WASHBURN, John, Hon. [1597-1670] -- Pioneer, 1st secretary of MBC(?)

From Three Hundred Colonial Ancestors and War Service; Author: Elizabeth M. Leach Rixford; p.319

JOHN WASHBURN was b. at Evesham, County of Worcester, England, and came to Duxbury in 1631, and d. at Bridgewater, Mass., before 1670. His wife, Margery (aged 49), and two sons joined him at Duxbury in 1635, coming on the ship Elizabeth [& Anne]; and they went to Bridgewater about 1665. He and his sons, John and Philip, were included in those able to bear arms, 1643, and his name is among the first freemen of Duxbury. John Washburn, the Emigrant and his Father were contemporaries of William Shakespeare and lived not far from him, in a large and frequented market town. Shakespeare bought "New-Place" in Stratford, between 1580 and 1590, and retired from the London life of actor and author, to become a country gentleman and landlord in his own home, Stratford, about 1604, where he spent the time until his death in 1616. Hon. John Washburn and his son John were two of the fifty-six original proprietors of (the town of Bridgewater) the thousands of acres of land bought in 1645 of the old Indian chief, Massasoit (King Philip's father), by Capt. Myles Standish, Samuel Nash and Constant Southworth, for the use of those proprietors. -- The History of Bridgewater, Mass., John and sons Joseph, etc., with Church in battle in King Philip's War.

Service: "Society Colonial Wars," 1922, page 513-- John Washburne, Sr., 1585-1670, Duxbury, Mass., first secretary of Massachusetts Bay Colony. In expedition against Narragansetts in 1643, under Captain Myles Standish.

There seems to be some question whether this John Washburn, the immigrant, was identical with the John Washburn who was the secretary in England of the Plymouth (England) Company until 1628. This is denied by Davenport, pointing to handwriting specimens of each, and noting that the Plymouth immigrant was a churchwarden in Bengeworth as recently as 1625.  
 

~1628