The Lathrop Surname
by Cristian Farmer
In the United States there are many surnames of great prominence: Washington, Jefferson of the revolutionary days, Lincoln & Grant of the 1800s, and Roosevelt & Kennedy in the 1900s. One great surname that has always been present behind the scenes is the surname of Lathrop.
Approximately 95% of the people in the U.S. that have the surname Lathrop are descended from John Lathrop. He himself spelled his name Lothropp. It is estimated that 70% of his descendants use the derivation of Lathrop, while the other 30% use Lothrop. Surname spelling changes were common before the middle part of the 19th century - for example the German surname Maier being changed to Myer, Meyer, and the plurals thereof. Another example is the Von Bran surname changing to Brown. Because of this surname change many people can be related to John Lathrop without realizing it.
One interesting thing about John Lathrop is that many leaders & innovators are descended from him:
Marjorie Meriwether Post, Founder of General Foods
Benjamin M. Spock, Physician, Educator
Sir Robert Laird Borden, Prime Minister of Canada
Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 32nd US President
Willard Mitt Romney, current Governor of Massachusetts
Eli Whitney, Inventor of Cotton Gin
Ulysses Simpson Grant, 18th US President
George W. Romney, Governor of Michigan
George Herbert Walker Bush, US President
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Poet
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Supreme Court Justice
Terrel H. Bell, US Secretary of Education
Joseph Smith - Founder of the LDS Religion
Thomas E. Dewey, Governor of New York
Allen Welsh Dulles, Director of CIA
John Lathrop was born in the late 14th century in Yorkshire England. He received a masters from Queens College, Cambridge in 1609. After receiving his masters he was placed in charge of a region of the Church of England. During this period of John Lathrop’s ministry King James I was the monarch of England. The king was sick of the influence of the puritans and instead preferred more sanctimonious, ornate rituals. John Lathrop tolerated these rituals for as long as possible until 1623 he left the Church of England and became a minister for an independent church.
Leaving the Church of England was not only seen as a great offense, it was also illegal. Soon John Lathrop’s entire congregation was arrested for practicing another religion, including his wife and children. Soon most of the congregation was allowed to leave prison, with the exception of John Lathrop, who remained under lock & key until 1634. Even then he was only allowed to leave after promising to depart from England for the American colonies.
The congregation of John Lathrop sailed with him to the new world. 6 of his children also went with him. Unfortunately his wife, Hanna Howse, had passed away while he was in prison.
John Lathrop and his congregation took residence near the area of Plymouth. Having strict religious notions, he would not even partake of communion with the Puritans.
Because of the strong religious situation in the American colonies at the time, John Lathrop and his followers were soon given land near the modern area of Barnstable, Massachusetts. While there John Lathrop raised more descendants with his second wife Ann. All of John’s children founded families of great importance in shaping America’s future.
400 years later there is a good chance that many modern people on the American Continent are related to John Lathrop. If his children each just had 4 children, and those children had 4 children down to modern times, there would be over a million people descended from the Lathrop family today. So it is entirely possible that you are as well.
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