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Cotton Mather, 1663-1728
The son of the esteemed Puritan minister Increase Mather, Cotton Mather built a life and career that was centered on service to his religion and to the colony that the Puritans built in New England. Despite having a stutter, Mather was a precocious child, and he entered Harvard College at age twelve. Beginning in 1695, the year of his ordination, he served together alongside his father at the influential North, or Second, Church of Boston and in time became regarded as one of the region's leading religious figures. Although he did not instigate the witch trials in nearby Salem in 1692,. Mather tried to contain the crisis and was uneasy about the way the trials were conducted. He ultimately, however, defended the execution of twenty who had been accused of witchcraft. Mather was the author of more than 450 books and pamphlets, including the famous "Magnalia Christi Americana" (1702), a wide-ranging history of the Puritans in New England. Throughout his life, he worked tirelessly to preserve the traditional Puritan faith.
Peter Pelham, 1728 |