illiterate person, would be grievously mistaken, in his ignorance of the
universal characteristic and license of that age in that matter. The
Queen herself was by no means so good a "speller," by our standard, as
was Adam Winthrop. The extraordinary way in which letters were then left
out of words where they were needed, and most lavishly multiplied where
no possible use could be made of them, is a phenomenon never accounted
for.

Adam Winthrop was for several years auditor of the accounts of Trinity
and St. John's Colleges, Cambridge, and records his visits to the
University in the discharge of his duties. We have specimens of a
pleasant correspondence between him and his sister, Lady Mildmay, also
with his wife, marked by a sweet and gentle tone, the utterance of a
kindly spirit,--fragrant records of hearts once so warm with love.

It must have been with supreme delight that Adam entered in his diary,
that on January 12, 1587, [January 22, 1588, N.S.,] was born his only
son, John, one of five children by his second wife. John came into the
world between the years that marked, respectively, the execution of
Mary, Queen of Scots, and the visit of the Spanish Armada. We can well
conceive under what gracious and godly influences he received his early
nurture. His mother died only one year before he, at the age of
forty-two, embarked for America, his father having not long preceded
her. Evidence abundant was in our possession that John Winthrop had
received what even now would be called a good education, and what in his
own time was a comparatively rare one. It had generally been taken for
granted, however, that he had never been a member of either of the
Universities. His present biographer tells us that long before
undertaking his present grateful task he had never been reconciled to
admit the inference which had been drawn from silence on this point. He