The Winthrop Woman

The Winthrop Woman is Anya Seton's 1958 historical novel about Elizabeth Fones, a settler of the Massachusetts Bay Colony and a founder of Greenwich, Connecticut.

Unlike his father and brother, Harry is wild and carefree, reckless to the point that he has depleted all his money and nearly brought his family to financial ruin.

Unwilling to return to his father, Harry instead stays at Thomas Fones's house and spends his time frolicking with his equally profligate friends.

On her uncle's suggestion, Elizabeth marries Robert Feake, a weak-willed and strangely disturbed man who often has nightmares and commits odd deeds in his sleep.

When William Hallet, a previous acquaintance of Elizabeth's, begins courting her and gains more and more control over the Feake household, Lyons grows jealous.

After Jack does everything that he can for his cousin and ex-lover, Elizabeth and William Hallet are once again free to move back to Greenwich, where Indians then set their house afire.

[2] Kirkus Reviews described it as "an absorbing story, in which the happenings grow out of the characters -- all too rare an attribute when the author is bound by integrity to historical fact".