York city, 18 Jan., 1804; d. in London, England, 26 July, 1879, was in early life a clerk in the banking-house of Jacob Barker, but afterward devoted himself to the care of a large inherited estate and to furthering the interests of public institutions of education, charity, and religion in his native city. He was a trustee of the old Public school society, and on its dissolution in 1853 became a school commissioner and member of the board of education; was an earnest friend of the New York hospital, the Lying-in hospital, and other similar institutions; and by his care and liberality did much to advance the prosperity of the Institution for the deaf and dumb. He was recording secretary and vice-president of the New York historical society, and for many years a vestryman of Trinity church, as a member of whose cemetery committee he originated the plan of displaying plants in the church-yards of the parish. Among his publications is an address on “Old New York,” which he read before the Historical society (New York, 1862). —
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The second John's descendant, Theodore, author, b. in New Haven, Conn., 22 Sept., 1828; d. near Great Bethel, Va., 10 June, 1861, was the son of Francis Bayard Winthrop. His mother was Elizabeth Woolsey, a niece of President Timothy Dwight, and sister of President Theodore Woolsey, for whom Theodore was named. He was graduated at Yale in 1848, with the Clark scholarship, on which he continued there a year, studying mental science, languages, and history. In 1849 he went to recruit his health in Europe, where he remained until January, 1851. There he became acquainted with William H. Aspinwall, whose children he taught for some time, and through him Winthrop entered the employ of the Pacific mail steamship company, to whose offices in Panama he was transferred in 1852. In the following year he visited California and Oregon, and thence he returned overland to New York. In December, 1853, he joined, as a volunteer, the expedition under Lieut. Isaac G. Strain to survey a canal-route across the Isthmus of Panama, and soon after his return in March, 1854, he began to study law with Charles Tracy. He was admitted to the bar in 1855, and in the following year, during a vacation-trip in Maine, made political speeches there in advocacy of John C. Frémont. After this he spent most of his time in literary pursuits, for which he had always had a fondness. The first of his writings that appeared in print was a description of his friend Frederic E. Church's painting, “The Heart of the Andes,” whose progress he had watched at the easel. For several years Winthrop worked carefully on his novels, recasting them after each rejection by a publisher. One, “Cecil Dreeme” was finally accepted, but the opening of the civil war delayed its appearance. Another, “John Brent,” was also accepted on condition that the author should omit the episode of the death of the horse Don Fulano. which he refused to do. At the opening of the civil war Winthrop enlisted in the 7th New York regiment, which he accompanied to Washington. Soon afterward he went with Gen. Benjamin F. Butler to Fort Monroe as military secretary, with the rank of major, and with his commanding officer he planned the attack on Little and Great Bethel, in which he took part. During the action at the latter place he sprang upon a log to rally his men, and received a bullet in his heart. Shortly before his departure for the seat of war his tale “Love and Skates” had been accepted for the “Atlantic Monthly” by its editor, James Russell Lowell, who then asked the author to furnish an account of his march to Washington for the magazine. This he did in two articles, which attracted much attention, and made Winthrop so well known that the sudden end of his career soon afterward occasioned wide-spread sorrow. Immediately after his death his novels appeared in quick succession, and were very favorably received. They have held their place in American literature, and it is probable that had Winthrop lived he would have taken high rank as a writer. Prof. John Nichol, of Glasgow, says of “Cecil Dreeme”: “With all its defects of irregular construction, this novel is marked by a more distinct vein of original genius than any American work of fiction known to us that has appeared since the author's death.” His books include the three novels “Cecil Dreeme” (Boston, October, 1861), “John Brent” (January, 1862), and “Edwin Brothertoft” (July, 1862); and the collections of sketches “The Canoe and the Saddle” (November, 1862), and “Life in the Open Air, and other Papers” (May, 1863). These have passed through many editions, and were reprinted in the “Leisure-Hour Series,” with the addition of his “Life and Poems,” edited by his sister, Laura Winthrop Johnson (New York, 1884). See also a memoir by George William Curtis, prefixed to the earlier editions of “Cecil Dreeme.” — Theodore's brother, William Woolsey, soldier, b. in New Haven, Conn., 3 Aug., 1831, was graduated at Yale in 1851, and at the law-school in 1853, and afterward continued his legal studies at Harvard. He was admitted to the Massachusetts bar in 1854, and practised until April, 1861, when he entered the 7th New York regiment as a private. He was commissioned 1st lieutenant of sharp-shooters, 1 Oct., 1861, became captain, 22 Sept., 1862, was made major and judge-advocate, 19 Sept., 1864, and at the close of the war brevetted colonel for meritorious service. On 25 Feb., 1867, he was commissioned major in the regular army, and on 5 July, 1884, he became lieutenant-colonel and deputy judge-advocate-general. He is now professor of law in the U. S. military academy. Col. Winthrop is the author of “Digest of Opinions of the Judge-Advocates-General of the Army” (Washington, 1865; enlarged eds., 1866 and 1868; greatly enlarged and annotated, 1880); and “Treatise on Military Law” (2 vols., 1886; condensed into one volume for the use of the cadets at the military academy as “Abridgment of Military Law,” 1887). He has also translated the “Military Penal Code of the German Empire” (1873). — Their sister, Laura, author, b. in New Haven, Conn., 13 Sept., 1825, was educated at private schools in her native place, and in 1846 married W. Templeton Johnson. Besides the above-mentioned “Life and Poems” of her brother Theodore, she has published “Little Blossom's Reward,” a book for children, under the pen-name of “Emily Hare” (Boston, 1854); “Poems of Twenty Years” (New York, 1874); a “Longfellow Prose Birth-day Book” (Boston, 1888);
