Richard Mather (1712 - 1790)

Born 22 Dec 1712 in Lyme, New London, Connecticut Colony

Ancestors

Husband of Deborah (Ely) Mather — married 18 May 1742 in Lyme, New London, Connecticut Colony

Descendants

Died 11 Jan 1790 at age 77 in Lyme, New London, Connecticut, United States

Biography

The following from the pages of the Hall Genealogy (Part I.) is not without interest: —

"Richard Mather, who married Deborah Ely (155), was son of Samuel Mather , born 1684, died at Lyme 1725.

"In 1712, Samuel Mather married Deborah Champion of Lyme. She was the daughter of Thomas Champion and his wife Hannah Brockway. The parents of Thomas Champion were Henry and Sarah Champion of Saybrook.

Samuel Mather was the son of Richard Mather of Dorchester, who was bom 1653, and married in 1680 Elizabeth Wise, daughter of Joseph Wise and his wife Mary Thompson of Roxbury.

"The father of Richard Mather was Timothy Mather of Dorchester, born in England in 1628, and who died in 1684. In 1650 Timothy Mather married Katherine Atherton, eldest daughter of Major- Gen. Humphrey Athertorn.

"General Atherton came from Preston, Lancashire, to Dorchester in 1636. He was Captain of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery in 1650; Selectman and Representative nine years from 1638; an Assistant in 1657, and until his death.

In 1656 he succeeded General Sedgwick as Major General. He died September 16, 1661. Died by "a judgment of God" in being thrown from his horse on return from a review on Boston Common.

"Timothy Mather, who married Catherine Atherton, was a brother of Increase, who was born in Dorchester in 1639. Increase Mather married Martha, daughter of Rev. John Cotton. Increase was a graduate of Harvard College, and his son, Rev. Cotton Mather, who married the daughter of Colonel John Phillips of Charlestown was the famous preacher of his time.

"From Timothy Mather and his wife, Catherine Atherton, through Richard and Deborah (Ely) Mather and their son, Captain Sylvester (1559), who married Elizabeth Waite, descend the families of Ely and Mather of Binghamton, N. Y., and also the family of Professor R. H. Mather of Amherst, Mass."^[1]

Sources

1. ↑ Beach, Moses Sperry. The Ely Ancestry (The Calumet Press, New York, 1902). Pages 89-91.

• Connecticut Births and Christenings, Indexing Project (Batch) Number: 7450349 , System Origin: Connecticut-ODM , GS Film number: unknown, https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:F745-MF8
• Mather, Horace E., Lineage of Rev. Richard Mather (Case, Lockwood & Brainard Co., Hartford, Conn., 1890), page 172