William Pynchon was born in England in 1590.A Puritan, he emigrated to the Massachusetts Colony in 1630 and became involved in fur trading. In 1635 he was appointed as governor of a new settlement in Massachusetts (Springfield). He also served as one of Connecticut's magistrates (1636-37) but left the post after a conflict with Thomas Hooker. By the time Pynchon died in Springfield in 1662 he was one of the richest men in New England.