Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 37.djvu/44

 congregationalism, with occasional but not constant synods. His health was remarkably good, and he never called in a physician, though in his latter years he became deaf, in 1662 one of his eyes failed him, and from 1667 he had several attacks of stone. After presiding at a council of churches in Boston, 13–16 April 1669, he was seized with a violent fit of this disorder, and returned to Dorchester, where he died on 22 April 1669. He married first, on 29 Sept. 1624, Katherine (d. 1655), daughter of Edmund Hoult of Bury, Lancashire; among his six sons by her were Samuel [q. v.], Nathanael [q. v.], Eleazar (b. 1637; minister at Northampton, Connecticut; d 24 July 1669, aged 32), and Increase [q. v.] He married secondly, on 26 Aug. 1656, Sarah, whose first husband was named Story, and whose second husband was John Cotton (d. 23 Dec. 1652). She died before Mather.

He published: 1. ‘An Answer of the … Churches in New England, unto nine Propositions,’ &c., 1643, 4to. 2. ‘Church-Government and Church-Covenant discvssed in an Answer to two-and-thirty Questions,’ &c., 1643, 4to (these two tracts on church government were written by Mather in 1639, and published in London in the name of the Elders of the New England churches). 3. ‘A modest … Ansvver to Mr. Charles Herle against the Independancy of Churches,’ London, 1644, 4to. 4. ‘A Reply to Mr. Rutherford, or a … Defence of … Answer to … Herle,’ &c., 1647, 4to. 5. ‘An Heart-melting Exhortation … to their dear countrey-men of Lancashire,’ &c., 1650, 12mo (written exclusively by Mather, though bearing also the name of William Thompson of Braintree, Massachusetts, d. 10 Dec. 1666). 6. ‘A Catechisme,’ &c., 1650, 8vo. 7. ‘A Treatise of Justification,’ &c., Cambridge, New England, 1652, 4to. 8. ‘A Farewell Exhortation to the Church … of Dorchester,’ &c., Cambridge [Massachusetts], 1657, 4to. 9. ‘A Plea for the Churches of New England,’ &c., 1660. 10. ‘A Defence of the Synod at Boston in … 1662,’ &c., Cambridge [Massachusetts], 1664, 4to (in conjunction with J. Mitchell). 11. ‘A Brief Relation … of the Lord's Work among the Indians,’ &c., 4to (no date or place; copy in Dr. Williams's Library). He had a hand with John Eliot [q. v.] and Thomas Weld in the preparation of the ‘Bay Psalm Book,’ 1640; and prepared for press a series of sermons on 2 Peter and a ‘Defence’ of New England churches against William Rathband [q. v.]; he wrote part of ‘An Answer to Twelve Questions,’ &c., 1712, 16mo, published by Increase Mather. 

MATHER, ROBERT COTTON, LL.D. (1808–1877), missionary, son of James Mather, congregational minister, was born at New Windsor, Manchester, on 8 Nov. 1808, and educated at the Edinburgh and Glasgow universities and Homerton College. After his ordination at Lendal Chapel, York, on 1 June 1833, he went to India as an agent of the London Missionary Society. He had the pastorate of the Union Chapel, Calcutta, for a few months, then removed to Benares, where he remained until May 1838, when he settled at Mirzapore. There he established a new mission, and in course of time gathered a flourishing Christian community, built schools and churches, founded the orphan school press, and started and edited a monthly journal in Hindustani. He was an excellent preacher in the native languages of Northern India, a successful administrator of the important mission which he founded, and an influential member of various associations of missionaries in India. He revised and edited the entire Bible in Hindustani, and in recognition of this work the university of Glasgow conferred on him the degree of LL.D. in 1862. He wrote many tracts and treatises in Hindu and Urdu, and among his English writings is one on ‘Christian Missions in India,’ London, 1858. He edited Sherring's ‘Indian Church during the Great Rebellion,’ 1859. He returned to England in 1873, after forty years' work in India, and subsequently published a commentary on the New Testament in Hindustani. At the time of his death, which took place at Torrington Park, Finchley, London, on 21 April 1877, he was engaged on a commentary on the Old Testament in the same language. His wife Elizabeth, born Sewell, ‘church member of Hew Court Chapel, Carey Street, London,’ was an industrious author, and published a Hindustani dictionary of the Bible. After Mather's death she joined the female mission at Mirzapore,