Cotton Mather

Two of the most powerful ministers in New England were his grandfathers, and he carried both their names: Richard Mather and John Cotton. His father, Increase, held the pulpit of Boston's North Church and later the presidency of Harvard. Cotton entered that college in 1674 at 11, the youngest student it has ever admitted, and was bullied there while a stutter took hold that he fought for the rest of his life. Certain the affliction disqualified him from preaching, he withdrew, studied at home, and considered becoming a physician instead. He mastered it well enough to take his degrees and be ordained in 1685, at 22, as his father's colleague in the same pulpit.

He held no office in the Salem witchcraft court and was in Boston, ill, when the accusations began. In May 1692 he wrote to Judge John Richards urging caution and warning against spectral evidence, because the devil could take an innocent shape. He drafted the ministers' Return in June saying much the same, then closed it urging vigorous prosecution. On September 2, after 11 hangings, he wrote to congratulate the chief judge. Then he wrote Wonders of the Invisible World, the court's official defense. His father's Cases of Conscience, that November, helped end the trials.

In 1716 a man he enslaved told him something no physician in Boston knew. Onesimus, bought for Mather as a gift by his congregation in 1706, described being inoculated against smallpox as a child in Africa. Mather freed him that same year and waited five more for the epidemic that would let him argue the case. When smallpox came off a ship in April 1721, he sent the evidence to the town's physicians and got no answer. Only Zabdiel Boylston used it, first on his own son and two enslaved people in his household, then on 287 patients, six of whom died. Smallpox killed 844 Bostonians that year. The selectmen forbade Boylston to continue, and in November someone threw a lighted grenade into Mather's house.

He buried two wives and 13 of his 15 children, and died the day after his own 65th birthday. They put him on Copp's Hill, in the North End. Robert Calef's More Wonders of the Invisible World, published in 1700, fastened Salem to his name, and Nathaniel Hawthorne later called him the chief agent of the mischief there. Samuel Eliot Morison wrote that Calef tied a tin can to Cotton Mather that has been rattling through popular history ever since. Scholars now generally hold that he never took part in the proceedings and acted as a restraint on them, while noting that he never called for them to stop and never expressed regret. What has risen instead is 1721.

Cotton Mather's life against the full span of the corpus.

• Memorable Providences, Relating to Witchcrafts and Possessions book
  His account of the afflicted Goodwin children of Boston — critics later called it kindling for Salem 1689
• Wonders of the Invisible World book
  The Salem court's defense, carrying chief judge William Stoughton's approval 1693
• Magnalia Christi Americana book
  A seven-book ecclesiastical history of New England, printed in London 1702
• Bonifacius, or Essays to Do Good book
  Benjamin Franklin, who had opposed him over inoculation, later called it a major influence on his life 1710
• The Christian Philosopher book
  The first systematic book on science published in America 1721
• The Angel of Bethesda book
  The only comprehensive medical work written in colonial English America — unpublished until the 20th century 1724

• 1674 aged ~11 Enters Harvard at 11, the youngest student the college has admitted Bullied by older students and newly afflicted with a stutter, he withdrew for a time and studied medicine at home.
• 1685 aged ~22 Ordained co-pastor of Boston's North Church beside his father He shared the pulpit with Increase Mather until Increase died in 1723.
• April 18, 1689 aged 26 Helps lead the Boston revolt that deposes Governor Edmund Andros He was 26, and probably read the rebels' Declaration aloud outside the Town House.
• September 2, 1692 aged 29 Writes to congratulate the chief judge of the Salem court Eleven people had been executed. Wonders of the Invisible World followed.
• November 1692 aged 29 His father publishes Cases of Conscience, arguing against the court Increase Mather's pamphlet helped bring the trials to an end.
• 1713 aged ~50 Told he has been elected a fellow of the Royal Society The credential was disputed in 1721, and the fellows formally voted him in again in 1723.
• 1713 aged ~50 Measles kills his wife Elizabeth, their newborn twins and a two-year-old daughter
• June 6, 1721 aged 58 Sends the inoculation reports to Boston's physicians and gets no reply Only Zabdiel Boylston took it up. In November a lighted grenade was thrown into Mather's house.
• February 13, 1728 aged 65 Dies in Boston, the day after his 65th birthday Some sources give February 15. He was buried at Copp's Hill in the North End.

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