Person:Richard Mather (1)

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Richard Mather (1596 – 22 April 1669) was a Puritan minister in colonial Boston, Massachusetts. He was father to Increase Mather and grandfather to Cotton Mather, both celebrated Boston theologians.

The son of Thomas Mather and Margarite Abrams of Lowton, England, Richard was fortunate enough to go to grammar school at his parents insistence, even though he didn't think so at the time. His education was harsh and included daily beatings by the school master. In spite of that he developed a love of learning and became largely self educated after grammar school, a fact that set him apart from his peers. Upon completing his course of study at age 15, he took a position as school teacher in Toxteth. After 3 years of teaching he started studying at Oxford, but dropped out to take a position as a preacher at Toxteth. At this time in England, the Anglican church was the absolute governing authority, and preachers were expected to conform in every way. The puritan ethic was beginning to take hold, however, and Richard embraced it. Desiring not to engage in the puritan "sin of conformity" Richard refused to wear the "Surplice", a papal robe. For 15 years he preached as he saw fit, until he was finally silenced in 1633 by the ecclesiastical authorities for "non-conformity". He was briefly reinstated, then silenced again, permanently, in 1634. At this time he decided to bring his young family to New England.

The journey took a total of six weeks, three of which were spent at sea. Richard kept a log of the journey in which he describes the hardships and storms at sea which they endured to get here. Less than a week after his arrival on August 17, 1636, he accepted the ministry of the North Church in Dorchester, MA and remained there for 50 years. Upon their arrival, Richard and Katherine were given more than 100 acres of land in Dorchester to support themselves and their family. Katherine managed the household, making the decisions about hiring farmhands, buying and selling cattle, and the planting and harvesting, as well as schooling the children, although Richard took over the children's education once they had learned to read. It was customary for boys to leave home at an early age in those days. Thus, four of Richard's five sons went to board at Harvard between the ages of 12 and 16. Timothy was apprenticed out as a farmer. The religious battle Richard waged was as much a political war as a revolution in belief. He wrote four books & sent them to London to be published in an effort to explain and recommend the Congregation form of church. Two of his sons moved back to England to continue the effort there.

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1. ↑ Richard Mather, in Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia.
2.   Mather, Richard, in American National Biography Online.
3. ↑ ^{3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 3.7 3.8 3.9} Richard Mather, in Anderson, Robert Charles; George F. Sanborn; and Melinde Lutz Sanborn. The Great Migration: Immigrants to New England, 1634-1635. (Boston, Massachusetts: NEHGS, 1999-2011)
   5:84-90.

   ORIGIN: Much Woolton, Lancashire [Mather Life 52 (50 - "After his Marriage, he removed his Habitation three miles from Toxteth, to Much-Woolton, having there purchased a House of his own …"]
   MIGRATION: 1635 on the James of Bristol [Young's First Planters 447-81].
   OCCUPATION: Minister. For many years Richard Mather was paid £100 a year for serving as Dorchester minister {DTR 63, 69, 89, 93, 98, 99, 102, 103, 108, 109]. Beginning in 1662, from which date he shared the Dorchester ministerial duties with William Stoughton, Mather received diminished compensation, with the annual salary for the last few years of his live settling at £80 [DTR 112, 116, 123, 128, 136, 145, 155, 162, 163].
   CHURCH MEMBERSHIP: On 25 October 1635, "Richard Mather and Katherine his wife" were admitted to Boston church (BChR 19]. On 23 August 1636, after the first church organized at Dorchester had removed to Windsor, a second church was organized, with Richard Mather as minister. Among the founders of this church, "Katharin Mather" was second in the list of women members [DChR 1-2].
   EDUCATION: Admitted to Brasenose College, Oxford, 9 May 1618, but did not take a degree [Foster 3:987; Morison 388-89].
   BIRTH: About 1596 (aged 22 at admission to Oxford on 9 May 1618 [Foster 3:987]; d. 22 April 1669 in "the 73 year of his age" [DVR 27]), son of Thomas and Margaret (Abraham) Mather of Lowton, Lancashire [Magnalia 444; NEHGR 54:348-49].
   DEATH: Dorchester 22 April 1669 ("Mr. Richard Mather, the Reverend Teacher of the Church of Dorchester, departed this life, the 22d (Month 2) 1669, the 73 year of his age" [DVE 27; see also Hull 229]).

4. ↑ ^{4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3} Richard Mather, in Weis, Frederick Lewis. The Colonial Clergy and the Colonial Churches of New England. (Lancaster, Massachusetts: The Society of the Descendants of the Colonial Clergy, 1936)
   136.

   Richard Mather, b. Lowton, Winwick, Lancashire, England, 1596, son of Thomas and Margaret Mather; Brazenose Coll., Oxford, matric. May 6, 1618; Ord. Toxteth, Co. Lancaster, 1618; Toxteth and Prescott, Lancashire, 1618-1633; suspended 1633, for non-conformity; came to N. E. 1635; inst. Dorchester, Aug. 23, 1636; sett. Dorchester, 1636-1669; published the Bay Psalm Book and other works; Artillery Election Sermon, 1656; Election Sermons, 1660, 1664; his portrait is owned by the American Antiquarian Soc.; d. Dorchester, Apr. 22, 1669.

5. ↑ Rev Richard Mather, in Find A Grave.
6.   Savage, James. A Genealogical Dictionary of the First Settlers of New England: Showing Three Generations of Those Who Came Before May, 1692, on the Basis of Farmer's Register. (Boston: Little, Brown, and Co, 1860-1862).

   
   1:462; COTTON; JOHN 1 of 3; "... Elizabeth Horrocks, and had no ch.; by sec. w. wid. Sarah Story, wh. outliv. him, and In. 26 Aug. 1656, Richard Mather, outliv. him, and d. 27 May 1676, had the s. bef. ment. b. on the ocean, 12 Aug. 1633, bapt. 4 days aft. reach. port; Sarah, b. 12, bapt. 20 Sept. 1635, betroth. to Jonathan Mitchell, but d. of smallpox, ..."
   
   3:172; MATHER; ELEAZER; "ELEAZER, Northampton, s. of Richard, was the first min. at N. ord. 18 June 1661, m. 29 Sept. 1659, Esther, youngest d. of Rev. John Warham, had Eunice, b. 2 Aug. 1664; Warham, 7 Sept. 1666, H. C. 1685; and Eliakim, 22 Sept. 1668; and d. 24 July 1669, only 3 mos. aft. his f. His wid. m. Rev. Solomon Stoddard, ..."
   
   3:174; MATHER; NATHANIEL; "NATHANIEL, Dorchester, s. of Richard, b. at Toxteth, near Liverpool, Eng. went some yrs. aft. his gr. at Harv. to Eng. had the living at Barnstable, 1656, by presentat. of Oliver Cromwell, it is wildly said, meaning, perhaps, by his recommend. for eccles. patronage had ceased; ejected in 1662, preach. at ..."
   
   3:174; MATHER; RICHARD 1 of 2; "RICHARD, Dorchester, s. of Thomas, b. 1596, of an ancient fam. as his gr.s. Cotton in Magn. III. c. 20, assures us, at Lowton, in the parish of Winwick, Lancash. was employ. in teach. a sch. some yrs. bef. going to the Univ. but at length, on 9 May 1618, was ent. of Brazen Nose Coll. Oxford, yet soon call. ..."
   
   3:175; MATHER; SAMUEL 1 of 2; "SAMUEL, Dorchester, eldest s. of the first Richard, b. in Eng. freem. 1618, aft. large preparat. here for his profess. went home, preach. in Eng. Scotland, and Ireland, sett. in Dublin, was made a fellow of Trinity Coll. there, says fam. tradit. m. a sis. of Sir John Stevens, and d. 29 Oct. 1671."
   
   3:175; MATHER; TIMOTHY; "TIMOTHY, Dorchester, s. of Richard, b. in Eng. m. Catharine, d. of Humphrey Atherton, had Samuel, b. 6, bapt. 7 Sept. 1651, H. C. 1671, bef. ment.; Nathaniel, bapt. 30 Jan. 1653, prob. d. very soon, wh. may explain the fail. of entry of b.; Richard, 22, bapt. 25 Dec. 1653, bef. ment. (of course not bapt. ... Blake's Ann. His wid. Elizabeth wh. he had m. 20 Mar. 1680, d. 20 Feb. 1710, aged 70 yrs. Of the eleven male descend. of famous Richard, bred at Harv. as above enum. ten were of the seventeenth cent. and the other had his A. B. a hundred and thirty yrs. since. From 1705 to 1837 eighteen have been gr. at Yale."