Winthrop Takes the Oath: Massachusetts Gets Its First Governor
The oath came second. First, John Winthrop had to build somewhere to take it—Dorchester was barely eight months old, still more settlement than town, still burying colonists faster than they could frame houses. He'd been elected governor while still aboard the Arbella crossing the Atlantic, but Massachusetts had no government buildings, no ceremony hall, no witness stands. Just mud and timber. So on this day in 1631, Winthrop swore in as the first Governor of Massachusetts wherever they could gather enough survivors to watch. The Puritans wanted a city on a hill. They got a governor in a clearing.
May 18, 1631
395 years ago
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