Mather, Richard

Mather, Richard

(1596–1669) Protestant minister, writer; born in Lancashire, England (father of Increase Mather; grandfather of Cotton Mather). He was educated locally and taught school nearby before attending Brasenose College, Oxford. He was ordained as a minister (1619) but was twice suspended (1633, 1634) by the Anglican Archbishop Laud due to his nonconformist beliefs. He emigrated to Boston (1635), served the Dorchester Church (1635–69), and is noted for his collaborating on translations of the Psalms in the Bay Psalm Book (1640). He took the lead in defining New England Congregationalism, as seen in such works as Church Government and Church-Covenant Discussed (1643) and Platform of Church Discipline (1649). He was the chief advocate of the Half-Way Covenant (1662) that, by allowing for less than total spiritual conversion, broadened New England's established church membership and maintained the church's power.

The Cambridge Dictionary of American Biography, by John S. Bowman. Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1995. Reproduced with permission.