The American Connection

The Revd John Lothropp

1584-1653

On 2oth December 1584 John Lothropp was baptized in St Mary’s Etton. After graduating from Cambridge University he was ordained in the Church of England and served in Bennington, Hertfordshire and Egerton, Kent. During his eleven years at Egerton he married his first wife, Hannah, and they had four children.

But he was becoming increasingly troubled by the way the established church was being run, and he resigned and became the minister of the First Independent Church of London. This brought him into conflict with William Laud, the High Church Archbishop of Canterbury. He was arrested, along with 42 members of his congregation, and thrown into prison. After two years they were released, and it was then, in 1634, that John Lothropp and his followers escaped to the New World on board ‘The Griffin’.

After landing at Boston, Massachusetts, the group moved south to Scituate. However, religious differences of opinion and a lack of good grazing for their cattle led them, after 5 years, to move to what is no Barnstable, Cape Cod. Here a thriving and successful community was built up under the leadership of John Lothropp, and by the time of his death in 1653 his 12 children had produced families of their own.

From these families are descended many who have been influential in the history of America: three Presidents (Ulysses S. Grant, Franklin Roosevelt and George Bush), the poet Longfellow, Joseph Smith (founder of the Mormon Church), the great designer Tiffany, Charles Ives the composer and Dr Benjamin Spock, the renowned expert on child care.

Recently a twinning arrangement has been set up between St Mary’s Etton and the church which John Lothropp founded at West Parish, Barnstable. There is a memorial tablet to John Lothropp on the north wall of the church, and beside it a framed copy of the twinning declaration.

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The American Connection