1. Increase Mather was a New England Puritan clergyman in the Massachusetts Bay Colony and president of Harvard College for twenty years.
24 Facts About Increase Mather
1. 2.
Increase Mather was influential in the administration of the colony during a time that coincided with the notorious Salem witch trials.
3.
Increase Mather was the youngest of six brothers, the others being Samuel, Nathaniel, Eleazar, Joseph, and Timothy.
4.
In 1651, Increase Mather was admitted to Harvard College, where he roomed with and studied under Robert Massey.
5.
Increase Mather quickly left Massachusetts and went to Ireland, where he studied at Trinity College, Dublin, for a Master of Arts degree.
6.
Increase Mather resigned the position in 1660 and sailed for Boston in 1661.
7.
In 1661, with the advent of the English Restoration and resurgence of Anglicanism, Increase Mather returned to Massachusetts Bay Colony, where he married Maria Cotton.
8.
Increase Mather was his step-sister by virtue of his father's marriage to Sarah Hankredge, widow of John Cotton and mother of Maria.
9.
In 1676, Increase Mather published A Brief History of the War with the Indians in New-England, a contemporary account of King Philip's War.
10.
Increase Mather was President of Harvard from 1681 until 1701, although his official title at the college varied.
11.
Increase Mather was rarely present on campus or in the town, especially during his term of Rector, as he was out of the Colony for all but two years of his term in that office.
12.
When Increase Mather successfully roused opposition to revocation of the charter, he was nearly framed for treason.
13.
Increase Mather traveled to London to petition the King.
14.
Increase Mather attempted to restore the old charter and obtain a royal charter for Harvard; however, he abandoned that course and changed his petitions, favoring a new charter not lacking any of the rights previously granted.
15.
In 1681, the same year he became president of Harvard and when his son Cotton Mather was only 18-years-old, Increase Mather began work on a manuscript that was to be a collection of "illustrious providences" and he solicited contributions from the other Puritan ministers.
16.
Increase Mather's reputation was not improved afterwards or for posterity, due to his association with the trials and his subsequent refusal to denounce them.
17.
Increase Mather was briefly mentioned in a thorough treatment of his son Cotton by Robert Calef in his comprehensive book of the Salem Trials and their aftermath, More Wonders of the Invisible World.
18.
Increase Mather was said to have burned Calef's book in Harvard Yard.
19.
Increase Mather supported suppression of intoxication, unnecessary effort on Sundays and ostentatious clothing.
20.
Increase Mather was initially opposed to the Half-Way Covenant but later supported it.
21.
Increase Mather was strenuous in attempting to keep people to his idea of morality, making strong use of jeremiads to try to prevent indifference and especially to try to get government officials to enforce public morality.
22.
In John Neal's 1828 novel Rachel Dyer, Increase Mather appears at the end of Martha Corey's witchcraft trial to announce the guilty verdict and give a speech.
23.
Increase Mather is played by Stephen Lang in the 2014 TV series Salem.
24.
Increase Mather appears in Act of Oblivion by Robert Harris.