Cotton Mather
Sign in to saveAmerican religious minister and scientific writer (1663–1728)
Key facts
- Born
- February 12, 1663, Boston , Massachusetts Bay Colony , British America
- Died
- February 15, 1728 (aged 65), Boston, Province of Massachusetts Bay , British America
- Resting place
- Copp's Hill Burying Ground , Boston
- Education
- Harvard College ( AB , 1678; MA , 1681)
- Occupations
- Minister writer
- Parents
- Increase Mather Maria Cotton
- Relatives
- John Cotton (maternal grandfather), Richard Mather (paternal grandfather), Albert D. Mather (descendant)
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- human
- Gender
- male
- Citizenship
- Kingdom of Great Britain
- Place of birth
- Boston
- Place of death
- Boston
- Father
- Increase Mather
- Educated at
- Boston Latin School
- Languages spoken
- English language
- Field of work
- Christian minister
- Image
- Cotton Mather.jpg
Show 11 more facts
- name in native language
- Cotton Mather
- Commons category
- Cotton Mather
- date of birth
- 1663-02-12
- date of death
- 1728-01-01
- member of
- Royal Society
- place of burial
- Copp's Hill Burying Ground
- writing language
- English language
- described by source
- Encyclopædia Britannica 11th edition
- P12749
- Barbara Meier
- archives at
- New York Public Library Main Branch
- Commons Creator page
- Cotton Mather
via Wikidata · CC0
Works in European collections
1 object attributed to Cotton Mather, held across European museums, libraries & archives · via Europeana
~40 min read
Encyclopedic overview
Cotton Mather (/ˈmæðər/; February 12, 1663 – February 15, 1728) was a Puritan clergyman and author in colonial New England, who wrote extensively on theological, historical, and scientific subjects. After being educated at Harvard College, he joined his father Increase Mather as minister of the Congregationalist Old North Meeting House in Boston, then part of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, where he preached for the rest of his life. He has been referred to as the "first American Evangelical".
A major intellectual and public figure in English-speaking colonial America, Cotton Mather helped lead the successful revolt of 1689 against Sir Edmund Andros, the governor of New England appointed by King James II. Mather's subsequent involvement in the Salem witch trials of 1692–1693, which he defended in the book Wonders of the Invisible World (1693), attracted intense controversy in his own day and has negatively affected his historical reputation. As a historian of colonial New England, Mather is noted for his Magnalia Christi Americana (1702).
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Cotton Mather” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.