Timothy Mather

Timothy Mather of Dorchester, "the Mather farmer," second son of Rev. Richard Mather and Katherine Holt. Born at Liverpool while his father was preacher at Toxteth Park, he crossed with his parents and brothers in the James in 1635, through the great hurricane off the Isles of Shoals. "Timothy Mather was the only son of the emigrant that grew up to manhood who was not a preacher and is called the 'Mather farmer' of the early time, and settled in the town with his father" (source). He was a selectman of Dorchester in 1667-69 (source). His father's will of 1661 explained that "in as much as he hath [not] had soe much Cost bestowed vpon him in his Education as his brethren haue had," Timothy should have the larger share of the estate: the house, barn and lands in Dorchester for his life, and then to his children, a double portion to the eldest son; he was one of the executors.

He married, by 1651, Elizabeth Atherton, a daughter of Maj.-Gen. Humphrey Atherton, and with his brothers-in-law James Trowbridge and Obadiah Swift and her brother Jonathan administered Atherton's estate after his death in 1661 (source). Their children, born at Dorchester: Samuel (1651), minister of Windsor and one of the founders of Yale; Richard (1653), who went to Lyme; Catherine (1656/7); Nathaniel (1658); Joseph (1661); and Atherton (1668), founder of the Suffield branch. Every Mather of the New England family, the 1890 genealogy says, descends from him; the name died out in his brothers' lines. Elizabeth died on 15 May 1678, and on 20 March 1678/9 he married Elizabeth Weekes (source).

King Philip's War. In the war years he was one of the three men who assessed Dorchester's rates, the double country rates for the war among them. On 19 (5) 1675 Dorchester's selectmen made "a duble Contry Rate ... it being for the expences for the warr against the Indians and this besids the yeerly Contry Rate." At the town meeting of 13 (10) 1675, held "one weeke after or Vsuall time by reason of exterordinary publique Contry bussines," the selectmen chosen were Lt. John Capen, Sgt. Clap, Deacon James Blake, Richard Withington and Daniel Preston, and "for Raters William Pond Mr Mather Roger Billeng"; in December 1676 the town chose "for Raters Mr Timothy Mather Srgnt Pond, Srgnt Wiswell" (Dorchester town records, pp. 209-213). In September 1676 he also helped set out the country way (p. 212). His brother Increase Mather wrote the war's first history, printed in 1676 (source); his son Richard rode in Capt. Thomas Prentice's troop in the Narragansett campaign; and his wife's brothers Consider, Jonathan and Rev. Hope Atherton served too (see Elizabeth Atherton).

"Timothy had a fall in his barn, which resulted in his death at the age of 56 years." He is buried at Upham's Corner, Dorchester, with his father and his father-in-law (source).

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