(1588–1649), American colonial leader, born in England. He was the first governor 1630–49 of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. His son John Winthrop, Jr. (1606–76), also born in England, served as the governor of Connecticut 1657, 1659–76.

(1714–79), American astronomer and physicist. He was the first American to practice rigorous experimental science, giving laboratory demonstrations of electricity in 1746 and predicting the return of Halley's Comet in 1759.