Rev Richard Mather

• Birth Notes
  • Richard Mather was born in Lowton, a village in the parish of Winwick near Liverpool, England in 1596.
    
    

• Death Notes
  • Richard' died April 22, 1669.
    
    Dictionarry of National Biography (Ma-My, Vol 13):
    His health was remarkably good, and he never called a physician, though in his latter years he bacame deaf, in 1662 one of his eyes failed him, and from 1667 he had several attacks of stone.  After presiding at a council of Churches in Boston, 13-16 April 1669 Richard was seized with a violent fit of this disorder, and returned to Dorchester, where he died on 22 April 1669.

• General Notes
  • After the settlement of the Plymouth Bay Colony by the Forefathers in 1620, Puritanism remained the dominant religion in force throughout New England. Richard Mather arrived in the colony 17 Aug 1635, and a year later became pastor of the Dorchester parish.
    
    After Catherine died in 1655, Richard married the widow of Rev. John Cotton.  "Richard, son of Thomas, the first of the family that came to this country, was born in 1596, came to this country in 1635, and settled in Dorchester, Mass."
    
    Richard Mather was the first minister of Toxteth Park Chapel, Liverpool from 1618 to 1634.  The "Ancient Chapel" as it was known, was opened in 1774 and the bell is dated 1751, although the first chapel there was opened 1618.
    
    Richard Mather, minister of Dorchester, Mass., was born in Lancashire, England, in 1596 and educated at Oxford. At the age of fifteen he was invited to take the instruction of a school at Toxteth, near Liverpool. After suffering for some time that anxiety and distress, which the knowledge of his own character as a sinner produced, he in his eighteenth year found peace, and joy in the gospel of the Redeemer. In May, 1618, he was admitted a student of Oxford—but in a few months afterwards he became the minister of Toxteth, being ordained by the Bishop of Chester. Here he continued about fifteen years without any interruption of his benevolent labors. He preached every Tuesday at Prescott, and he always seized the opportunity which his attendance upon funerals afforded, for imparting instruction to the living. He was silenced for non-conformity to the established Church in 1633, but through the influence of his friends was soon restored. He was again suspended in 1634, as he had never worn the surplice, and could not adopt the ceremonies which were enjoined. Having resolved to seek the peaceable enjoyment of the rights of conscience and
    the purity of Christian ordinances in New- England, he escaped the pursuivants, who were endeavoring to apprehend him, and embarked at Bristol, in May, 1635. On the 17th of August he arrived at Boston harbor. He was in a few months invited to Dorchester — and, as the first church had removed with Mr. Warham to Windsor, on Connecticut River, a new church was formed, of which he was constituted the teacher, August 23d, 163a He assisted Mr. Elliot and Mr. Welde in 1640, in making the New-England version of the Psalms. The model of church discipline, which he presented to the Synod of 1648, was the one which was chiefly adopted in preference to those prepared by Mr. Cotton and Mr. Partridge. He died in the peace of the Christian, April 22d, 1669, aged
    seventy-three years. Though in his old age he experienced many infirmities, yet such had been his health that for half a century he was not detained by sickness so much as one Sunday from his public labors. He was a pious Christian, a good scholar, and a plain
    and useful preacher. He was careful to avoid foreign and obscure words, and unnecessary citation of Latin sentences, that all might understand him. While his voice was loud and distinct, there was also a vehemency and dignity in his manner. He married for his first wife Catharine Holt, daughter of Edmund Holt, Esq., of Bury, England, and by her he had six sons, four of whom were born in England and two in this country. Several of them became dislinguished ministers. His second wife was the widow of the famous John Cotton, lie wrote the discourse about the Church covenant, and the answer to thirty-two questions, published in 1039, which pass under the name of the elders of New-England. He wrote also a modest and brotherly answer to Mr. Charles Herle's book against the independency of churches in 1644 ; a reply to Mr. Rutherford, or a defence of the answer to Mr. Herle's book in 1646;—an heart-melting exhortation, &c., in a letter to his countrymen of Lancashire in 1650 ;—a catechism;—a treatise of justification in 1652; a letter to Mr. Hooker to prove that it was lawful for a minister to administer the sacrament to a congregation not particularly under his care; an election sermon about 1660;—an answer to Mr. Davenport's work against the propositions of the Synod of 1662. He also prepared for the press sermons on the second Epistle of Peter, and an elaborate defence of the churches of New-England. — Mien's Biographical Dictionary.
    

Click here for details of Richard's family with Katherine Holt

Click here for details of Richard's family with Sarah Cotton

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