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