Cotton Mather

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Cotton Mather (February 12, 1663–February 13, 1728) A.B. A.M. (February 13, 1728) A.B. (A.B. ) A.M. 1678, Harvard College; A.M. 1681, honorary doctorate 1710, University of Glasgow) was a New England Puritan minister and pamphleteer.

He left a scientific legacy as a result of his blendization experiments and his promotion of inoculation for disease prevention, but he is best remembered today for his role in the Salem witch trials.

He was later refused the presidency of Harvard College, which his father, Increase Mather, had occupied.

Early life and education

Cotton Mather, the Rev. of Massachusetts Bay Colony, was born in 1663 in the city of Boston, the capital of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Mather and his wife Maria née Cotton were able to help raise Mather and his wife Maria née Cotton. Richard Mather and John Cotton, both of whom were well-known Puritan ministers who had significant involvement in the establishment and expansion of Massachusetts colony, were his grandfathers. Richard Mather, a graduate of the University of Oxford, and John Cotton, a University of Cambridge undergraduate, was a student. Increase Mather was a graduate of Harvard College and the University of Dublin and served as the minister of Boston's original North Church (not to be confused with the Anglican Old North Church of Paul Revere fame). This was one of the city's two main Congregationalist churches, the other being the First Church, established by John Winthrop. Cotton Mather was thus born into one of New England's most influential and intellectually prestigious families, and he seemed to be on his father and grandfathers' footsteps into the Puritan clergy.

Cotton was enrolled in Harvard College, in Cambridge's neighboring town. He is the youngest student to be admitted to the university at the age of 11 and a half. Cotton began to be plagued by stuttering, a speech disorder that he would struggle to overcome throughout his life. Cotton resigned from the College after being bullied by the older students and afraid that his stutter would make him unsuitable as a preacher. He also took an interest in medicine and considered the possibility of working as a physician rather than as a religious minister. Cotton eventually returned to Harvard and earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1678, followed by a Master of Arts degree in 1681.

Cotton served as an assistant pastor in his father's church after completing his education. Cotton was ordained and assumed sole responsibility as co-pastor of the church in 1685. Both the father and son continued to share responsibility for the congregation's care until the death of Increase in 1723. Cotton will die less than five years after his father's death, and he's spent the majority of his career in the shadow of the feared and mighty Increase.

Increase Mather served as President of Harvard and wielded a large influence on the Massachusetts colony's politics. Despite Cotton's efforts, he never became as influential as his father. During the Salem witch trials, one of the most public displays of their strained family history emerged, which Increase Mather reportedly did not accept. Cotton did outlast his father's as a writer by releasing nearly 400 works.

Cotton Mather married Abigail Phillips, the daughter of Colonel John Phillips of Charlestown, on May 4, 1686, the year Cotton was twenty-three and Abigail sixteen years old. In 1702, Abigail, the couple's infant twins, and a two-year-old daughter all succumbed to a measles epidemic.

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