GENERAL INDEX. Address to the Society, 217 Amherst graduate, 209 Ancestors, the number of one's, 242 Blake, James, Jr., 372 Ware, Joseph, 148 Weare, Nathaniel, 50 Berkeley, Dean, remark of, 373 Books, Reviews and Notices of Armstrong's Historical Address at Ches- Binney's History and Genealogy of the Bridgeman's Copp's Hill Epitaphs, 387 California State Officers for 1851, 97 304 Doolittle's Sketches of Belchertown, 303 Eddy's account of the First Church in Fogg's account of Early Settlers in El- Hanson's History of Gardiner and Pitts- Kidder's History of New Ipswich, 382 Kilbourne's Biographical History of Livingston's Law Magazine, 98 Mount Hope Cemetery Consecration, 386 3 Potter's Monthly Visitor, 215 Report on the Public Library of Boston, 382 Richards' Discourse at funeral of Rog- Robbins' History of Second Church, Scudder's Cape Cod Oration, 300 Smith Family of Peterboro', N. H., 386 Sparks' Reply to Lord Mahon and others, 303 Spofford's Family Record, 98 Streeter's Discourse before the Mary- Simond's Third Annual Report, 305 ry, 215 Turner's Family Genealogy, 385 Worcester's Life of Worcester, 301 Boots, derivation of the word, 29; fined for wearing great ones, 30 Boston, early records of, II. 76, 188, 274, 400. III. 38, 126, 247. IV. 267, 359. Bowdoin College graduate, 308; Brown Canada Captives, list of, 87, 88 built by aid of Protestants, 358; sleep- Cotton Mill, one of the first in the State,255 Customs of New England, 23. Dials, a maker of, 372 Diary of Samuel Sewall, extracts from, Donations, 100, 312 Dornix or Dornick, definition of, 171 Dutch House of Good Hope, account of,368 Essex and Old Norfolk, early settlers of, Railroad Jubilee in Boston, account of, Fairbanks, Jonas, fined for wearing great 386 boots, 30 Genealogies, Pedigrees, &c.-Abbott, 200; Ballantine, 371; Blake, 372; Bright, 272; Brown, 232, 272, 278; Chipman, 272; Cogswell, 102; Clap, 373; Davis, 35; Dean, 103; Dearborn, 60; Doolittle, 293; Drew, 36; Dudley, 280; Eliot, 277; Em- erson, 37; Gay, 373; Gerrish, 258; Gil- man, 376; Goddard, 259; Hall, 259, Ham, 329; Hanson, 329; Hayes, 333; Jones, 200, 278; Livermore, 272; Lor- ing, 374, 375; Mather, 20, 21; Metcalf, 171; Oates, 150; Odlin, 272; Parker, 375; Pearce, 276; Phillips, 273; Prence, 234; Prentice, 273, 276; Prescott, 274; Russell, 274; Sartle, 274; Storer, 275; Swett, 49; Ware, 145; Washington, 384; 384; Wentworth, 213, 291; West, 282; Whitman, 376; Woodbridge, 273, 281; Graduates of Amherst Coll. 209, of Bow- Harrison, life saved at Tippecanoe, 210 Harvard College graduates, see Graduates. Huguenots, first arrival in Boston, 357 Hutchinson Governor, anecdote of, 256 Indian tragedies, 54, 55; false alarm of, 60; killed by, 248, 251, 253, 261, 320, 321, 323, 329, 330, 375; settlement broken up by, 357; mercy shown by, 249; Fitch and family captured by, 262. Inscriptions, Monumental, 179, 236, 282 Lake, Capt. Thomas, killed by Indians, 54 Letters from Rev. Arthur Brown, 264; Man, Rev. Samuel, his advice on Matri- Marriages and Deaths, 101, 209, 306, 389 Marshfield, early marriages, 347; first or- Mather, Cotton, number of publications, 9 Memoirs of Cotton Mather, 9; of the Swett family, 49; of Francis Higginson, 105; of the Jones family, 279; of the Doolit- tle family, 293; of the Farrar family, 313; of the Johonnot family, 357 Norfolk County, oaths of allegiance, 201; Order Book, General Sullivan's, extract Paper manufacture at Milton, first in N. Petitions to Gen. Court, 51, 367, 368, 370 Poetry, 223-225, 229, 231, 372, 374 Prince's Chronology, subscribers to, 189 Publications, notices of, 97, 215, 299, 381 Quebec, expedition against, 129; list of Reviews of Books, see. Books. Shepard, John, notices of, V. 472. VI. Wills Suffolk, II. 102, 180, 260, 383. III. 77, 177, 265. IV. 51, 285. V. 239, 295, Plymouth, IV. 33, 173, 281, 319. V. 259, 335, 385. VI. 93, 185. NEW ENGLAND HISTORICAL AND GENEALOGICAL REGISTER. VOL. VI. JANUARY, 1852. ΝΟ. 1. MEMOIR OF THE REV. COTTON MATHER, D.D., WITH A GENEALOGY OF THE FAMILY OF MATHER. BY SAMUEL G. DRAKE. THE succession of eminent men by the name of MATHER, through a period of above one hundred years, was enough to make that name conspicuous for several ages or generations, after those who gave the impression had passed away. The subject of this notice, (though by no means the last of the Mathers,) was the last of the three great men of the name, and one who, with them, so indelibly impressed his fame upon the age in which he lived, that no length of time is likely to obliterate it; and it is worthy of remark, that the three Mathers should have followed each other in importance in unbroken succession. Not that the successors were better men than their predecessor, but there seems to have been an accumulation of fame attached to each, something in proportion to the amount and number of their literary productions; for, while the first of the series, the REV. RICHARD MATHER, published but very few works, perhaps not above eight or nine, yet there have not, probably, lived in New England to this day, any three men of one name and family, who have been authors of an equal number of publications. Those of our author alone number three hundred and eighty-two.1* In what we shall have to say in this brief memoir of DR. COTTON MATHER, it is not proposed to enter at all into an examination or exhibition of his religious views and theories; those can be best understood by a perusal of his writings; while, at the same time, we hold it to be our duty to rebuke those, who, we conceive, have calumniated him. It may be justly said of Cotton Mather, that he was one of the most remarkable men of the age in which he lived; not only remarkable on one, but on many accounts; and for none, perhaps, more than for his wonderful precociousness, or the early intuitiveness of his mind. His His memory was likewise very extraordinary. *The figures refer to the notes at the end of the Memoir. The acquirement of knowledge seems to have been with him accomplished almost without effort and his writings show that they were generally drawn from the storehouse of his mind, where, from reading and observation, they had been from time to time deposited. Authers, who write from this source alone, are generally diffuse, and wanting in those very essential and minute particulars, which in these days constitute so important a part of every man's. writings. His style is very peculiar; and no one who is acquainted with the writings of the "famous Thomas Fuller," can hardly doubt that Cotton Mather attempted to make that writer's composition a model for his own. Still he falls considerably short of Fuller in his attempts at witty conceits; in them the latter is always happy, while the former is seldom so. Yet we do not hesitate to give it, as our opinion, that a volume might be made up from his writings, which would be well entitled "Curiosities and Singularities of Cotton Mather," equal if not superior in interest to anything of the kind that has ever appeared. His ability for acquiring languages has probably been surpassed by but very few, and he is said to have been master of more languages than any other person in New England in his time.Those, especially the Latin, it must be confessed, he made a much greater use of, than appears necessary in our day; bringing in passages from them at all times, as though every body understood them, as well as himself. So far as we now remember, Dr. Douglass seems to have been the author of the fashion or practice, so much of late years in vogue, of reviling Cotton Mather. It has been carried to such an extent in some quarters, that any one who presumes to mention his name, does it at the peril of coming in for a share of obloquy and abuse himself. Some not only charge him with committing all sorts of errors and blunders, but they bring against him the more serious charge of misrepresenting matters of fact. Now it would he well for those who bring those charges, to look at their own works. It is not to be denied that the mind of Dr. Mather was in some respects singularly constituted; and whoever shall undertake an analysis of it, will find a more difficult task, we apprehend, than those have found, who content themselves with nothing further than vituperative denunciations upon the fruits of it. owe a vast deal to Cotton Mather; especially for his historical and biographical works. Were these alone to be struck out of existence, it would make a void in these departments of our literature, that would probably confound any who affect to look upon them with contempt. Even Dr. Douglass, although he has written it down for truth, that, to point out all the errors in the Magnalia, would be to copy the whole book, is nevertheless, very much indebted to him for facts in many parts of the very work in which he has made that statement; hence it would be very bad logic that would not charge Dr. Douglass with copying errors into his work, knowing them to be errors. It would be very easy for us to point to some writers of our own time equally obnoxious to the same plain kind of logic. And a late writer of very good standing, has, with great apparent deliberation said, that, "it is impossible to deny, that the reputation of Cotton Mather has declined of late years." This, of course, was his belief; but it strikes us as very singular, that that same author, should, at the same time, make the largest book on the life of a man, in such a state of decline, that had hitherto appeared! But we are under no concern for the reputation of Cotton Mather, even in the hands of his enemies, and we have no intention of setting up a special defence of him or his writings. We are willing the latter should pass for exactly what they are worth. All we design to do, is to caution those a little who need caution, and save them, if we may, from having the windows in their own houses broken, by the very missiles they themselves have thrown. The genealogy subjoined to this notice will give the neces sary statistical facts of births, marriages, &c., in the Mather family, and we shall proceed at once to notice some of the prominent events in the life of Cotton, one of its important members. COTTON MATHER graduated at Harvard College in 1678, being then but 16 years of age. At this early period he drew up systems of the sciences and wrote remarks upon the books which he read. In 1684, at the age of 22, he was ordained minister of the North Church in Boston, as colleague with his father. Two years after he began his career as an author. tion was "A Sermon to the Artillery Company in Middlesex. His first publicaFrom this time to his death, namely, from 1686 to 1727, no year passed in which he did not publish something; thus in a period of 41 years were produced 283 books and tracts; giving to each year on an average nearly seven works. one or more of the Indian languages, and published some books He understood in one or more of them. He also published some in Spanish, and some Latin. In 1692, Dr. Mather published his " Wonders of the Invisible World." This was his account of the witchcraft cases of that time. In this he laid himself open to the charge of credulity, as did many others of the most respectable men of his day. Many have reproached Doctor Mather, as though he was the author of that dismal and awful delusion. This is singularly unjust. He was himself one of the deluded; and this is the only charge that can lie against him relative to it. All the world then believed in witchcraft, and people entered into it according to their temperament and circumstances. The delusion was not a native of New England, but an exotic from the father land; and it had been well if this had been the only one imported thence. Even when prosecutions had ceased, there was not a cessation of a belief in the reality of witchcraft; its progress was stayed from a very different cause, as is now too well known to be entered into or explained. Even to the present day there are thousands who believe in its reality; and that belief can only be |