BORN: 20 Dec 1584, Etton, Yorkshire, England MARRIED 1: 10 Oct 1610, Canterbury, Kent, England
MARRIED 2: 1634/1635 Scituate, MA
DIED: 8 Nov 1653, Barnstable, MA, USA
BURIED:
Ancient Cemetery, Barnstable, MA
SPOUSE 1: Hannah Howse, b abt 1590, Eastwell, Kent, England; d 1634, London SPOUSE 2: Ann______
FATHER: Thomas Lowthrop, b 19 Jun 1536, Cherry Burton, Yorkshire: d aft 5 Oct 1606, Etton, Yorkshire
MOTHER: Mary Howell, b abt 1555; d aft 5 Oct 1606, Etton, Yorkshire
PERSONAL DATA:
John Lothropp was one of the leading deacons to come to New England during the Great Migration to New England in the 1630's. A graduate of Cambridge University John was a deacon in the Church of England for over a decade but gradually became disenchanted with the Church and left to become a Reverend in the Protestant Independent Church in London in 1624. Over the next decade the fortunes of all new and unorthodox religions were put to the test. The Anglican Church hierarchy reinforced old rules and established new ones, eventually making non-orthodoxy a crime punishable by jail. Lothropp was sent to jail for over two years, during which time his wife died and his children had to fend for themselves. He was finally released and managed to get out of the country with his children in 1635, and sailed to Boston with several former church members.
John started his first church in Scituate in 1635 but soon left for Barnstable where he preached his first sermon in 1639. He ministered to the Barnstable Church for the next 14 years and helped husband it to religious and economic prosperity. He died in 1653. John had 14 children, eight with his first wife in England, and six with his second wife in MA. For the next two generations many of his descendants remained in Barnstable and the area is rich in Lothropp heritage. It is also the headquarters of the Lothropp Family Foundation.
The family names of Lowthorpe, Lowthropp, Lothropp and Lathrop and other variations around the world come from the parish of Lowthorpe in East Riding, Yorkshire. Various records cite these surnames back to the 13th century. The earliest record is that of Walter de Lowthorpe elected sheriff of Yorkshire in 1216. But no continuous record begins until the record of the residence of Reverend John's great-grandfather, John Lothropp, in nearby Cherry Burton in 1535. At the time great-grandfather John was 33 and probably born about 1480. Starting with this John, documented evidence exists of family descent directly to the emigrant ancestor Reverend John's baptism in 1584.
John's oldest son and child was Thomas Lothrop (bap 21 Feb 1613 Eastwell, Kent, England) who followed his father to Barnstable. He married (11 Dec 1639) Sarah Larned Ewer in Boston. Their fourth child and second son, Meletiah Lothrop (bap 22 Nov 1646 at Barnstable) married (20 May 1667) Sarah Farrar at Lynn, MA and had five children, all born in Barnstable. The eldest, Thomas, moved to Martha's Vineyard.
Thomas Lothrop (b 22 Aug 1668 in Barnstable) married (abt 1700) at Martha's Vineyard, Mehitable Sarson (b abt 1680, Martha's Vineyard). She was the daughter of
Richard Sarson and Jane Payne, (b abt 1670 in Edgartown, Martha's Vineyard) and died about 1736 in Edgartown. Thomas Lothrop became a licensed inn holder in Edgartown from 1715-1740. He and Mehitable had a daughter Jerusha (b abt 1707 in Edgartown) who married Simon Newcomb 17 Nov 1740 in Edgartown. Four children were born in Edgartown before 1745, but soon thereafter the family all moved to Lebanon, CT where Jerusha died.
REFERENCES:
1. A great deal of Lothropp history can be found in E B Huntington, 1884, A Genealogical Memoir of the Lo-Lathrop Family.
2. The finest and most current history/genealogy of Reverend John can be found in R W Price, 1989, John Lothropp (1584-1653) a Puritan Biography and Genealogy.
3. For a guidebook of Barnstable and much of the Lothropp history there see H L Taber, 1995, A New Home in Mattakeese.
4. See C E Banks, 1966, Town Annals of Martha's Vineyard, Dukes County, MA.
5. See the author's book Fathers and Mothers, 328pp, 2002 for a further analysis of the Lothropp line. The book is available from the author at 6695 Terry Court, Arvada, CO 80007 and email: [email protected]