Cotton, D.D., a learned American divine, the son of Increase Mather, was born at Boston in February 1663. He received his elementary education under his father's care, and at the age of twelve he entered Harvard College with a considerable knowledge of the classics. There he studied with successful ardour, and at the same time subjected himself to a rigid system of fastings, vigils, self-examinations, and other pious exercises. An impediment in his speech induced him at one time to forego his intention of entering the church, and to commence the study of medicine. This infirmity, however, was soon afterwards overcome; and accordingly, after graduating, he began to preach in 1680. In the same year he was appointed assistant to his father in the North Church of Boston. Cotton Mather now became one of the most zealous of ministers. He discharged his professional duties most faithfully, published numerous sermons and books on practical religion, and assiduously amassed materials for intended treatises. At the same time he set himself to acquire several modern languages, and among others the Iroquois Indian. Nor did he refrain from interfering in civil affairs. A sharer in the superstitions of his age, he was a confident believer in witchcraft; and imagining that there were in the town of Boston some devotees of the evil one, he laboured with his usual honest zeal to detect them. A book of his, entitled Memorable Providences relating to Witchcraft and Possessions, with Discoveries and Appendix, Svo, Boston, 1689, excited a great ferment both in England and America, and was the chief cause of that series of executions for Satanic intercourse known as the "Salem Tragedy." The tide of opinion, however, was now setting in that was destined to sweep all such superstitions away, and Cotton Mather in vain attempted to stem it by his work entitled The Wonders of the Invisible World, Svo, Boston, 1693. So far had he now fallen in the public estimation, that though generally regarded as pre-eminent among his countrymen for learning and genius, he was twice passed over in the election of a president to Harvard College. Yet he continued with unabated earnestness to toil for the general welfare of his fellow-men; and in 1721 he was the first to introduce into America the practice of inoculation. He died in February 1728. Cotton Mather was the first American who was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of London. Of his numerous works his Magnalia Christi Americana, London, 1702, is the greatest; and his Directions to a Candidate for the Ministry, Boston, 1726, is the best known.

Increase, D.D., the father of the preceding, was born at Dorchester, Massachusetts, in June 1639. He was enrolled at the age of twelve a student of Harvard College, where he graduated in 1656, and immediately proceeded to Dublin to complete his studies at Trinity College. Soon after his return to America in 1661 he was chosen minister of the North Church, Boston. The native energy and unflagging zeal of Increase Mather had now obtained full scope. He discharged his ministerial duties with fidelity, spent the greater part of the day in his study, published numerous sermons and other works, and was the acknowledged leader in the political discussions of the community. In 1685 he was appointed president of Harvard College; and in 1688 he was despatched to England as agent for the province, to procure redress of grievances. On his return his services were rewarded with the thanks of the House of Representatives. In 1701 he resigned his presidency, as he thought that its duties were incompatible with those of his pastorate. He died at Boston in August 1723. The best known works of Increase Mather are—History of the Wars with the Indians in New England, London 1676; and Remarkable Providences, reprinted as a volume of Russell Smith's Library of Old Authors, Svo, 1856.