Elizabeth Atherton

Probably a daughter of Maj.-Gen. Humphrey Atherton of Dorchester, and perhaps the "Elizab Atheron" baptised at Winwick, Lancashire, on 28 Sept 1628. She married Timothy Mather of Dorchester, "the Mather farmer," son of Rev. Richard Mather, and was the mother of all his children, among them Richard Mather of Lyme and Rev. Samuel Mather of Windsor. In his will of October 1661 her father-in-law left a book "to my beloved Sonn Timothy Mather, and to his wife my deare daughter Elizabeth Mather" (source), and her father's probate names "Elizabeth Mather" among his heirs (WikiTree).

King Philip's War. Three of her brothers, it seems, went to the war (Sibley 2:193). Consider Atherton was credited 15s under Maj. Simon Willard in the autumn of 1675, and in April 1676 he was drafted from Dorchester for Capt. John Holbrook's company and did not come: "From Dorchester non-appearance. Consider Atherton, Henry Wedarton [Withington], Ebezar Clape" (Soldiers in King Philip's War, pp. 122, 281). Jonathan Atherton was credited £4 under Capt. Daniel Henchman and £1 10s under Capt. Thomas Brattle (pp. 58, 264); in a "quaint letter" he protested that Henchman had wrongly accused him of "profanation of ye Sabbath," when he had only cut up an old hat to put in his shoes for a galled foot (p. 56). Rev. Hope Atherton, minister of Hatfield, "was chaplain in the expedition which, under Captain William Turner, of Boston, marched from Hatfield 17 May, 1676," to the Falls Fight. "In the hurry and confusion of the retreat, Atherton was separated from the troops." He offered himself to the enemy and was not taken: "I tendered myself to them a prisoner ... they accepted not the offer" (Mather, Brief History, Drake's ed. pp. 260-261). He reached Hatfield on 22 May and died on 8 June 1677 (Sibley 2:194). In the same war her son Richard rode in Capt. Thomas Prentice's troop, her husband was one of Dorchester's raters, and her brother-in-law Increase Mather wrote its first history.

"Elizabeth the Wife of Mr. Timothy Mather" died at Dorchester on 15 May 1678, and ten months later he married Elizabeth Weekes (source). In 1686 her children confirmed a deed of 1673 from "our Father" Timothy and "Elizabeth Mather our Mother" (Suffolk Deeds 54:127). The Mather genealogy of 1890 calls her Catharine, probably a confusion with her daughter Catherine (b. 1656/7).

Research: Notable connections of Patricia Hatten (1940-2009): the paternal Hatten line.

Open questions

• Whether she is the Elizabeth baptized at Winwick in 1628.