Horace E. Mather, Lineage of Rev. Richard Mather (1890)

A compiled genealogy of the Mathers, read in the archive.org full text for the Hatten research (research/hatten/Hatten_Philbrick_Marvin.md, October 2026).

• Rev. Richard Mather (p. 33): “Born in Lowton in 1596, died in Dorchester, Mass., Apr. 22, 1669. Married (1) Catherine, dau. of Edmund Holt of Bury, Sept. 29, 1624; she died 1655; (2) Sarah Story, widow of Rev. John Cotton, Aug. 26, 1656.” The book reprints the opening of his journal of the crossing in the James, 1635 (pp. 34-39), and Increase Mather’s The Life and Death of Richard Mather (Boston, 1670), with its opening, “His Parents Thomas and Margarite Mather were of Ancient Families in Lowton” (pp. 39-44): the Bishop of Chester, after ordaining him, asked “that you would pray for me”; in 1634 the visitor, told he had preached fifteen years and never worn the surplice, said “It had been better for him that he had gotten Seven Bastards”; Thomas Hooker “would say,—‘My brother Mather is a mighty man’”; and Mr. Gellibrand, told his name, “replied nay, his name shall be matter; for believe it, this man hath good substance in him.” His publications include “The Bay Psalm, the first printed book in America. 1640” (p. 44).
• His will (pp. 45-50), “Written with his Owne hands the 16th day of the 8 month 1661,” with a codicil of 21 (7) 1664, leaves books “to my beloved Sonn Timothy Mather, and to his wife my deare daughter Elizabeth Mather,” and to Timothy, who “hath [not] had soe much Cost bestowed vpon him in his Education as his brethren haue had,” the house and lands in Dorchester. Witnessed by Roger Clap, Hopestill Foster, Richard Withington and William Pond; the codicil by Clap, Foster and William Sumner; proved 24 May 1669 on the oaths of “Captaine Roger Clap, Capt. Hopestill Foster and William Pond.”
• Timothy Mather (pp. 54-55): “Born in Liverpool, England, 1628; d. in Dorchester, Mass., Jan. 14, 1684; married (1) Catharine, daughter of Maj.-Gen. Humphrey Atherton; (2) Elizabeth, daughter of Amiel Weeks, March 20, 1678-9.” Children: Samuel (1650), Richard (b. Dec. 22, 1653; m. Catherine Wise July 1, 1680; d. Aug. 17, 1688), Catherine (1655/6), Nathaniel, Joseph (1661), Atherton (1668). “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’ … Timothy had a fall in his barn, which resulted in his death at the age of 56 years.” Note that the will above names Timothy’s wife in 1661 as Elizabeth, not Catharine.
• Richard Mather (p. 75): “Born in Dorchester, Mass., Dec. 20, 1653; d. at Lyme, Conn., Aug. 17, 1688; married Catherine Wise, July 1, 1680.” Children: Capt. Timothy (b. March 20, 1681; m. Sarah Noyes), Elisabeth (1682, m. Zachariah Sill), Samuel (1683/4), Joseph (1686). “In the year 1687 he bought a tract of land in Lyme of Hezekiah Usher of Boston … He died on the fifty-third anniversary of the landing of his grandfather in America.”
• Capt. Timothy Mather (p. 106): “Born March 20, 1681; died July 25, 1755; married Sarah Noyes.” Children: Capt. Timothy (1711), Joseph (1713), Ruth (1715, m. James Marvin), Catherine (b. Jan. 11, 1717; m. Elisha Marvin; d. Dec. 4, 1799), Rev. Dr. Moses (1719).
• p. 23: at Upham’s Corner, Dorchester, “a monument is erected there beside the remains of the emigrant, Rev. Richard Mather, and near by another monument is to Maj.-Gen. Humphrey Atherton, who died in 1661, and who, on the maternal side, is the ancestor of all of the New England Mathers that settled in Connecticut.”