THE GROTON WINTHROP MULBERRY

This tree, a species of Morus Nigra, was believed to have been planted, about 1550 by Adam Winthrop, (1498 - 1562) grandfather of John Winthrop, (1588 - 1649) Governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony & founder of Boston.

The tree was, in the time of Elizabeth 1, a new species, imported from Persia, planted by men of fashion as a novelty. There is a particularly fine example at Long Melford Hall, dating from the same period. There may have been a commercial motive in the introduction of the Mulberry - as a food source for the silkworm, although it was realised later that the silkworm prefers the Morus Alba (White Mulberry).

This mulberry has stood here in Groton since John Winthrop planned the Great Migration to New England. Between 1630 - 1642, 25,000 English men and women. followed Winthrop to New England. It is perhaps the last surviving physical link between our forbears, from Groton and the neighbouring parishes and towns of Suffolk, who braved the journey to New England. Join us in helping to preserve this symbolic link between the Old World and the New.

Groton Croft is owned by the Groton Winthrop Mulberry Trust for use as a place of quiet enjoyment perpetuity. The Trust is a registered charity.