1. Early Life and Education in England
Richard Mather was born in 1596 in Lowton, within the parish of Winwick, Lancashire, England. His family, though entitled to bear a coat of arms, was of reduced financial circumstances.
Mather began his education at the Winwick grammar school. At the age of fifteen, he was appointed a master at this very school. In 1612, he left Winwick to become the master of a newly established school located at Toxteth Park, near Liverpool. After a brief period of study at Brasenose College, Oxford, he commenced his preaching career in November 1618 at Toxteth. He was ordained there in early 1619, possibly only as a deacon.
2. Ministry and Nonconformist Activities in England
Mather's early ministry in England was marked by his growing adherence to nonconformist principles, which eventually led to conflict with the established Church of England. Between August and November 1633, he was suspended from his duties due to his nonconformity in matters of church ceremony. In 1634, he faced another suspension by the visitors of Richard Neile, the archbishop of York. Upon learning that Mather had never worn a surplice during his fifteen years of ministry, the archbishop refused to reinstate him, reportedly stating that "it had been better for him that he had begotten seven bastards."
Despite these challenges, Mather had established a strong reputation as a preacher in and around Liverpool. However, influenced by letters from fellow Puritan ministers John Cotton and Thomas Hooker, he was persuaded to join the company of pilgrims seeking religious freedom in the New World. This decision led him to embark for New England in May 1635 from Bristol.
3. Emigration to New England
Richard Mather's journey to New England was a perilous one, driven by his commitment to nonconformist religious practices. On 4 June 1635, Mather, along with his wife Katherine and their children Samuel, Timothy, Nathaniel, and Joseph, set sail for the New World aboard the ship James.
As the ship neared the coast of New England, it encountered a severe hurricane. The crew and passengers were forced to ride out the storm just off the coast of what is now Hampton, New Hampshire. According to the ship's log and the Journal of Richard Mather. 1635: His life and death. 1670 by his son Increase Mather, the experience was terrifying. The log recorded, "At this moment,... their lives were given up for lost; but then, in an instant of time, God turned the wind about, which carried them from the rocks of death before their eyes. ...her sails rent in sunder, and split in pieces, as if they had been rotten ragges..." Despite their desperate attempts to stand down during the storm near the Isles of Shoals, they lost all three anchors as no canvas or rope could withstand the tempest. Miraculously, on 17 August 1635, with the ship torn to pieces but without a single fatality, all one hundred-plus passengers of the James managed to reach Boston Harbor.
4. Ministry in New England
Upon his arrival in New England, Richard Mather was highly sought after as a preacher, receiving invitations from Plimouth, Dorchester, and Roxbury. He chose to settle in Dorchester, where the local church had been significantly reduced in numbers due to migrations to Windsor, Connecticut.
After several months, in August 1636, a church was constituted in Dorchester with the consent of both magistrates and clergy. Mather served as the "teacher" of this church until his death. In his pastoral role, he oversaw the baptism of Dorcas ye blackmore, who is recognized as one of the earliest African American Christians in New England. Mather actively worked to help secure her freedom. He continued his ministry in Dorchester until his death on 22 April 1669. Mather was subsequently buried in the Dorchester North Burying Ground.
5. Theological Contributions and Literary Activities
Richard Mather was a leading figure in early New England Congregationalism, playing a pivotal role in defining its policies and theological framework. His literary activities were instrumental in defending and disseminating these ideas.
5.1. Advocacy for Congregationalism
Mather was a staunch defender of the principles of Congregational church polity. He articulated and justified the structure and governance of the Congregational churches in his influential tract, Church Government and Church Covenant Discussed, in an Answer of the Elders of the Severall Churches of New England to Two and Thirty Questions. This work, written in 1639 and printed in 1643, served as a response from the colony's ministers to 32 questions regarding church government posed by the general court in 1639. It laid out the theological and practical arguments for the congregational system. His Reply to Mr Rutherford (1647) was a polemic specifically aimed at countering Presbyterianism, a system towards which many English Congregationalists were then leaning.
5.2. Church Polity and Covenant
Mather was deeply involved in establishing the ecclesiastical constitution for New England churches. He played a key role in drafting the Cambridge Platform of Discipline, a foundational document comprising seventeen chapters. This platform was adopted by the general synod in August 1646, though it notably omitted Mather's proposed paragraph favoring the "Half-Way Covenant", a concept he strongly supported.
Mather was a proponent of requiring a genuine experience of conversion for church membership. However, he also recognized the challenges faced by the second generation of Puritans who might not have had such a vivid conversion experience but were still part of the covenant community. To address this, he was the first to propose the "Half-Way Covenant." This innovative proposal aimed to reform New England's church membership policies by allowing the baptized children of unconverted church members to be baptized themselves, thereby granting them a "half-way" membership and preventing the decline of church influence.
5.3. Major Works
Richard Mather's written works were central to the intellectual and religious life of colonial New England.
- The Bay Psalm Book: Co-authored with Thomas Welde, Thomas Mayhew, and John Eliot, The Whole Booke of Psalmes Faithfully Translated into English Metre (1640), commonly known as the Bay Psalm Book, was likely the first book printed in the English colonies. Its creation aimed to provide a more accurate and singable translation of the Biblical psalms for congregational worship.
- Reply to Mr Rutherford: Published in 1647, this work was a direct argument against the Presbyterian church governance model advocated by Samuel Rutherford, defending the Congregational approach.
- Treatise on Justification: Mather was also the author of Treatise on Justification, published in 1652, which explored key theological concepts related to salvation.
Many of Mather's works were printed by John Foster, who was Boston's first printer.
6. Family and Descendants
Richard Mather's family played a significant role in the intellectual and religious history of New England. In 1624, he married Katherine Hoult (or Holt), who passed away in 1655. The following year, he remarried Sarah Hankredge (who died in 1676), the widow of the influential minister John Cotton.
Of his six sons, all born to his first wife, four pursued careers as ministers:
- Samuel Mather (1626-1671): He was the first graduate to become a fellow of Harvard College. He served as chaplain of Magdalen College, Oxford, from 1650 to 1653, and later as pastor of the Church of St. Nicholas Within in Dublin from 1656 to 1671, with a brief suspension between 1660 and 1662.
- Timothy Mather (1628-1684): Known as "The Farmer Mather," he was the only son who did not become a minister. He served as a Selectman of Dorchester, Massachusetts, during the years 1667-1669 and 1675-1676. He died in 1684 following a fall in his barn.
- Nathaniel Mather (1630-1697): He graduated from Harvard in 1647. He was the vicar of Barnstaple, Devon, from 1656 to 1662, then pastor of the English Church in Rotterdam. He succeeded his brother Samuel in Dublin, serving there from 1671 to 1688, and subsequently became pastor of a church in London until his death.
- Eleazar Mather (1637-1669): He graduated from Harvard in 1656. After preaching in Northampton, Massachusetts, for three years, he became the pastor of the church there in 1661. He was the father-in-law of the Rev. John Williams (New England minister) (1664-1729), a Harvard Class of 1683 graduate from Deerfield, Massachusetts. Rev. Williams was the father of Eunice Kanenstenhawi Williams (1696-1785).
- Increase Mather (1639-1723): A Harvard Class of 1656 graduate, he became a prominent Puritan minister and a major figure in the early history of the Massachusetts Bay Colony and the Province of Massachusetts Bay. He was the son-in-law of Rev. John Cotton and the father of the renowned Rev. Cotton Mather (1663-1728), a Harvard Class of 1678 graduate.
Horace E. Mather, in his "Lineage of Richard Mather" (Hartford, Connecticut, 1890), documented a list of 80 clergymen descended from Richard Mather. Of these, 29 bore the Mather surname, while 51 carried other names, with Storrs and Schauffler being the most common.
The American rapper Eminem, whose birth name is Marshall Bruce Mathers III, is claimed to be a distant descendant of Peter Mathers (1785-1845) of Buffalo Cross Roads, Pennsylvania. According to a claimed genealogy, Peter Mathers changed his surname from Mather to Mathers and was the first of his branch of the Mather family to emigrate from Britain to the United States. This lineage traces back to Richard Mather through his son Samuel Mather (1626-1671), Samuel's grandson Samuel Mather (born 1657 in Lancashire, England), and great-grandson Samuel William Mather (1716-1741). However, while Samuel Mather (1626-1671) did marry and have four or five children, the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography states that all his children, except for one daughter, died during their minority.
7. Death and Burial
Richard Mather died on 22 April 1669 in Dorchester, Massachusetts. He was buried in the Dorchester North Burying Ground, where his grave remains.
8. Legacy and Influence
Richard Mather's legacy is profound, primarily in his lasting impact on Puritan theology and the organizational structure of churches in colonial New England. As a leader of New England Congregationalism, he was instrumental in defining and defending its principles, particularly through his writings on church government and covenant theology. His efforts to clarify church membership, including his proposal of the "Half-Way Covenant," significantly influenced the development of religious practice and community identity in the colonies.
His contributions to literary and intellectual life, especially his involvement in the creation of the Bay Psalm Book, mark him as a foundational figure in early American publishing. Through his own ministry and the extensive network of his ministerial sons and descendants, the Mather family became one of the most influential intellectual and religious dynasties in American history, shaping the cultural and theological landscape of the region for generations. His work provided a framework for the independent governance of churches and contributed significantly to the unique character of American religious and intellectual thought.