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Salem Witchcraft, Volumes I and II - With an Account of Salem Village and a History of Opinions - on Witchcraft and Kindred Subjects by Charles Upham
page 148 of 1066 (13%)
dear wife of his youth, but her property placed him above want. No
wonder that the strongest attachment existed between him and her
children. John Winthrop, Jr., and his wife, called him father, not
merely in conformity with custom, being their step-father in point of
fact, but with the fondness and devotion of actual children. It was on
account of this intimate and endeared connection, and in consideration
of the pecuniary benefit he had derived from his marriage to the
mother of the younger Winthrop's wife, that he made arrangements, in
case he should not return to America, that his Salem property should
go to her and her husband. Having married a second wife, and there
being issue of said marriage, he would not have alienated so
considerable a part of his property from the legal heir without some
good and sufficient reason. The foregoing view of the case explains
the whole. The solution of the mystery which had enveloped Roger
Williams's language is complete. Elizabeth, the daughter of the second
marriage, to whom the "Last Legacy" was addressed, was baptized in the
First Church at Salem, on the 8th of March, 1640. It does not appear,
that, during her subsequent life, there was any intimacy, or even
acquaintance, between her and the Winthrops, as there was no ground
for it, she being in no way connected with them.

May not Thomas Read, of Salem, have been a son of Colonel Read, of
Maldon in Essex, and a brother of the wife of the younger Winthrop?
Peters says, in the "Last Legacy," "Many of my acquaintances, going
for New England, had engaged me to come to them when they sent, which
accordingly I did." Thomas Read came over some time before him; so did
John Winthrop, Jr., and wife. They were the same as children to him.
They sent for him, and he came. After it was ascertained and
determined that Peters should settle in Salem, Read joined the church
here, and became a full inhabitant. Peters located his grant of land
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