Background
Richard Mather was born around 1596, in Lowton, in the parish of Winwick, England, of a family which was in reduced circumstances but entitled to bear a coat of arms.
Richard Mather was born around 1596, in Lowton, in the parish of Winwick, England, of a family which was in reduced circumstances but entitled to bear a coat of arms.
Mather studied at Winwick grammar school, of which he was appointed a master, and left it in 1612 to become master of a newly established school at Toxteth Park, Liverpool. At age 15 he decided to enter the ministry and entered Brasenose College, Oxford, where he greatly enjoyed the pursuit of learning.
In 1618, at the request of the people of Toxteth, he left the university to become their minister and, bowing to their wishes, was ordained by the Bishop of Chester.
As a thorough Puritan, Richard Mather had rejected all pomp and ceremony retained by the Church of England from its Catholic origins, and he preached at Toxteth without a surplice for 15 years before authorities discovered it. Suspended, and then reinstated, he returned to his dissenting practices and was tried before a court, before which he admitted without apology the matter of the surplice.
Permanently "silenced from Publick Preaching the Word, " he retired to private life and resolved to leave for America, where he would be free to preach and do good according to his own convictions. He sailed for America in June 1635 and arrived at Boston in August. His journal of the voyage is one of his best written works. His reputation had preceded him to New England, where several towns asked for his services. He chose Dorchester, Massachusetts, a post he held until his death on April 22, 1669. Richard Mather was buried in the Dorchester North Burying Ground.
Richard Mather was a well-noted divine, whose most respected work was his summation of principles as adopted at the Cambridge Synod of 1648 and considered to be the clearest statement of Puritan Congregationalism.
In 1624, Richard Mather married Katherine Holt, the couple had six sons. In 1656, he married Sarah Hawkredd, they did not have children.
Eleazar Mather was a pastor in Northampton, Massachusetts.
Samuel Mather was an Independent minister.
Nathaniel Mather was an Independent minister.
Increase Mather was a major figure in the early history of the Massachusetts Bay Colony and Province of Massachusetts Bay (now the Commonwealth of Massachusetts).
