Encyclopedia

Mather, Increase

Mather, Increase

(1639–1723) religious leader, educator; born in Dorchester, Mass. He finished his education in Ireland (1658) and remained in England until the Stuart restoration (1660) made Puritanism uncomfortable there. He returned to Massachusetts and became the teacher of the Second Church of Boston (1664–1723) and the president of Harvard (1685–1701). He protested the revocation of the Massachusetts charter (1684), led negotiations for a new charter, and nominated Sir William Phips as the first royal governor. After 1701 he left the political arena, but he remained an important leader of New England Congregationalism. He wrote approximately 130 books and pamphlets on history, science, and politics.
The Cambridge Dictionary of American Biography, by John S. Bowman. Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1995. Reproduced with permission.
References in periodicals archive
The son of Richard Mather, a leader in the establishment of the Congregational Church in America, and father of Cotton Mather, Increase Mather was a well - known preacher, served as president of Harvard College (1685 - 1701), and played an important part in the Salem witchcraft trials, though he criticized the extremism of the trials in Cases of Conscience Concerning Evil Spirits (1693).
Mather, Increase
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