Descent from Puritan John Lothrop

Former English Prisoner Founded Barnstable, Massachusetts

Apr 16, 2009 Rosemary E. Bachelor

Rev. John Lothrop (or Lathrop), an Anglican priest, was imprisoned in England for his independent views and released on the condition that he head for America.

John Lothrop/Lathrop (1584-1653) joined the ranks of the American Puritans in 1634, bringing his flock from England. After some time in Scituate, MA, they founded Barnstable, MA.

His wife, Hannah House, died while he was in prison and, soon after arriving in Massachusetts, he married Ann Hammond. He had eight children to his first wife and five to his second wife.

Barnstable Founder Became Congregationalist Minister

Rev. Lothrop, who received two degrees from Cambridge University, is mentioned in contemporary documents. In America this former Anglican clergyman became a Congregationalist minister. The meeting house he had built in Barnstable still stands as part of the public library complex.

The Lothrop Family Foundation website lists some of the many books which mention Rev. Lothrop.

Lothrop Descendants Include Four Presidents

Famous John Lothrop descendants include both Bush presidents, as well as presidents Ulysses S. Grant and Franklin D. Roosevelt, such recent candidates as Mitt Romney and Sarah Palin, the poet Longfellow, cotton gin inventor Eli Whitney, physician and author Benjamin Spock, author and doctor Oliver Wendell Holmes and his son of the same name, who was a U.S. Supreme Court Justice.

The following line of descent was given to this author in 1991 by Ruth Stanton (Gildart) Lewis of San Diego, CA. Also researching this line at that time was Don C. Sowers of Edmonds, WA. It begins in the second generation with Rev. Lothrop’s son Samuel.

Line of Descent from Rev. John Lothrop

2. Samuel Lothrop (1623-1701) who married in 1644 at Barnstable Elizabeth Scudder (1622-1682), daughter of Thomas Scudder. Samuel died at Norwich, CT.

3. John Lathrop, baptized in 1645 at Boston and died in 1688 at Wallingford, CT. He married Ruth Royce in 1669. She was a daughter of Robert and Mary Royce. (There was a surname spelling change in this generation.)

4. Mary Lathrop (died ca. 1754-58) married in 1692 at Derby, CT, William Tyler (1665-1748/9), son of William and Abigail (Ufford) Tyler.

5. Martha Tyler (1706-ca.1740) was married in 1721 to Abraham Clark (1699-1789), son of Samuel and Mary (Brown) Clark.

6. Hannah Clark (ca.1736-1807) was married in 1757 to Abel Gridley (1727-1807/8) and lived in Connecticut.

7. Levi Gridley was born in 1778 in Harwinton, CT, and died in 1859 in Guilford, NY. He was married in 1798 to Mary Gilbert (1780-1843), daughter of Jabez and Eunice (Brace) Gilbert.

8. Eli Gridley (1808-1891) wed in 1830, Mary Trowbridge Brigham (1812-1840), daughter of David and Betsy (Trowbridge) Brigham.

9. Clarissa Elizabeth Gridley (1831-1906) married Charles Sawyer (1825-1902), son of Abraham and Polly (Phillips) Sawyer. They lived in New York and Michigan.

10. Henrietta Sawyer (1856-1930) in 1877 married at Lyndon, MI, William B. Gildart (1848-1918), son of James and Hannah (Osborn) Gildart.

11. Charles Rolland Gildart was born in 1894 in Michigan and died in 1988. He married in 1923 in Kentucky, Mary Charlotte Willis (1895-1952), daughter of George and Ruth (Stanton) Willis,

12. Ruth Stanton Gildart was born in 1925 in Kentucky. She married in 1951 at Richmond, NY, George Draper Lewis III, who was born in 1924 in New Jersey to George Draper Lewis and Margaret Clark Kilby.

Descendants Eligible for Lineage Society Membership

Descendants of the Rev. John Lothrop are eligible for membership in The Society of Descendants of the Colonial Clergy, which commemorates colonial clergy for their roles as founders and leaders of the first American communities.

The copyright of the article Descent from Puritan John Lothrop in Genealogy is owned by Rosemary E. Bachelor. Permission to republish Descent from Puritan John Lothrop in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

Lowthrop Bible Burned Crossing Atlantic	Lothrop Home Now Oldest Library Building in U.S.	Site Where Lothrop First Preached in 1639
John Lathrop Home, Barnstable, MA