A Whole Lotta Family - Person Sheet
A Whole Lotta Family - Person Sheet
NameMartha Joanna Winthrop 
BurialLyon-Rawson Cemetery, Greenwich, Fairfield Co, Connecticut11
FatherHenry Winthrop (1607-1630)
MotherElizabeth “Bessie” Fones (1610-1673)
Spouses
BurialLyon-Rawson Cemetery, Greenwich, Fairfield Co, Connecticut11
FatherRichard Lane Lyon Sr (1590-1679)
MotherMargaret Hopwood (1590-)
MarriageJun 1647
ChildrenMary Winthrop “Marie” (1649-1713)
Notes for Martha Joanna Winthrop
Martha Winthrop (Lyon), star-crossed
Martha Winthrop was born on May 9, 1630, in Groton Manor, Suffolk, England, the granddaughter of John Winthrop, governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. It was all downhill for her from there.
Martha’s father, Henry Winthrop, drowned in a swimming accident the day after he arrived in America.
Her mother, Elizabeth Fones, then married a wealthy landowner in Greenwich, Connecticut. He became deranged and deserted Elizabeth and Martha. *
Elizabeth took up with her husband’s business manager and had a child by him while still married to her husband.
Martha married Thomas Lyon in 1647 and had one child, Mary Lou Winthrop. Martha battled frail health for years and died in her early 20s.
Thomas remarried and fathered another eight children.
“Thomas became part of the Quaker movement and was persecuted as such,” Robert Miller wrote in Lyon Memorial (1907). “He had land and goods confiscated, making his life with his second wife as hard as his life was with his invalid first wife.”
After Thomas died, Mary Lou sued her father’s estate. She claimed that since a portion of the land her father had owned came to him through his marriage to Martha, she was entitled to more than an equal share of the movable property with her stepsisters.
Mary Lou prevailed, and her stepbrothers had to pony up more for her.
And you thought your family was dysfunctional.13
Martha Winthrop was born on May 9, 1630, in Groton Manor, Suffolk, England, the granddaughter of John Winthrop, governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. It was all downhill for her from there.
Martha’s father, Henry Winthrop, drowned in a swimming accident the day after he arrived in America.
Her mother, Elizabeth Fones, then married a wealthy landowner in Greenwich, Connecticut. He became deranged and deserted Elizabeth and Martha. *
Elizabeth took up with her husband’s business manager and had a child by him while still married to her husband.
Martha married Thomas Lyon in 1647 and had one child, Mary Lou Winthrop. Martha battled frail health for years and died in her early 20s.
Thomas remarried and fathered another eight children.
“Thomas became part of the Quaker movement and was persecuted as such,” Robert Miller wrote in Lyon Memorial (1907). “He had land and goods confiscated, making his life with his second wife as hard as his life was with his invalid first wife.”
After Thomas died, Mary Lou sued her father’s estate. She claimed that since a portion of the land her father had owned came to him through his marriage to Martha, she was entitled to more than an equal share of the movable property with her stepsisters.
Mary Lou prevailed, and her stepbrothers had to pony up more for her.
And you thought your family was dysfunctional.13