John Winthrop (1714-1779)

John Winthrop (December 19 1714 – May 3 1779) (not to be confused with his great-great-great-grandfather John Winthrop, founder of the Massachusetts Bay colony) was the 2nd Hollis Professor of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy in Harvard College. He was a distinguished astronomer, and corresponded regularly with the Royal Society in London — one of the first American intellectuals to be taken seriously in Europe. He was noted for attempting to explain the great Lisbon earthquake of 1755 as a scientific (rather than religious) phenomenon, and for journeying to Nova Scotia in 1761 to observe a transit of Venus.

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December 19 - 1714 - May 3 - 1779 - John Winthrop - Harvard - Astronomer - Royal Society - Lisbon - 1755 - Nova Scotia - 1761 - Transit of Venus

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He served as acting president of Harvard in 1769 and again in 1773; but both times he declined the offer of the full presidency on grounds of old age. During the nine months in 1775-1776 when Harvard moved to Concord, Massachusetts, Winthrop occupied the house which was later to become famous as The Wayside, home to Louisa May Alcott and Nathaniel Hawthorne in subsequent decades.

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1769 - 1773 - Concord, Massachusetts - The Wayside - Louisa May Alcott - Nathaniel Hawthorne

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