governments, and worshiped their deity. One of these imported customs was the Puritan faith, a product of the Protestant Reformation. Nourished in thousands of European homes in the early seventeenth century, Puritanism grew to maturity in its native environment before it was brought to America. It taught men and women how to honor God and deal justly with one another and how to live fully on earth and prepare bravely for heaven. A living faith, it entered the lives of John Winthrop, a founder of Massachusetts, and his wife, Thomasine, molding their daily thoughts and preparing them for their separation in death
Outline
1. Puritanism and the Winthrops: Suffolk-England, God, Suffolk County, "as if there were no God,""aware of the presence of the Lord," John Winthrop, Thomasine Clopton (Winthrop), childbirth, Puritan God, East Anglican gentry, Groton Manor, 1588, increased production, trading companies, England’s first industrial revolution, "This dear, dear land."
2. Domestic Life at Groton Manor: Products made locally, pastoral land, Cambridge, Trinity College, Mary Forth (Winthrop), Thomasine Clopton, good wife, managing country estate, servants, Bible, God's favor, card games, performing religious works, domestic chores, men and grain cultivation, women and garden crops, religious training of the Sabbath, Pregnant Thomasine, another side to life at Groton, agrarian paradise, "stubborn wenche," "sturdy beggars,"
3. John Winthrop's Puritanism: Protestant Reformation, God's grace, own good works, John Calvin, English Reformers, Queen Elizabeth, King James, Puritans, status quo, "some notions of God," "voluptuous heart," stealing two books, "the word came into his heart with power, "abandoning hunting and cards, too frivolous, "possessed with the world," "tame his heart," singing psalms, reading religious tracts, “Wine is from God, but drunkenness is from the devil,” unmeasurable weeping, periods of ecstatic acceptance, struggle to "tame" his heart, Thomasine's religious life, path of moderation.
4. Thomasine: Childbirth and Death: Preparing for the new baby, midwife, "how careful she was," "keeper," weakened child, "patience," accepting her death, violent fever, physician, expected to die, vain hopes, "you break my heart," "she did love me well," condition was dangerous, ringing of the bell, John Donne, "it tolls for thee," Reverend Mr. Sands, well "grounded," the devil could find nothing to lay to her charge, "received her death's wound," "some hope left," "I am but a dead woman," completely dressed, increasingly disturbed, fighting with Satan, exhorted those around her, parting words, pious woman, in great pain, God had given her victory, reading scripture to her, "this is comfortable," "subjection" to her husband, sup with Christ in Paradise, "O husband..." "happy estate," "asleep in the Lord."
5. The Aftermath: John Winthrop in England and America: Intense self scrutiny, loss as punishment from God, "I will not set my mind on the world again," two small books, court session, my journeys, his time of great piety, grown familiar with Lord Jesus Christ, monastery or convent, life was precious as it was transitory, Margaret Tyndal, Sir John Tyndal, local magnate, Massachusetts Bay Company, governor of enterprise, eleven ships, Boston, life of the spirit, lived in tents, a paradise, Massachusetts Bay, governor, Arbella, aristocratic conception, justice and mercy, "must be knit together," city upon a hill, spending the night in the forest, wolf, Indian mats, unable to sleep, singing psalms, alone by a fire.
