Increase Mather

Increase Mather
Van Veck Pinx · Public domain · source
Name	Increase Mather
Birth date	1639-06-21
Birth place	Maddington, Wiltshire
Death date	1723-08-23
Death place	Boston, Massachusetts Bay Colony
Occupation	Clergyman, author, educator
Known for	Presidency of Harvard College, role in Salem witch trials

Increase Mather was a prominent 17th- and early-18th-century Puritan clergyman, educator, and political figure in colonial New England who shaped Massachusetts Bay Colony religious life, contested colonial policy with English Crown authorities, and produced influential polemical and theological writings. As a leader among Congregational ministers, president of Harvard College, and agent to the English court, he intersected with events such as the Salem witch trials, the negotiation of the Province of Massachusetts Bay charter, and intellectual networks reaching Cambridge University and the Royal Society. His work impacted contemporaries including John Cotton, John Winthrop, Cotton Mather, Samuel Sewall, and colonial officials.

Early life and education

Increase Mather was born in Maddington, Wiltshire and emigrated in childhood to the Massachusetts Bay Colony where his father, Richard Mather, became a notable Puritan minister in Dorchester, Massachusetts. He studied at Harvard College where he received a B.A. and later a M.A.; he returned to England amid the English Civil War and the era of the Commonwealth of England to pursue further theological study at Trinity College, Cambridge and to engage with ministers associated with the Presbyterian and Congregational movements. During his English sojourn he encountered figures linked to the Protectorate, the Restoration, and the religious controversies involving John Owen, Richard Baxter, and other Restoration divines.

Ministry and leadership in New England

Upon returning to New England, Mather served as minister at Boston's North Church (Old North Church) and quickly rose to leadership among the ministers of the Massachusetts Bay Colony and the broader New England Congregational communion. He collaborated and contended with clergy such as John Eliot, Thomas Hooker, Samuel Willard, and Thomas Shepard while participating in ecclesiastical bodies influenced by the Cambridge Platform and discussions echoing concerns of the Synod of Dort. His tenure overlapped with civic leaders including Simon Bradstreet, William Stoughton, and Increase Leverett and educational stewardship culminating in his presidency of Harvard College, where he worked to defend the institution against pressures from colonial authorities, alumni such as Benjamin Wadsworth, and English visitors.

Role in the Salem witch trials

Mather played an influential, ambiguous role in the Salem witch trials milieu: he publicly addressed cases of witchcraft, corresponded with magistrates, and published on evidence and possession, engaging with judges such as William Stoughton and ministers including Samuel Parris and Samuel Willard. His writings and advisory notes to authorities intersected with petitions and legal procedures involving accused persons like Rebecca Nurse, Giles Corey, Sarah Good, and Bridget Bishop. He debated evidentiary practices with skeptics influenced by legal thinkers around the Glorious Revolution and later faced critique from contemporaries and descendants, including Cotton Mather and Samuel Sewall, over the trials' legacy.

Writings and theological contributions

Mather authored numerous sermons, polemics, and theological treatises addressing providence, conversion, ecclesiology, and natural philosophy, producing works that conversed with texts from John Calvin, Matthew Henry, Richard Baxter, and authors linked to the Cambridge Platonists. His publications engaged scientific and intellectual currents involving the Royal Society, dispute with proponents of Cartesianism, and debates about providence and miracles that resonated with readers in London, Edinburgh, and colonial ports like Newport, Rhode Island. He composed catechisms, elegies, and defenses of Puritan orthodoxy that influenced ministers such as Cotton Mather, lay readers including John Winthrop the Younger, and colonial institutions like Yale College and Harvard Yard.

Political involvement and relations with the Crown

As an agent for the colony, Mather traveled to London to lobby on behalf of the Massachusetts Bay Colony before the Privy Council, negotiating with figures tied to the Board of Trade and the Secretary of State for the Southern Department. He sought preservation of colonial liberties enshrined in earlier patents while contending with royal commissioners, judges, and officials implicated in the revocation of the old patent and creation of the Province of Massachusetts Bay. In London he engaged with members of Parliament, legal advisors, and ecclesiastical authorities including individuals associated with the Great Council and interacted with leading political actors of the period, such as those aligned with the courts of Charles II, James II, and William III.

Personal life and legacy

Mather married and fathered children, most notably Cotton Mather, who carried forward his theological and intellectual legacy into the 18th century and into disputes involving the Great Awakening and controversies over superstition and science. His family connections and mentorship extended to figures like Samuel Sewall, Giles Firmin, and other New England ministers and magistrates. Increase Mather's influence persisted in institutional memory at Harvard College, colonial legal culture, and historiography shaped by later chroniclers such as Thomas Hutchinson, Nathaniel Morton, and Samuel Eliot Morison. His papers and correspondence informed later scholarship on Puritanism, the Salem witch trials, colonial administration, and Atlantic intellectual networks.

Category:Clergy of the Massachusetts Bay Colony Category:Harvard University people Category:17th-century Puritans