John Lothropp (born Etton, Yorkshire, 1584; died 1653) was an English Anglican clergyman, who became a Congregationalist minister and emigrant to New England. He was the founder of Barnstable, Massachusetts.

He was baptized Dec 20, 1584. He attended Queen's College, Cambridge, where he matriculated in 1601, graduated with a B.A. in 1605, and with a MA in 1609.

He was ordained in the Church of England and appointed curate of a local parish in Egerton, Kent. In 1623 he renounced his orders and joined the cause of the Independents. Lothropp gained prominence in 1624, when he was called to replace Rev. Henry Jacob, as the pastor of the First Independent Church in London, a congregation of sixty members, which met at Southwark. Church historians sometimes call this church, the Jacob-Lothropp-Jessey Church, named for its first three pastors; Henry Jacob, John Lothropp, Henry Jessey.

They were forced to meet in private to avoid the scrutiny of Bishop of London William Laud. Following the group's discovery on April 22, 1632 by officers of the king, forty two of Lothropp's Independents were arrested. Only eighteen escaped capture. They were prosecuted for failure to take the oath of loyalty to the established church. They were jailed in the Clink, at Newgate. All were released on bail by the spring of 1634, except Lothropp who was deemed too dangerous to be set at liberty. While he was in prison his wife Hannah House became ill and died. His six surviving children were according to tradition left to fend for themselves begging for bread on the streets of London. Friends being unable to care for his children brought them to the Bishop who had charge of Lothropp. The bishop ultimately released him on bond in May of 1634 with the understanding that he would immediately remove to the New World.

Lothropp was told that he would be pardoned upon acceptance of terms to permanently leave England with his family along with as many of his congregation members as he could take who would not accept the authority of the Church of England. Lathrop accepted this offer and left for Plymouth, Massachusetts. He, with his group, sailed on the Griffin and arrived in Boston September 18, 1634. He married Anna Hammond (1616-1687) shortly after his arrival.

Lothropp did not stay in Boston long. Within days, he and his group relocated to Scituate where they "joyned in covenaunt together" along with nine others who preceded them to form the "church of Christ collected att Scituate." The Congregation at Scituate was not a success. Dissension on the issue of baptism as well as other unspecified grievances and the lack of good grazing land and fodder for their cattle caused the church in Scituate to split in 1638.

Lothropp petitioned Governor Thomas Prence in Plymouth for a "place for the transplanting of us, to the end that God might have more glory and wee more comfort". Thus as Otis says "Mr. Lothropp and a large company arrived in Barnstable, Oct 11, 1639 O.S., bringing with them the crops which they had raised in Scituate." There, within three years they had built homes for all the families and then Lothropp began construction on a larger sturdier meeting house by Coggin's (or Cooper's) Pond, which was completed in 1644. This building, now part of The Sturgis Library in Barnstable, Massachusetts is one of John Lothrop's original homes and meeting houses, and is now also the oldest building housing a public library in America.

"He was a man of humble and broken heart spirit, lively in dispensation of the Word of God, studious of peace, furnished with godly contentment, willing to spend and be spent for the cause of the church of Christ."

His grandfather Robert Lathropp (1510-1556) married into the noble family of Thomas Aston (born 1480),

He married Hannah House in England, on October 10, 1610. They had eight children:

# Jane Lothropp b: 29 SEPT 1614 in Egerton, Kent, England # Anne Lothropp b: MAY 1616 in Egerton, England # John Lothropp b: FEB. 1617/18 in Egerton, England # Barbara Lothropp b: OCT. 1619 in Egerton, England # Thomas Lothropp b: FEB. 1620/21 in Eastwell, Kent, England # Samuel Lothropp b: 1622 in Egerton, England # Joseph Lothropp , Capt. b: APR 1624 in Eastwell, Kent, England # Benjamin Lothropp b: DEC 1626 in Eastwell, Kent, England

Jane married Mayflower passenger Samuel Fuller, son of Edward Fuller.

After Hannah's death, Lothropp married again, to Ann Hammond (?) in 1635. They had five children.

<ol start="9">

Elizabeth Lothropp b: in Scituate, MA

Barnabas Lothropp b: JUN 1636 in Barnstable, MA

Abigail Lothropp b: 2 NOV. 1639 in Barnstable, MA

Bathsheba. Lothropp b: FEB. 1640/41 in Scituate, MA

John Lothropp , Capt. b: 9 FEB. 1643/44 in Barnstable, MA

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Lathrop's fame, more than his life, continues to this day. His direct descendants in America number more than 80,000, including U.S. Presidents Ulysses S. Grant, Franklin D. Roosevelt, George H. W. Bush, George W. Bush, Governors Mitt Romney and George W. Romney, Mormon prophet Joseph Smith, Benedict Arnold, President Dwight D. Eisenhower's Secretary of State John Foster Dulles, poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Vice President Henry A. Wallace, Jane Stanford, wife of the founder of Stanford University and inventor Eli Whitney, among others.

*Barnstable, MA *Congregationalism *Plymouth colony *Lowthorp for a discussion of the origins and spelling variations of the name Lo-Lathrop.

* Huntington, Rev E. B. AM"A Genealogical Memoir of the Lo-Lathrop Family in this country embracing as far as known the descendants of The Rev. John Lothropp of Scituate and Barnstable, Mass., and Mark Lothrop of Salem and Bridgewater, Mass. the first generation of descendants of other names." ; Ridgefield Ct. 1884. A searchable online version of this book is available to the Lothropp Foundation website listed above. *Price, Richard. John Lothropp: "A Puritan Biography And Genealogy". Salt Lake City, Utah, 1984. *Otis, Amos. "Genealogical Notes of Barnstable Families". 1888. *Holt, Helene Exiled : the story of John Lathrop, 1584-1653, a novel 1987

* Lothropp Foundation * John Lothropp (1584-1653): A Puritan Biography & Genealogy * Barnstable county history page * Sturgis Library History *History of the Jacob Lathrop Jessy Church *"Notable Descendants of Rev. John Lathrop/Lothropp, Founder of Barnstable, Massachusetts" by Gary Boyd Roberts, NEGHS *http://www.newenglandancestors.org/education/articles/research/special_guests/gary_boyd_roberts/56_659_456.asp *http://www.usgennet.org/usa/il/topic/history/LathropJohn.html

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Lothrop, John Lothrop, John Lothrop, John