Mather, Cotton ___ 1663-1728 ___ American ___ priest

BIOGRAPHICAL SUMMARY
Born in Boston, mather studied at Harvard, and was ordained in 1685. He became a colleague of his father at North Church, Boston, serving as pastor in his father's absences and after his father's death in 1723. He was a prolific writer, and was well known at the time for his books, such as 'Magnalia Christi Americana' a miscellany of materials on the ecclesiastical history of New England. Mather was a very influential religious leader and set Puritan standards for several generations to come. He was a friend of some of the judges charged with hearing the Salem witch trials, and he urged them not to consider so-called 'spectre evidence'. Moreover, he was an ambassador for the colony's interests at the courts of James II and William III when its original charter was being renegotiated. He also had some influence in science, having conducted experiments with plant hybridisation and supported smallpox inoculation, and was elected a member of the Royal Society in London. He married thrice and sired at least 15 children.
A biography link
Wikipedia bio
The Diary Review - Cotton Mather, You Dog

DIARY DATES, CONTENT DESCRIPTORS
1681-1724 ___ religious self

WEB TEXT LINKS
short extracts
several quotes
a few pages

ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPT LINKS
Massachusetts Historical Society - probably

SOME PUBLISHED TITLES
Massachusetts Historical Society Collections Seventh Series VII and VIII, 1911-1912
Diary of Cotton Mather 1681-1709
 

July 2005, July 2008, April 2013
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IMPORTANT NOTES AND CAUTIONS: 1) The first line of basic information may be incomplete in several ways: some historical figures have different names (titles, pen-names); their birth and death dates may be unknown or uncertain (g - guess, c - circa); similarly, their occupations may be unknown, or they may have had other jobs; and, for early diarists, I've used 'British' a bit too freely. 2) The biographical summary may not be accurate. It was compiled quickly from various sources, mostly on the internet, and the facts were not checked anywhere near as rigorously as they would have been if they'd been intended for publication in a printed form. 3) The journal dates and descriptors (which are in no particular order) must be treated with caution: since I have not examined the diaries myself, the descriptors are only guesses based on bibliographies, anthologies and internet biographies. 4) For the biography and etext links, I have ignored any sites with charges, and I have avoided, wherever possible, those with pop-ups or too much advertising. I have limited myself to providing three etext links where there is some variety between them. 5) For the original manuscript links, I have limited myself to providing a maximum of two (although, for a few diarists, their original diaries are held in more than two places). 6) I have provided the titles - chosen randomly - for up to three printed editions of the diaries.