The Rainborowes

Starred review from August 15, 2013
A marvelously rendered tale of how one extended family helped shape, and was shaped by, the England and New England of the 1600s. Intrepid seaman William Rainborowe was the patriarch of a family that, though not a household name, went on to have a definitive impact on the founding of Puritan New England and on the English civil war. Tinniswood (Pirates of Barbary: Corsairs, Conquests and Captivity in the Seventeenth-Century Mediterranean, 2010, etc.) chronicles the Rainborowe family history with both the loving care of a true historian and the wit and candor of a storyteller. His work is both a contribution to historical research and a window for the public into the 17th century. William Rainborowe battled piracy around Morocco and in the British Isles while also becoming a wealthy merchant and adviser to the government in naval affairs. Members of his Puritan family would settle in the Boston area in the Great Migration of the 1630s. Some would go on to crisscross the Atlantic again in search of commercial success or in order to take part in English politics. One daughter, Martha, would become the wife of John Winthrop, governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Her brothers Thomas and William Junior were destined to be leading figures in the English civil war. In a story spanning three continents, nearly half a century and dozens of lives, Tinniswood ably keeps readers' focus. His ability to weave the Rainborowe family tale into the larger tapestry of English and New England history will be appreciated by amateur and professional historians alike. In the end, it is easy for readers to agree with the author's assessment: "The Rainborowes mattered. Not only because every life matters, but also because they were there at a moment when the world changed. And they helped it to change." An extraordinary glimpse into a pivotal epoch in Western history.

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Starred review from August 1, 2013
A seventeenth-century preacher determined to overturn, overturn, overturn was sure to attract followers, none more fervent than the Rainborowes, a family whose zeal left an indelible mark on both the New England of John Winthrop and the New Commonwealth of Oliver Cromwell. In recounting this clan's ocean-spanning deeds, Tinniswood explodes the common perception that Puritans coming to colonial America were turning their backs on England. When 1640 brings an English-Scottish war, opening exciting possibilities for reforming old England, some Rainborowes join other visionaries recrossing the Atlantic to press for revolution. Emboldened by a colonial experience that has made them resistant to royal prerogatives and open to democratic experiments, the Rainborowes assume major roles in the Roundhead revolt against Charles I and his aristocratic supporters. In Tinniswood's compelling narrative, no figure stands taller than Colonel Thomas Rainborowe, a Puritan firebrand who challenges even Cromwell in his advocacy of egalitarian government. Less prominent but more colorful, Thomas' brother William even embraces the views of the anarchistsometimes nudistRanters. Though Thomas is felled by royalist assassins and William drifts out of the public eye, readers will recognize the enduring relevance of this family's political passions. Rare historical scholarship, radiant with singular personalities aflame with world-transforming convictions.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)