Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 24.djvu/652

Rh 614 W I N W I R and his marriage with Mrs Susanna White was the first marriage in Plymouth colony. He was chosen a magis trate in 1624, and governor in 1633, 1636, and 1644, when Bradford, the usual governor, &quot; by importunity got off.&quot; He made several voyages to England as the colony s agent. Keturning to England in 1649, he remained until 1655, when Cromwell sent him on a mission to the West Indies. He died on the voyage, May 8, 1655. Winslow s portrait is in the gallery of the Pilgrim Society at Plymouth. Wiusor (Narrative and Critical History of the United States, 277, and autograph at page 268) gives a copy of it as &quot;the only authentic likeness of any of the Mayflower pilgrims.&quot; The list of his writings is given in the same volume. See also Allen s American Biography, and Belknap s American Biography. WINTER, PETER (1754-1825), dramatic composer, was born at Mannheim in 1754 (or, according to other J accounts, in 1758). He received some instruction from | the abbe Vogler, but so little that he may be almost con- j sidered as self-taught. After playing in the &quot; kapelle &quot; of the elector Karl Theodor, at Munich, he became in 1776 director of the court theatre. When Mozart pro duced his Idomeneo at Munich in 1781, Winter, annoyed at his success, conceived a violent hatred towards him ; yet his own popularity was both brilliant and lasting, and of more than thirty operas written by him between 1778 and 1820 very few were unsuccessful, though, through lack of dramatic power, none have survived him. His most popular work, Das unterbrochene Opferfest, was pro duced in 1796 at Vienna, where in 1797-98 he composed Die Pyramideii von Babylon and Das Labyrinth, both written for him by Schickaneder in continuation of the story of Mozart s Zauberfldte. While in Vienna Winter gratified his spite against Mozart by propagating scan dalous and utterly baseless reports concerning his private life. He returned to Munich in 1798. Five years later he visited London, where he produced Calypso in 1803, Proserpina in 1804, and Za ira in 1805, with great success. His last opera, Stinger und Schneider, was produced in 1820 at Munich, where he died October 17, 1825. Besides his dramatic works he composed some effective sacred music, including twenty-six masses. WINTERTHUR, a flourishing industrial town in the Toss valley, canton of Zurich, Switzerland. It is 1450 feet above sea-level, and has a rapidly increasing population (in 1870, 9404; in 1880, 13,595;&quot; in 1887, 15,516), all German-speaking and nearly all Protestants. It is the point of junction of eight lines of railway, and is therefore of considerable commercial importance. Its main in dustries are cambric-weaving, cotton-printing, the manu facture of machinery, and wine-growing, Stadtberg being the best variety of wine grown in the neighbourhood of the town. It is a modern well-built town with a fine town-hall and well-arranged school buildings. It was formerly very wealthy and thriving, but has suffered severely from the disastrous financial enterprise of the National Railway of Switzerland which it promoted. In 1878 it had to sell its property in that line, and from 1881 to 1885 it was in great difficulties in the matter of a loan of nine million francs guaranteed in 1874 by the town, together with three others in Aargau, to that ill-fated rail way. As the three co-guarantor towns were unable to pay their share, the whole burden fell on Winterthur, which has struggled valiantly to meet its liabilities, and has been helped by large loans from the cantonal and federal Governments. The Roman settlement of Vitudurum (Celtic dur, water) was a little north-east of the present town, at the place now known as Ober-Winterthur. It was there that in 919 Burkhard II., duke of Alemannia, defeated Rudolph II., king of Transjurane Burgundy. It was practically refounded in the valley in 1180 by the counts of Kyburg, who granted it great liberty and privileges, making it the seat of their district court for the Thurgau. In 1260 the townsmen, in their zeal for additional power, overthrew the castle of the counts. In 1264 the town passed with the rest of the Kyburg inheritance to the Hapsbnrgs, who showed very great favour to it, and thus secured its unswerving loyalty. In 1292 the men of Zurich were beaten back in an attempt to take the town. For a short time after the out lawry of Duke Frederick of Austria, it became a free imperial city (1415-42) ; but after the conquest of the Thurgau by the Swiss confederates (1460-61) Winterthur, which had gallantly stood a nine weeks siege, was isolated in the midst of non- Austrian terri tory. Hence it was sold by the duke to the town of Zurich in 1467, its rights and liberties being reserved, and its history since then has been that of the other lands ruled by Zurich. In 1717- 26 Zurich tried hard by means of heavy dues to crush the rival silk and cotton industries at Winterthur, which, however, on the whole very successfully maintained its ancient rights and liberties against the encroachments of Zurich. J. C. Troll, Gtsch. d. Stadt Winterthur, 1840. WINTHROP, JOHN (1587-1649), was born at Groton, Suffolk, England, January 12, 1587. He graduated at Trinity College, Cambridge, about 1605, and was bred to the law. He became a Puritan, and in 1629 was made governor of the Massachusetts Bay Company. The next year he headed the great emigration to Massachusetts, landing at Salem and settling at Boston. The remainder of his life was closely identified with the history of his colony. He was re-elected governor until 1634, and afterwards in 1637-40, 1641-43, and 1646-49. He died at Boston, March 26, 1649. The tenderness and gentleness of Winthrop s nature are beyond dispute ; even such political opponents as Vane retained their personal friendship for him. These qualities, however, were sup plemented by a decided antipathy to democracy in every form, which made him the best of civil leaders for the supporters of the ecclesiastical system of early Massachusetts. A vigorous, perhaps captious, statement of this side of his influence will be found in Brooks Adams s Emancipation of Massachusetts. His Life and Letters have been edited by his descendant, R. C. Winthrop. His Journal has been edited by James Savage, who has given it the more appropriate and exact title of The History of New England, 1630-1640. The Winthrop Papers are in the Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society. Winthrop s descendants have been numerous, and have included an unusual number of men and women of marked ability; see Whitmore s Notes on the Winthrop Family. One of them, Theodore Winthrop (1828-1861), of New Haven, was one of the earliest victims of the civil war. WINTHROP, JOHN (1606-1676), son of the preceding, was born at Groton, England, February 12, 1606. He graduated at Trinity College, Dublin, studied law at the Inner Temple, London, and then travelled on the Con tinent, seeing some military and diplomatic service. In 1631 he followed his father to Massachusetts, being made a magistrate in 1633. Returning to England, he obtained a commission as governor of Connecticut under the Say and Sele patent, and sent out the party which put up the fort at Saybrook, at the mouth of the Connecticut river. In 1645 he obtained a title to lands in south-eastern Connecticut, and founded there the present city of New London. Connecticut made him a magistrate in 1651, and elected him governor annually from 1657 until his death. He was the agent who obtained for the colony the charter of 1662. He died at Boston, April 5, 1676. All of the father s fine qualities, and more, came out in the son. The father has had a few unfavourable critics ; the son has always been looked upon as the flower of American Puritanism. Even the son, however, was only the representative, in obtaining the charter, of a knot of able and determined men, who had clearer notions of the commonwealth life at which they were aiming ; and the governor does not seem to have approved all of their somewhat vigorous proceedings in putting it into effect. Physical science had strong attractions for Winthrop. He was one of the first members of the Royal Society, and was constantly interested in mines and mining in New England. The authorities for his life are those given in the preceding sketch. WINTON, or WYNTOUN, ANDREW OF. See WYNTOUN. WIRE. The physical properties requisite to make useful wire are possessed by only a limited number of metals and metallic alloys. The metals must in the first place be ductile ; and, further, the wire when drawn out