Reverend John Lathrop

There are ancestors who stand out from the others. These ancestors have volumes of information available about them that make them even more endearing. To many, one of these ancestors is the Reverend John Lathrop.

Reverend Lathrop was a minister for the Church of England and became disillusioned with the church. He later became involved in the First Independent Church in London. At this time a law was decreed that ministers in England had to sign an oath to the Church of England. He believed in the separation of Church and State and felt that the common people should be able to read the Bible for themselves. Reverend Lathrop would not sign this oath and subsequently was arrested and charged with sedition. The courts required that those accused of such acts were to testify against themselves and were denied rights granted to normal citizens. These proceedings were so intimidating that it was one of the events that caused the Great Migration to New England.

There were others who refused to sign this oath and they were sent to prison too. They were eventually set free but not Reverend Lathrop. He was deemed to be too dangerous and was not freed with the others. His wife died while he was in prison and his children were left homeless and forced to beg on the streets for food. Reverend Lathrop was eventually released, but he had to leave immediately for New England and never return.

Reverend Lathrop traveled to the New World on the ship “Griffin.” He brought his Bible along with him, and one evening he spilled hot candle wax on his Bible, and it burnt through several pages. Reverend Lathrop then repaired the holes and had filled in the missing text from memory. This Bible is displayed at the Sturgis Library in Barnstable, Massachusetts.


Lathrop and his congregation settled the town Barnstable in the state of Massachusetts. Lathrop was beloved by his congregation and was valiant in standing up for his values and convictions. An example to his descendants. Are you a descendant of Reverend Lathrop? Relativefinder.org will go through your FamilySearch file and let you know.

A few of the famous descendants of John Lathrop are:

• Presidents George H. W. and George W. Bush
• James A. Garfield
• Ulysses S. Grant
• Franklin D. Roosevelt
• Benedict Arnold
• Joseph and Hyrum Smith
• Wilford Woodruff
• Oliver Cowdery
• Parley P. and Orson Pratt