John Winthrop, leader of the Great Migration to New England and architect of the Puritan City on a Hill, was one of the most important first generation chroniclers of New England's evolution. Often serving as governor of Massachusetts, he stood out among those responsible for the shaping of the events recorded in the journal which was first published as A Journal of the Transactions and Occurrences in the Settlement of Massachusetts and the Other New-England Colonies (1790). Remaining in manuscript form for over a century, his observations formed the basis for important histories by Thomas Prince (A Chronological History of New-England, 1736) and William Hubbard (A General History of New England, 1815) and a valuable source for Cotton Mather and all subsequent students of the period. No other work succeeds in revealing so many details of affairs of state and hearthside in early America.

The author of the Journal was born...