John Thorndike
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
John Thorndike and his wife Elizabeth Stratoon were among those who sailed to America on the Arabella and were some of the first founders of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. They were the parents of Elizabeth Thorndike who married John Proctor who was executed as a witch August 10, 1692 in Salem, Essex Co., Massachusetts.
They are also the great grandparents to Senator John Kerry who descends from their son Paul Thorndike. John Thorndike is buried in the East Cloister of Westminster Abbey, alongside his brother Herbert Thorndike, the Canon of Westminster Abbey. Herbert Thorndike wrote the Syriac Chapter to Walton's Polyglot and was a Fellow of Hebrew at Cambridge University.
