Mather was named after his grandfather,
John Cotton. He attended
Boston Latin School, and graduated from Harvard in 1678, at only 15 years of age. After completing his post-graduate work, he joined his father as assistant Pastor of Boston's original North Church (not to be confused with the Anglican/Episcopal
Old North Church). It was not until his father's death, in
1723, that Mather assumed full responsibilities as Pastor at the Church.
Author of more than 450 books and pamphlets, Cotton Mather's ubiquitous literary works made him one of the most influential religious leaders in America. Mather set the nation's "moral tone," and sounded the call for second and third generation Puritans, whose parents had left
England for the
New England colonies of
North America to return to the
theological roots of
Puritanism.
The most important of these,
Magnalia Christi Americana (1702), is composed of 7 distinct books, many of which depict biographical and historical narratives which later American writers such as
Nathaniel Hawthorne, Elizabeth Drew Stoddard, and
Harriet Beecher Stowe would look to in describing the cultural significance of New England for later generations following the American Revolution. Mather's text thus was one of the more important documents in American history because it reflects a particular tradition of seeing and understanding the significance of place. Mather, as a Puritan thinker and social conservative, drew on the figurative language of the Bible to speak to present-day audiences. In particular, Mather's review of the American experiment sought to explain signs of his time and the types of individuals drawn to the colonies as predicting the success of the venture. From his religious training, Mather viewed the importance of texts for elaborating meaning and for bridging different moments of history (for instance, linking the biblical stories of Noah and Abraham with the arrival of eminent leaders such as
John Eliot, John Winthrop, and his own father Increase Mather).
The struggles of first, second and third-generation Puritans, both intellectual and physical, thus became elevated in the American way of thinking about its appointed place among other nations. The unease and self-deception that characterized that period of colonial history would be revisited in many forms at political and social moments of crisis (such as the Salem witch trials which coincided with frontier warfare and economic competition among Indians, French and other European settlers) and during lengthy periods of cultural definition (e.g., the American Renaissance of the late 18th and early 19th century literary, visual, and architectural movements which sought to capitalize on unique American identities).
A friend of a number of the judges charged with hearing the
Salem witch trials, Mather admitted the use of "
spectral evidence," (compare
"The Devil in New England") but warned that, though it might serve as evidence to begin investigations, it should not be heard in court as evidence to decide a case. Despite this, he later wrote in defense of those conducting the trials, stating:
:"If in the midst of the many Dissatisfactions among us, the publication of these Trials may promote such a pious Thankfulness unto God, for Justice being so far executed among us, I shall Re-joyce that God is Glorified..." (
Wonders of the Invisible World).
Highly influential due to his prolific writing, Mather was a force to be reckoned with in secular, as well as in spiritual, matters. After the fall of
James II of England in
1688, Mather was among the leaders of a successful revolt against James's Governor of the consolidated
Dominion of New England, Sir
Edmund Andros.
Mather was influential in early American science as well. In 1716, as the result of observations of corn varieties, he conducted one of the first experiments with plant
hybridization. This observation was memorialized in a letter to a friend:
:"My friend planted a row of Indian corn that was colored red and blue; the rest of the field being planted with yellow, which is the most usual color. To the windward side this red and blue so infected three or four rows as to communicate the same color unto them; and part of ye fifth and some of ye sixth. But to the leeward side, no less than seven or eight rows had ye same color communicated unto them; and some small impressions were made on those that were yet further off."
Of Mather's three wives and fifteen children, only his last wife and two children survived him. Mather was buried on
Copp's Hill.
Cotton Mather is the ancestor of Rev. George A Mather, author of numerous books on cults and religion.
