John Thorndike (settler)

John Thorndike (February 23, 1611 or 1612 – interred 1668) was one of the first founders of the Massachusetts Bay Colony.

Thorndike was a farmer and cowherd from Great Carlton, Lincolnshire, England.

[2] They were the parents of seven children, one son, Captain Paul Thorndike, and several daughters including Elizabeth Thorndike, who later became the second wife of John Proctor who was executed as a witch during the Salem Witch Trials.

[3] Herbert Thorndike wrote the Syriac Chapter to Walton's Polyglot and was a Fellow of Hebrew at Cambridge University.

John and Elizabeth Thorndike have many descendants, most of which are in the United States but there are branches of the family tree in Canada, Germany and Argentina.