Increase Mather

Increase Mather (June 21, 1639 – August 23, 1723) was a Puritan educator and clergyman.

Politics

After the threat of a Quo Warranto writ in 1683 demanding the surrender of the Massachusetts charter, Mather used all his influence to persuade the colonists not to give up their charter, and the Boston freemen unanimously voted against this submission. The royal agents immediately afterwards sent to London a letter containing statements of treason and falsely attributed them to Mather. Their spuriousness seemed to have been suspected in England, however, and Mather was not punished. He became a leader in the opposition to Sir Edmund Andros, to his secretary Edward Randolph, and to Governor Joseph Dudley.

Related Topics:
Quo Warranto - Writ - 1683 - Freemen - Edmund Andros - Joseph Dudley

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He was chosen by the General Court to represent the colony's interests in England, eluded officers sent to arrest him, and in disguise boarded a ship on which he reached Weymouth on May 6, 1688. In London he acted with Sir Henry Ashurst, the resident agent, and had two or three fruitless audiences with James II. His first audience with William III was on January 9, 1689. He was active in influencing the British House of Commons to vote in 1689 that the New England charters should be restored and he published: A Narrative of the Miseries of New-England, By Reason of an Arbitrary Government Erected there Under Sir Edmund Andros (1688), and: A Brief Relation for the Confirmation of Charter Privileges (1691), and other pamphlets.

Related Topics:
Weymouth - May 6 - 1688 - James II - William III - January 9 - 1689 - British House of Commons

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In 1690 he was joined by Elisha Cooke (1638-1715) and Thomas Oakes (1644-1719), additional agents, who were uncompromisingly for the renewal of the old charter. Mather, however, was instrumental in securing a new charter (signed on October 7, 1691), and prevented the annexation of the Plymouth Colony by New York. The nomination of officers left to the Crown was reserved to the agents. Mather had expressed strong dissatisfaction with the clause giving the governor the right of veto and regretted the less theocratic tone of the charter which made all freemen (and not merely church members) electors. With Sir William Phips, the new Governor and a member of Mather's church, he arrived in Boston on May 14, 1692. The value of his services to the colony at this time is not easily over-estimated. In England he won the friendship of divines like Richard Baxter, John Tillotson and Thomas Burnet, and effectively promoted the union in 1691 of English Presbyterians and Congregationalists. He incurred heavy expenses throughout his stay, and even greater than his financial loss was the loss of authority and control in the church and at Harvard during his absence.

Related Topics:
1690 - October 7 - 1691 - Plymouth Colony - New York - Veto - Theocratic - Elector - William Phips - May 14 - 1692 - Richard Baxter - John Tillotson - Thomas Burnet - Presbyterians - Congregationalists

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