MATHER, Richard, clergyman, born in Lowton, Lancashire, England, in 1596;
died in Dorchester, Massachusetts, 22 April, 1669. He was the progenitor of the
Mather family in New England. His father was Thomas Mather, and his grandfather
was John Mather, of the chapelry of Lowton, in the parish of Winwick,
Lancashire. In the early days of the 17th century, during the reign of James I.,
a band of Puritans cleared away the heavy forests at the south of the city of
Liverpool, and settled what was known as Toxteth Park. They looked upon the
burning of John Bradford, at Smithfield, as a martyrdom, and they erected a
stone chapel in which they might hear the doctrines of the Reformation. The
chapel is still in existence. It is plain and square, with no steeple or belfry
of any description. The exterior is covered with ivy. Among the tablets upon the
interior wall is one bearing this inscription: "Near this walk rest the remains
of several generations of an ancient family of yeomanry named Mather, who were
settled in Toxteth Park as early as the reign of Queen Elizabeth. They were
distinguished by many virtues and by strong religious feeling, and were among
the fairest specimens of those who, in former times, were called Puritans."
Richard Mather was called at a very early age to act as instructor to the youth
of this church. While filling this post he resolved to prepare for the ministry,
and to this end he entered Brasenose college, Oxford. In 1620 he was ordained by
the bishop of Chester and was settled over the church in Toxteth, where he
remained until 1635, when he removed to this country. This step was taken
because he had been suspended twice for non-conformity, and because he foresaw
the troubles under Charles I. and Archbishop Laud. He took the ship "Bristol" on
16 April and landed in Boston, in disguise, on 17 August His manuscript, journal
for 1635 is among the collections of the Dorchester antiquarian and historical
society. It was printed in Boston in 1850. In regard to the immigration of those
days Daniel Neal wrote that he had a list of seventy-seven divines, ordained in
the Church of England, that became pastors of churches in this country before
1640, and that Richard Mather was one of the number. On his arrival in Boston,
Mr. Mather found the church of Dorchester deserted by its minister, who had
become a colonist at Windsor, Connecticut, with a part of his flock. He was
called to the vacant church and served it from 1636 till his death. His
preaching was direct and without the use of quotations from the Latin. Thomas
Hooker said of him: "My brother Mather is a mighty man." In his time the
religious discussion was not so much upon the doctrines as upon the forms of
worship and the status of church government. In such discussions he took an
active part, and answered for the ministers of the colony the thirty-two
questions relating to church government that were propounded by the general
court in 1639. He was a member of the synod of 1648, and drew up the celebrated
Cambridge platform of discipline. He was one of three ministers to prepare the
New England edition of the Psalms (1646), and he was the author of several minor
works, chiefly on church discipline, including '" Discourse on the Church
Covenant" (1639), and "Treatise on Justification" (1652). He married in 1642
Catharine, daughter of Edward Holt, of Bury, Lancashire, the mother of his six
children, who were all sons, and four of whom were ministers
--Samuel, Nathaniel, Eleazer, and Increase. In 1656 he married, for his
second wife, Sarah Story, widow of the Reverend John Cotton, of Boston, who
survived him. His will is considered one of the most remarkable productions of
its kind that has ever been written, His tomb, with Latin inscription, is in the
old burying ground at Dorchester. See " Life and Death of Richard Mather," by
his son Increase (1670).--His eldest son, Samuel, clergyman, born in Toxteth,
England, 13 May, 1626; died in Dublin, Ireland, 29 October, 1671, came to this
country with his father, was graduated at Harvard in 1643, and was the first
graduate to be retained as a tutor. He was so beloved as a teacher that the
students wore badges of mourning for thirty days when he took his leave. Soon
after entering the ministry at Rowley lie was asked to be the pastor of the new
North church, a colony of the old South church, in Boston. He consented for a
few months, and then he left for England. His popularity abroad soon became
great, and his health was so seriously impaired that he was in danger of losing
his life. He was appointed chaplain to the lord mayor of London, which post
brought him in contact with many eminent ministers, lie preached at Graves-end
and in the cathedral in Exeter, and was made chaplain of Magdalen college,
Oxford, where he remained for some time. Having accompanied the English
commissioners into Scotland, he labored m that coquetry for two years. In 1660
he went to Ireland with several other ministers and the lord deputy, Henry
Cromwell. He was made joint pastor of the church of St. Nicholas, in which he
was afterward buried, and also senior fellow of Trinity college, Dublin. All
these appointments he received during the protectorate and in return for his
non-conformist views. While his ideas were positive, they were liberal. He
refused to displace several Episcopal ministers, when opportunity offered, on
the ground that he would hinder no one from preaching the gospel. Upon the
Restoration he was suspended for sedition in preaching two anti-Episcopal
discourses. Being debarred from Ireland, he established himself at Burton Wood
in Lancashire, until, with 2,000 other non-conformist ministers, he was ejected
from England in 1662. Returning to Dublin, he founded a Congregational church,
to which he ministered till the day of his death. His writings were chiefly
against the Established church and in favor of a united effort by the several
churches of the Dissenters. His exposure of a religious quack was approved by
the king's privy council in Ireland. He stood in the first rank of pulpit
orators, and it was said of him: " Mr. Charnock's invention, Dr. Harrison's
expression, and Mr. Mather's logic would make the perfectest preacher in the
world." His epitaph, translated, reads: "He lived long, although lie did not
continue long." He published many sermons and tracts, " Old Testament Types
Explained and improved " (London, 1673), and "Life of Nathaniel Mather" (1689)
.--Richard's third son, Nathaniel, clergyman, born in Lancashire, England, 20
March, 1630; died in London, 26 July, 1697, came to this country with his
father, and was graduated at Harvard in 1647. After entering the ministry he
followed his elder brother Samuel to England, and was presented by Oliver
Cromwell with a living in Barnstable, which he held from 1656 till 1662. He was
then ejected for non-conformity, after which he ministered to an English church
in Rotterdam. After the death of Samuel in 1671 he succeeded to the vacant
pulpit in Dublin. Afterward he was pastor of a Congregational church in London
and one of the lecturers at Pinner's hall. He was the author of several
religious works. On his tombstone in the cemetery near Bunhill Fields is a long
inscription in Latin, prepared by Dr. Isaac Watts, which ascribes to him high
character and ability.
-Richard's fifth son, Eleazer, clergyman, born in Dorchester, Massachusetts,
13 May, 1637; died in Northampton, Massachusetts, 24 July, 1669, was graduated
at Harvard in 1656, and at the age of nineteen began to preach. He was ordained
minister over the first church that was organized in Northampton, Massachusetts,
in 1658, and retained that pastorate till his death. He is said to have been "a
very zealous preacher and a pious walker." He married a daughter of Reverend
John Warham, of Dorchester and Windsor, Connecticut After his death she married
his successor, the celebrated Reverend Solomon Stoddard, and became the
grandmother of Reverend Jonathan Edwards. Mr. Mather's only daughter married
Reverend John Williams, of Deerfield, Massachusetts, and was slain by the
Indians in their attack on that place in 1704. After Mr. Mather's death appeared
"A Serious Exhortation to the Succeeding and Present Generation, being the
Substance of Several Sermons" (1671).
--Richard's sixth and youngest son, Increase, clergyman, born in Dorchester,
Massachusetts, 21 June, 1639; died in Boston, 23 August, 1723, pursued his
studies out of college, and was graduated at Harvard in 1656 with his elder
brother Eleazer. At the request of his brother Samuel, in Ireland, and
Nathaniel, in England, he followed them to their fields of labor, and took his
second degree at Trinity college, Dublin, in 1658. His first ministerial charge,
at Great Torrington, in Devonshire, was given at the instance of John Howe, one
of Cromwell's chaplains. In 1659 Mr. Mather became chapgarrison on the island of
Guernsey, and he also preached in the cathedral in St. Mary's. Returning to his
chaplaincy at Guernsey, he remained till 1661, when, refusing to conform and
accept various livings that were offered on that condition, he returned to
Massachusetts. He preached alternately for his father in Dorchester, and for the
new North church, a branch of the old South church, in Boston. In 1664 he was
ordained pastor of the North church, which office he held till his death--nearly
sixty years. For a considerable part of this time his son Cotton was his
colleague, and their bodies lie side by side in the Mather vault in Copp's Hill
cemetery nearly opposite Christ church. As a pastor, his sermons and prayers
were full of originality and fervor. He kept frequent fasts and recorded his
daily life in a book. His life with his family is said to have been most
delightful. During his pastorate the churches of New England were discussing the
right of those who were not members in full communion to bring their children to
baptism. It was a transition state of the colony. The older churches had been
established for nearly a generation, and many of the younger people did not
regard themselves as regenerated persons. According to the rules of the church,
their children could not be baptized. This question was begun in Connecticut,
but it soon spread to Massachusetts and the other colonies. In the discussion,
Mr. Mather united his efforts with those of President Chauncy and John Davenport
in opposition to the general synod's decree in favor of the "halfway covenant."
He afterward gave in a modified consent to the decision. He urged a stronger
union of all anti-Episcopal believers both in England and in America, and
anticipated the doctrine of Jonathan Edwards in regard to the millennium. It was
his discussion of the subject, together with that of Samuel Hopkins and Joseph
Bellamy, that reversed the previously received notions of the coming thousand
years of peace.
In 1669 he was prostrated by fever, but in 1670 resumed his pulpit. In 1675
he declared to his people that King Philip's Indian war had come upon them
because of their iniquities. During the second year of the war his church and
library were destroyed by a fire that was set by the Indians. Then came the
small-pox, which led to the calling of a synod at the suggestion of himself and
several others to make inquiry what follies had provoked the Lord to bring his
judgment upon New England. This synod declared that the work of reformation must
begin with the magistrates and all those who are in authority, and it enjoined
greater strictness in the admission of members to the church. The well-known New
England confession of faith was also adopted. This was, in substance, the Savoy
confession, together with some of the points of the Westminster confession. The
confession was printed with the Cambridge platform of 1648 as the book of
doctrine for the churches of the Massachusetts colony. Mr. Mather was a strong
supporter of the established order of things within the New England churches. It
was the custom to require of persons that were admitted to communion some
account of their religious experience. It was declared by some clergymen that no
such evidence of regeneration should be required, but this was opposed by Mr.
Mather. Another innovation that he opposed was the abandonment by particular
churches of their separate action in the choice of pastors and their consenting
to vote only in connection with the congregations. The Brattles and John
Leverett, afterward president of Harvard, were leaders in this movement, and
took church affairs out of the hands of the whole membership as a body. Dr.
Elliot speaks of Increase Mather as "the father of the New England clergy."
President Quincy said that he was an effective agent in producing the excitement
relating to witchcraft. The fact is that he was in England nearly all the time
of the greatest excitement, and that on his return he immediately prepared a
book entitled "Causes of Conscience concerning Witchcraft" (1693), in which he
refuted the doctrine of "spectral evidence" on the ground of which so many
innocent persons had been condemned. The governor immediately pardoned the
condemned, and the accused were acquitted. Thus while Mr. Mather wrote sermons
and books against witches, yet he also became a powerful factor in subduing the
excitement. He looked with sorrow upon the innovations that have been noted
above. He always insisted upon filling the churches with converted members and
the right of each church to decide upon what minister it should have. It is
claimed for him that he was the man who, in the face of much personal sacrifice,
saved the great body of Massachusetts Congregational churches from the ruin
which threatened them. President Quincy says he was influenced by worldly,
selfish, and ambitious motives, but this has hardly been substantiated.
Side by side with his duties in the line of religion Mr. Mather became one of
the chief educators in this country. In 1681 the Reverend Uriah Oakes, president
of Harvard, died, and Increase Mather was appointed his successor, taking the
chair and conferring the degrees at the following commencement. His church,
however, refused to give him a dismission, and he at once resigned the office.
The offer of the presidency was renewed in 1685 after the death of President,
John Rogers. This time it was accepted, with the understanding that Mr. Mather
was to reside in Boston and spend part of his time in Cambridge. Thus he
remained the sixth president of Harvard college until 1701. Before this time the
classes at Harvard had usually consisted of from two to ten students, but during
Mr. Mather's presidency the number increased so that the classes often contained
more than twenty. While serving the colony in England he presented the claims of
the college to the king, and solicited not only royal but private patronage. In
this way he secured the benefits that came from the donations of Thomas Hollis.
During the four years of his absence from the country the college was committed
to the care and instruction of John Leverett and William Brattle, the tutors.
In 1692 he prepared a charter for the college, which received the sanction of
the general court, but it was afterward vetoed in England. Several times Mr.
Mather attempted to go to England to procure a charter that would receive the
signature of the king, but was prevented and the college continued in a very
unsatisfactory state. President Mather repeatedly proposed to resign, the
corporation as repeatedly prevailed upon him to reconsider his determination,
and finally induced him to remove to Cambridge. Finding that he could not do
justice to his pastoral work also, he sent in his resignation. President Mather
was not only active in affairs of religion and education, but he served the
colony well at a most critical time. In 1682 Charles II. demanded the surrender
of the charter that had been granted to the colony of" Massachusetts bay. In
case of refusal he threatened that a quo warranto should be prosecuted against
the colony. The people were led by Mr. Mather in their opposition to the
surrender, the ground being that by voluntarily yielding the charter the people
lent aid to the plots of designing men, but if they were overpowered the sole
responsibility would be on their oppressors. For his activity Mr. Mather had the
enmity of Edward Randolph, the king's emissary, who was afterward the secretary
of Sir Edmund Andros. After the charter had been taken away, and while Andros
was governor, Mr. Mather was sent to England in 1689 as the agent of the people
to ask redress from the king. The hostility of Andros and Randolph was so great
that he was obliged to go on board ship in disguise to avoid the service of a
writ that Randolph had taken out against him.
Samuel Nowel, Elisha Hutchinson, and Richard Wharton met him in London.
Randolph, in a letter to the lords of trade, dated 29 May, 1689, gives a
narrative of the unsettled state of the territory of New England and speaks of"
some persons, inhabitants of Boston, who had pretended grievances against the
governor and who wished to obtain a renewal of their former charter from the
king." At the time of Mr. Mather's visit in England the Revolution had placed
William and Mary on the throne. Mr. Mather had frequent interviews with King
William and his ministers, in which he asked the restoration of the former
charter with enlargements. When this was found impossible, he procured a new
charter under which the united colonies of Massachusetts bay and Plymouth lived
down to the time of the American Revolution. Owing to his efforts, the Plymouth
colony was prevented from being annexed to New York. So great was the confidence
that was reposed in him by the king that he was allowed to name the governor,
lieutenant-governor, and first board of council to be appointed by the king. He
arrived in Boston in May, 1692, and the speaker of the general assembly, in the
name of the representatives, returned him thanks for his faithful endeavors to
serve the colony. In the same year Harvard gave him the degree of D.D., the
first that was conferred in this country.
There was opposition to the new charter on the ground that it contained
restrictions not in the old charter. Mr. Mather lost some of his friends among
those who insisted upon popular rights, but he was sustained by the more
conservative. President Quincy declared that his policy was mainly successful
and that his conduct entitled him to unqualified approbation. The election of
John Leverett as president of Harvard in 1708 was brought about by Governor
Joseph Dudley. There is no doubt that this election was distasteful to Mr.
Mather, and he has been charged with seeking the place for himself or for his
son Cotton. He addressed a spicy letter to Governor Dudley which has been made
the basis of considerable criticism by President Quincy and others. But a study
of the character of Dudley shows that his connection with Andros was such as to
be a cause of uneasiness to Mr. Mather and his friends. Governor Hutchinson says
of Dudley : "Ambition was his ruling passion, and perhaps, like Caesar, he had
rather be the first man in New England than the second in Old."
It would seem that Mr. Mather was justified in feeling grieved at the
influence that Dudley had obtained in the colony, and especially in the affairs
of Harvard. That Mr. Mather was influential in affairs of state is proved from
another source. In the year 1700 the Earl of Bellomont wrote from New York to
the lords of trade in London to the effect that Sir Henry Ashurst, along with
Mr. Mather, had "got Sir William Phipps made governor of New England." During
the four years that he remained in England in the service of the colony he
worked without any charge. "I never demanded," wrote he, "the least farthing as
a recompense for the time I spent, and I procured donations to the province and
the college at least £900 more than all the expenses of my agency came to." Dr.
Mather married, in 1662, Maria, daughter of John Cotton, by whom he had seven
daughters and three sons. Mrs. Mather died in 1714, and he took for his second
wife Anna, daughter of Captain Thomas Lake, and widow of Reverend John Cotton,
of New Hampshire, a grandson of his first wife's father. Dr. Mather's
publications number 136. Many of these were preserved in the collection of
George Brinley, of Hartford, Connecticut, which was sold in New York city in
1879. The Antiquarian society at Worcester, Massachusetts, has probably the
largest number of his works that have been gathered in any one place. Among his
books are "The Life and Death of Reverend Richard Mather" (1670); "Important
Truths about Conversion" (1674); "A Discourse concerning Baptism and the
Consociation of Churches "(1675) ; "A History of the War with the Indians"
(1676; reprinted, with notes and an introduction by Samuel G. Drake, Boston,
1862); "A Relation of Troubles of New England from the Indians" (1677; with
notes and introduction by Samuel G. Drake, Boston, 1864); "Cometographia, or a
Discourse concerning Comets" (1683); "Remarkable Providences" (1684;
republished, with an introduction by Charles Offer, London, 1856); "Several
Papers relating to the State of New England" (1690); and " Dying Pastor's
Legacy" (1722). See Joseph Sabin's "Dictionary of Works relating to America"
(New York, 1867). His life was written by his son Cotton (Boston, 1724).
--Richard's grandson, Samuel, clergyman, eldest son of Timothy Mather,
clergyman, born in Dorchester, Massachusetts, 5 July, 1650; died in Windsor,
Connecticut, 18 March, 1728, took honors at Harvard in 1671, and was ordained
pastor of the Congregational church in Windsor, Connecticut, in 1682. This
church had removed from Dorchester to Windsor, and was in a weak state when he
took charge as its third minister and brought unity and prosperity. He was one
of the trustees of Yale from 1700 till 1724, and published several religious
books, among them " The Dead Faith," and "On renouncing our Righteousness."
--Increase's son, Cotton Mather,
clergyman, born in Boston, 12 February, 1663 ; died there, 13 February, 1728,
was graduated at Harvard in 1678, when scarcely sixteen years of age. An
impediment in his speech was apparently an obstacle to his becoming a minister
of the gospel, but he cured his habit of stammering by prolonging his syllables
as in singing. His speech being perfected, he renewed his theological studies,
and began to preach before he was eighteen years old In 1684 he was ordained
colleague pastor of the North church in Boston, in connection with his father,
and his life ministry was spent in that pulpit. One of the earliest developments
of his character was his desire to be useful. To this end he devised a plan of
voluntary associations, in every neighborhood, to watch and suppress all evils.
He wrote and published much against intemperance, established at his own expense
a school for colored children in Boston, advised the christianizing of negroes,
devoted his energies to the benefit of the seamen, and fostered with zealous
care the introduction of inoculation. To assist in this work, as well as in the
duties of a faithful pastor, he prepared a series of questions for every day in
the week, which he asked of himself year after year. As the outcome of these
endeavors he compiled a small book, "Essays to do Good" (1710 ; new ed.,
Glasgow, 1838), which is better known than any of the other 381 volumes that he
wrote In a letter to Cotton Mather's son, Samuel, dated Passy, France, 10
November, 1779, Benjamin Franklin said, "Permit me to mention one little
instance which, though it relates to myself, will not be quite uninteresting to
you. When I was a boy I met with a book entitled ' Essays to do Good, ' which I
think was written by your father. It had been so little regarded by its former
possessor that several leaves of it were torn out; but the remainder gave me
such a turn of thinking as to have an influence on my conduct through life; for
I have always set a greater value on the character of a doer of good than any
other kind of reputation, and if I have been. as you seem to think, a useful
citizen, the put)lie owes the advantage of it to that book." He was systematic
in his work, and over his study-door was the warning to all comers " Be short."
While he had considerably less to do with civil affairs than his father, yet it
was his interposition, both oral and written, that saved Governor Andros and his
subalterns from being put to death by the people of Boston.
His literary life was perhaps more remarkable than that of any other American
of his day. His prolific writing has been the cause of much diverse criticism.
Dr. Charles Chauncy wrote: "In regard to literature, or an acquaintance with
books of all kinds, I give the palm to Cotton Nather. No native of this country
had read so much, or retained more of what he read. He was the greatest redeemer
of time I ever knew. There were scarcely any books written but he had, somehow
or other, got the sight of them. His own library was the largest, by far, of any
private one on the continent .... He knew more of the history of this country
than any man in it" and, could he have conveyed his knowledge with proportionate
judgment, he would have given the best history of it." His son Samuel writes : "
In two or three minutes' turning through a volume he could easily tell whether
it would add to his stock of ideas. If it would not, he quickly laid it by. If
otherwise, passing over those parts which contained the things he had known
before, he perused those only which contained what was new." Of himself, Cotton
Mather wrote: "I am able, with little study, to write in seven languages. I
feast myself with the sweets of all the sciences which the more polite part of
mankind ordinarily pretend to. I am entertained with all kinds of histories,
ancient and modern. I am no stranger to the curiosities which, by all sorts of
learning, are brought to the curious. These intellectual pleasures are far
beyond any sensual ones." Glasgow university gave him the degree of D. D. in
1710, and he was made a fellow of the Royal society in 1713, being the first
American to receive this distinction. He had a very extensive correspondence
with philosophers and literary men in all parts of the world and in various
languages, but more especially with August Herman Francke, leader of the German
Pietists and founder of the orphan house at Halle, for which he obtained many
benefactions on both sides of the Atlantic. He also corresponded with Francke's
pupils, and especially with those who became Danish missionaries at Tranque bar.
He was an admirer of Father Jacques Bruyas, the French philologist, who prepared
a dictionary and catechism for the Mohawk Indians: and at the very beginning of
his " Magnalia" he quoted a short poem of Dominic Selyns, the Dutch pastor at
New Amsterdam. And yet, in spite of a worldwide acquaintance, a cosmopolitan
education, and most uncommon ability, his very best friends must concede that
his judgment was ill-balanced, and that he was vain to the last degree.
He was active in the witchcraft persecutions. In 1685 he published "Memorable
Providences relating to Witchcraft and Possessions," and, when the children of
John Goodwin became curiously affected in 1688, he was one of the four ministers
of Boston who held a day of fasting and prayer, and favored the suspicion of
diabolical visitation. He afterward took the eldest daughter to his house in
order to observe the phases of the phenomena. When the first phenomena occurred
at Salem in 1692, he at once became a prominent adviser concerning them, and. in
order to convince all who doubted the possessions and disapproved of the
executions, he wrote his "Wonders of the Invisible World" (London, 1692). When
the reaction in the popular mind followed, he attempted to arrest it" and though
he afterward admitted that "there had been a going too far in that affair," he
never expressed regret, and charged the responsibility upon the powers of
darkness. His course in the matter has been the subject of much criticism, some
of it unjust. The belief in witches had been world-wide for hundreds of years
before he was born" thousands of such accused persons had been put to death in
Germany, France, and Spain, and hundreds in England during the century before
the date of his birth" and later, during the years of his youth, thousands of
alleged witches were burned in England under the judicial administrations of Sir
Matthew Hale and Chief-Justice Holt. It was therefore not strange that a, n
intensely spiritual and trusting nature like that of Cotton Mather fell in with
a belief that was shared by many who did not sympathize with him in other
things. Among those who believed in the reality of witches were the president
and fellows of Harvard, the French and Dutch ministers of the province of New
York, and William Penn, in America, and Richard Baxter and Isaac Watts in
England. Even so late as 1780 Sir William Blackstone declared a similar belief.
It must be admitted that he did not rejoice at the earlier allegations" that he
advised the separation of the accused and the use of milder measures" that when
judicial proceedings had been determined upon he opposed the admission of the "
spectral," or any other, evidence resting on the authority of the devil" that
though he protested to the judges against such evidence, yet he did not in the
end think it his duty to abuse the judges in writing a history of the trials"
and that, with his associates, he saw the measure of the delusion and ended it
years before it was ended in England. The Reverend Chandler Robbins, in his
history of the Second church, declares that he approached the discussion of
Cotton Mather's character with much prejudice against him" but that a full
investigation of the whole subject, and a due regard for the times in which he
lived, led him (Robbins) to form a most favorable opinion. This analysis of
Cotton Mather's character by Robbins is the most complete that has ever been
attempted. Cotton Mather is buried in Copp's Hill burying-ground, in the older
part of Boston. (See illustration.) The following inscription is on a slab:
"Reverend Drs. Increase, Cotton, and Samuel Mather were interred in this vault.
'Tis the tomb of our fathers, Mather's and Crocker's." Several years ago a story
was published to the effect that a visitor to the inner tomb had discovered that
the dust of several generations had vanished, and that literally nothing
remained. This was a mistake. The real tomb is a large room containing nearly
forty co/tins, all of which, so far as can be learned, are as well preserved as
could reasonably be expected. Chief among Mather's works is his "Magnalia
Christi Americana," a mass of chaotic material for an ecclesiastical history of
New England (London, folio. 1702; 2 vols., Hartford, 1820; 2d American ed., with
introduction and notes by Thomas Robbins, D. D., translations of the quotations
by Lucius F. Robinson, and a memoir by Samuel T. Drake, 2 vols., Boston, 1855).
His "Psalterium Americanum" (1718) is an exact unrhymed metrical translation of
the Psalms, printed as prose, and was an attempt to improve the careless current
versions. He left several large works in manuscript, the chief of which was the
"Biblia Americana, or Sacred Scriptures of the Old and New Testament,
Illustrated." The list of his publications, appended to his life by his son,
Sanmel Mather, numbers 382, and a list recently compiled by John Langdon Sibley,
in his work on the early graduates of Harvard, is even larger. A sum-total of
242 volumes was all that had been gathered down to the year 1879 by the American
antiquarian society, the Massachusetts historical society, the Boston athenaeum,
and the Prince collection in the Boston public library. The number in the
possession of each ranged from eighty to one hundred and thirty; but of 114
there was only a single copy in all of the libraries named. The British museum
and the Bodleian library at Oxford have made a specialty in collecting the works
of Increase and Cotton Mather. The Brinley collection of the works of Cotton
Mather was the best in the United States. It was gathered in Hartford,
Connecticut, and sold in New York city in 1879. Book hunters have paid enormous
prices for some of these rare books, and others, heretofore unknown, are
frequently found. Although the earliest book thus far discovered was printed
when Cotton Mather was twenty-two years old, yet it is known that he had, at
that time, written many poems, and compiled several almanacs, one of the latter
being published without his name, as a " happy snare" to give information and to
" warn sinners." It is thought that some of these stray volumes may yet be found
and identified. Cotton Mather's life was written by his son, Samuel Mather
(Boston, 1729), and by W. B. O. Peabody in Sparks's "American Biography." See
also Charles W. Upham's " History of the Delusions in Salem in 1692" (1831);
"The Mather Family," by Reverend Enoch Pond (1844) ; and Chandler Robbins's
"History of the Second Church, or Old North, in Boston" (1852).--Increase's
second son, Nathaniel, born in Boston, 6 July, 1669; died in Salem,
Massachusetts, 17 October, 1688, was noted for his precocity. His mental powers
exhausted his vitality, and he died at the age of nineteen. At sixteen he was a
graduate of Harvard, and he was also a thorough scholar in Greek, Latin, and
Hebrew. His cast of mind was highly religious. His epitaph in the Charter street
cemetery in Salem reads thus: "Memento Mori. Mr. Nathaniel Mather. Died October
ye 17th, 1688. An aged person who had seen but nineteen winters in the world. He
was the youngest brother of the famous Cotton Mather, who came to Salem during
Nathaniel's illness, and closed his dying eyes.... He was possessed of wonderful
attainments, was a prodigy of learning, and his first published work appeared in
print when he was only fifteen years of age." He prepared "The Boston Ephemeris,
an Almanack for 1686."--Increase's youngest son, Samuel, clergyman, born in
Boston, 28 August, 1674; died in Witney, Oxfordshire, England. He was graduated
at Harvard in 1690, and established a Congregational church at Witney, where he
died and was buried in the church-yard of St. Mary. He wrote several religious
works, including "The Godhead of the Holy Ghost " (London, 1719), and " A
Vindication of the Holy Bible" (1723).--Cotton's son, Samuel, clergyman, born in
Boston, 30 October, 1706" died there, 27 June, 1785, was graduated at Harvard in
1723, and received the degree of D. D. from the same institution in 1773. In
1732, four years after his father's death, he was ordained as colleague pastor
over the same church to which his father and his grandfather, Increase, had so
long ministered. Differences arose in the congregation in 1742 relative to the
subject of revivals, and a separate church was established under Mr. Mather in
North Bennett street. He published "Life of Cotton Mather" (1729) : " Essay on
Gratitude " (1732) ; "Apology for the Liberties of the Churches in New England"
(1738);" America Known to the Ancients " (1773) ; "The Sacred Minister," a poem
in blank verse (1773); and occasional sermons. He is buried, with his father and
grandfather, in Copp's Hill cemetery, Boston.