The Winthrop Tomb in King's Chapel Burying Ground

Tomb 20 in King's Chapel Burying Ground in Boston, Massachusetts, has a number of historic burials there, all members of the well-known Winthrop family.

The names carved into the top of this (clearly modern, presumbly late 20th Century) tombstone are, from top to bottom:

            John Winthrop, Governor of Massachusetts Bay

            John Winthrop the Younger, 1st Governor of Connecticut

            Maj. Gen. Fitz John Winthrop, Governor of Connecticut

            Maj. Gen. Wait Still Winthrop

            Adam Winthrop

            Col. Adam Winthrop

            Ann Winthrop

            Thomas Lindall Winthrop, Lt. Governor of Massachusetts

            Francis William Winthrop

            Thomas Lindall Winthrop

The book Preachers, Patriots & Plain Folks, Boston’s Burying Ground Guide, by Charles C. Wells and Suzanne Austin Wells, pp. 23-28, gives short biographies of many the individuals buried here.

But of course, it is the heraldry carved into this tomb marker that makes it of special interest to us.

The Winthrop coat of arms as we can make them out here are: Three chevronels overall a lion rampant. The crest is: A rabbit courant. And the motto: Spes vincint thronum ("Hope conquers the throne" or more broadly, "Hope overcomes all obstacles/challenges", signifying that hope triumphs over difficulties and high challenges).

These arms appear in the Gore Roll of Arms three times (for Dean Winthrop, Anna Winthrop, and Waitstill Winthrop), where we can add the colors to the blazon: Argent, three chevronels gules overall a lion rampant sable. The crest there is: Atop a mount vert a hare courant proper.

Burke's General Armory has an unusually long paragraph regarding the Winthrop arms [I have written the tinctures here in full, rather than using Burke's abbreviations]:

Winthrop (Groton, so. Suffolk, now New England, United States, America; confirmed and exemplified by William Dethick, Garter, 24 June 1592, to John Wynethrop, Esq., son of Adam Wynethrop, of Groton, co. Suffolk, gent., and uncle of John Winthrop, first Governor of Massachusetts, as the "shield and cote of armes apperteynyng to ye name and ancestors of the said John Wynethrop, Esq." This original confirmation is still in the possession of the dirrect descendant of the family, Hon. Robert Charles Winthrop, of Boston, some years Speaker of the House of Representatives in Massachusetts, afterwards Member for Boston in the Congress of the United States, and Speaker of that Assembly, and finally Senator for Massachusetts. Argent three chevrons crenellée gules overall a lion rampant sable armed and langued azure. Crest--A hare proper running on a mount vert. Motto (probably adopted as late as 1700, being the Latin of an anagram of the words John Winthrop, "Hope wins a throne")--Spes vincit thronum.

Frankly, I don't see the anagram here, even assuming a Latin Johannes Winthrop: No p, v/u, c, u/v, or m. And somewhere along the line, the chevronels appear to have lost their crenellations. The arms on this tomb, and all three entries of Winthrop arms in the Gore Roll, show plain chevronels.

Still, it's nice to see the American Winthrop dynasty memorialized here in the heart of downtown Boston, a city which they helped to found.