Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 4).djvu/288

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” (1643), 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, Nathanael, Eleazar, and Increase. In 1656 he married, for his second wife, Sarah Story, widow of the Rev. 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, b. in Toxteth, England, 13 May, 1626; d. in Dublin, Ireland, 29 Oct., 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 he 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. He preached at Gravesend 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 in that country for two years. In 1654 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 he 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, Nathanael, clergyman, b. in Lancashire, England, 20 March, 1630; d. 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, Eleazar, clergyman, b. in Dorchester, Mass., 13 May, 1637; d. in Northampton, Mass., 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, Mass., 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 Rev. John Warham, of Dorchester and Windsor, Conn. After his death she married his successor, the celebrated Rev. Solomon Stoddard, and became the grandmother of Rev. Jonathan Edwards. Mr. Mather's only daughter married Rev. John Williams, of Deerfield, Mass., 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, b. in Dorchester, Mass., 21 June, 1639; d. in Boston, 23 Aug., 1723, pursued his studies out of college, and was graduated at Harvard in 1656 with his elder brother Eleazar. At the request of his brother Samuel, in Ireland, and Nathanael, 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 chaplain of the English garrison 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 dis-