Rev. Richard Mather

Richard Mather (1596-1669), was a Puritan clergyman in Colonial Boston, Massachusetts. He was father to Increase Mather and grandfather to Cotton Mather, both also celebrated Boston divines.

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Wikipedia says (downloaded March 20, 2010 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Mather)_ :

Richard Mather (1596 - April 22, 1669), was a Puritan clergyman in Colonial Boston, Massachusetts. He was father to Increase Mather and grandfather to Cotton Mather, both also celebrated Boston divines.

Biography

Mather was born in Lowton, in the parish of Winwick, Lancashire, England, of a family which was in reduced circumstances but entitled to bear a coat-of-arms.

He studied at Winwick grammar school, of which he was appointed a master in his fifteenth year, and left it in 1612 to become master of a newly established school at Toxteth Park, Liverpool. After a few months at Brasenose College, Oxford, he began in November 1618 to preach at Toxteth, and was ordained there, possibly only as deacon, early in 1619.

In August-November 1633 he was suspended for nonconformity in matters of ceremony; and in 1634 was again suspended by the visitors of Richard Neile, archbishop of York, who, hearing that he had never worn a surplice during the fifteen years of his ministry, refused to reinstate him and said that "it had been better for him that he had gotten seven bastards."

He had a great reputation as a preacher in and about Liverpool; but, advised by letters of John Cotton and Thomas Hooker, he was persuaded to join the company of pilgrims in May 1635 and embarked at Bristol for New England. He arrived at Boston on August 15, 1635, in the midst of one of the most catastrophic hurricanes of the colonial era. He was the pastor of Dorchester until his death in 1669.

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The following data regarding Rev. Richard Mather and his family was downloaded 2010 from http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=34224342

Rev. Richard Mather

Birth: 1596, England

Death: Apr. 22, 1669, USA

Born in Lowton, Lancashire, England. Attended Brasenose College, Oxford in 1618. Pastor of church at Toxteth, Liverpool, c. 1618 to 1633. Emigrated from Bristol, England, to Dorchester, Mass. on the James in 1635. Pastor at Dorchester from 23 Aug. 1636 until death in 1669. Co-author of The Bay Psalm Book in 1639, the first book published in English in the American colonies. A leader of New England Congregationalism and a chief proponent of the Half-Way Covenant of 1662, which broadened church membership and helped to maintain ecclesiastical power in the Colony. Father of the Rev. Increase Mather (1639 - 1723), and grandfather of the Rev. Cotton Mather (1663 - 1728).

Family links:

Children:

Timothy Mather (1628 - 1685)
Increase Mather (1639 - 1723)
Spouses:
Catherine (Holt) Mather (1596 - 1655)
Sarah (Hawkredd) Storey Cotton Mather
Sarah Story Cotton Mather (1601 - 1676)
Burial:

Dorchester North Burying Ground

Dorchester

Suffolk County

Massachusetts, USA

Created by: Bill Mather

Record added: Feb 26, 2009

Find A Grave Memorial# 34224342

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Rev. Richard Mather (1596 - April 22, 1669) lived prior to the Salem witch trials, a series of hearings before local magistrates followed by county court of trials to prosecute people accused of witchcraft in Essex, Suffolk, and Middlesex counties of colonial Massachusetts, between February 1692 and May 1693. Rev. Richard Mather's grandson, Reverend Cotton Mather (1663 - 1728), was involved in this episode. In his book "Memorable Providences Relating to Witchcrafts and Possessions" (1689), Cotton Mather described strange behavior exhibited by the four children of Boston mason John Goodwin and attributed it to witchcraft practiced upon them by an Irish washerwoman, Mary Glover. Mather, a minister of Boston's North Church (not to be confused with the Episcopal Old North Church of Paul Revere fame), was a prolific publisher of pamphlets and a firm believer in witchcraft. Indeed, on May 31, 1692, during the trials, Cotton Mather wrote to one of the judges, John Richards, voicing his support of the prosecutions, but cautioning him of the dangers of relying on spectral evidence and advising the court on how to proceed. (pp. 35–40 of Kenneth Silverman, editor. Selected Letters of Cotton Mather, published 1971. Louisiana State University Press: Baton Rouge. ISBN 0807109207.) The first person found guilty was executed on June 10. Two days later, Cotton Mather and eleven other local ministers— including Increase Mather, who was Richard Mather's son, and Cotton Mather's father — submitted "The Return of several Ministers" to the Governor and Council in Boston, cautioning the authorities not to rely entirely on the use of spectral evidence, stating, "Presumptions whereupon persons may be Committed, and much more, Convictions whereupon persons may be Condemned as Guilty of Witchcrafts, ought certainly to be more considerable, than barely the Accused Persons being Represented by a Spectre unto the Afflicted". Eighteen more were executed before the trials ended.

Before his execution, George Burroughs recited the Lord's Prayer perfectly, something that was supposedly impossible for a witch. But Cotton Mather, who was present, reassured the crowd by reminding it that George Burroughs had been convicted before a jury of his peers.

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Immigration: 17 AUG 1635 England

Notes from Findagrave: Birth: 1596, England Death: Apr. 22, 1669, USA

Born in Lowton, Lancs., Eng. Attended Brasenose College, Oxford in 1618. Pastor of church at Toxteth, Liverpool, c. 1618 to 1633. Emigrated from Bristol, Eng. to Dorchester, Mass. on the James in 1635. Pastor at Dorchester from 23 Aug. 1636 until death in 1669. Co-author of The Bay Psalm Book in 1639, the first book published in English in the American colonies. A leader of New England Congregationalism and a chief proponent of the Half-Way Covenant of 1662, which broadened church membership and helped to maintain ecclesiastical power in the Colony. Father of the Rev. Increase Mather (1639 - 1723), and grandfather of the Rev. Cotton Mather (1663 - 1728).

Family links:

Spouses:

 Catherine Holt Mather (1596 - 1655)

 Sarah Story Cotton Mather (1601 - 1676)*

Children:

 Timothy Mather (1628 - 1685)*

 Eleazer Mather (1637 - 1669)*

 Increase Mather (1639 - 1723)*

*Calculated relationship

Burial: Dorchester North Burying Ground Dorchester Suffolk County Massachusetts, USA

http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=34224342

• Lineage of Rev. Richard Mather by Mather, Horace E., 1827-1909 links