Rev. Richard Mather1

#2122, (circa 1596 - )
Relationship7th great-granduncle of William David Lewis
Father*Thomas Mather1 (s 1567 - )
Mother*Margarite Abrahms1 (s 1572 - )

Family

Katherine Holt b. c 1604, d. b 1656
Children 1.Rev. Samuel Mather1 (1626 - )
 2.Timothy Mather1 (c 1628 - )
 3.Nathaniel Mather1 (1630 - )
 4.Joseph Mather1 (s 1632 - )
 5.Increase Mather1 (1639 - )
 6.Eleazer Mather1 (1647 - )
He as poss. brother or other relation to Elizabeth, wife of Henry Woodward; Elizabeth is reported as a Mather, unsourced. Savage says that Henry Woodward "came, says Clapp, in his careful Hist. of Dorchester, p. 141, in the James, Capt. Taylor, in the summer of 1635, with Richard Mather, and he calls him a physician."
Trumbull gives an account of the Woodward removal to Northampton that adds some circumstantial evidence.
Banks has Richard Mather and Henry Woodward both sailing on the James.2,3,4 
Other than his parents, the immediate family of Richard Mather and his ancestors are not known. The many histories have much on his descendants but little on his ancestry.5 
Birth*circa 1596He was born circa 1596 at Lowton, Winwick, Lancashire, EnglandG.6,1 
Marriage*29 September 1624He married Katherine Holt, daughter of Edmund Holt, on 29 September 1624 at Bury (now Greater Manchester), Lancashire, EnglandG.7,8,9,10 
1635He and Katherine Holt migrated to Massachusetts BayG on board the James in 1635.11 

Citations

  1. [S166] Robert Charles Anderson, The Great Migration: Immigrants to New England (Boston, Mass.: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1995-2011), V:84-90 (entry for Richard Mather).
  2. [S165] James Savage, A Genealogical Dictionary of the First Settlers of New England, four volumes (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1860-1862), 4:644.
  3. [S1024] James Russell Trumbull, History of Northampton Massachusetts From Its Settlement in 1654 (Northampton: Gazette Printing Co., 1898, 1902), two volumes, I:105, 117.
  4. [S1703] Charles Edward Banks, Topographical Dictionary of 2885 English Emigrants to New England, 1620-1650, edited by Elijah Ellsworth Brownell (Philadelphia: The Bertram Press for E. E. Brownell, 1937), pp. 87-89, Emigrants from Lancashire. Henry and John Woodward, on the James, from Gt. Woolton [Much Woolton] Parish, settled in Dorchester, citing Banks mss. Also named among the forty-three emigrants from Lancashire: Rev. Richard Mather of Toxteth (on the James) and Henry Cuncliffe (no ship given). Trumbull, in History of Northampton, names Hnery Woodward and Henry Cuncliffe, along with William Clarke, as the "three men of Dorchester" who came to Nothampton from Dorchester in 1659-1661 with Eleazer Mather, son of Rev. Richard Mather (poss. brother or father or uncle of Hnery Woodward's wife).
  5. [S520] VWH.
  6. [S1696] Rev. Cotton Mather, Magnalia Christi Americana, Two Volumes (Hartford: Silas Andrus & Son, 1853), p. 444.
  7. [S166] Robert Charles Anderson, Great Migration: Immigrants to New England, V:84-90 (entry for Richard Mather); citing Rev. W.J. Löwenberg and Henry Brierley, eds., The Registers of the
    Parish Church of Bury in the County of Lancaster, Christenings, Burials, and Weddings 1617-1646    , Lancashire Parish Register Society, Volume 10 (Rochdale, Lancashire, 1901), 356.
  8. [S1699] William Joseph Lowenberg and Henry Brierley, editor, The Registers of the Parish Church of Bury in the County of Lancasrter: Christenings, Burials and Weddings 1617–1646 (Rochdale: Printed for the Lancashire Parish Register Society, 1901), p. 356. Richard Mather of Walton pishe [parish], Katrin Houlte of this parishe, marr. 29 Sep 1624. Hereinafter cited as Registers of Bury Church 1617–1646.
  9. [S1700] Samuel G. Drake, "Memoir of the Rev. Cotton Mather, D.D.", The New England Historical and Genealogical Register 6:9-22 (Jan. 1852).
  10. [S1696] Rev. Cotton Mather, Magnalia Christi Americana (1853), p. 447. "[Richard Mather] being so settled in Toxteth, he married the daughter of Edmund Holt, Esq. of Bury, in Lancashire, September 29, 1624, which vertuous [sic] gentlewoman God made a rich blessing to him for thirty years together, and a mother of six sons..."
  11. [S1702] Alexander Young, Chronicles of the First Planters of the Colony of Massachusetts Bay From 1623 to 1636 (Boston: Charles C. Little and James Brown, 1846), pp. 447–481, "Richard Mather's Journal." Describing the journey to the New World: dep. Warrington 16 Apr 1635, arr. Bristol 23 Apr 1635, boarded the James, Capt. Taylor, master, 23 May 1635, dep. and came to King Road (five miles from Bristol; set sail 4 Jun 1635, altogether "five ships, three bound for Newfoundland, viz. the Diligence, a ship of 150 tons, the Mary, a small ship of 80 tons, and the Besse [or Elizabeth]; and two bound for New-England, viz. the Angel Gabriel, of 240 tons, [and] the James, of 220 tons." Sailing along the English coast waiting for favorable winds, the fleet finally set out from Milford Haven, 22 Jun 1635. The James made landing at Boston 17 Aug 1635. The Angel Gabriel was wrecked off the coast of Pemmaquid, Maine, about 15 Aug 1635.
    There were at least two ships with the name James. Another James sailed from England in July 1635, John May, Master, arriving in Massachusetts Bay in September of that year. See the Farnam family as well as Edmund Bridges in this genealogy. Hereinafter cited as First Planters of Massachusetts.