John Winthrop the Younger, English politician, 1st Governor of Connecticut (born 1606)

John Winthrop the Younger, FRS, was an English-born physician, colonial administrator, and alchemist. He was an early governor of the Connecticut Colony who played a large role in the unification of numerous settlements and obtaining a royal charter for the unified colony.

The territory of the United States state of Connecticut was first settled by Europeans in the 1620s, when Dutch traders established trading posts on the Connecticut River. English settlers, mainly Puritans fleeing repression in England, began to arrive in the 1630s, and a number of separate colonies were established. The first was the Saybrook Colony in 1635, based at the mouth of the Connecticut; it was followed by the Connecticut Colony and the New Haven Colony. The Saybrook Colony merged with the Connecticut Colony in 1644, and the New Haven Colony was merged into Connecticut between 1662 and 1665 after Connecticut received a royal charter.