489. Mather

Outline

1. John Mather; Winwick, Lancs., Eng.
2. Thomas Mather m. 1591 Margaret Abrams; Warrington, Winwick, Lancs., Eng.
3. Rev. Richard Mather (1596–1669) m. (1) 1624 Katharine Holt (d. ca. 166); Dorchester, Mass.
4. Timothy Mather (1628–1684) m. (1) 1650 Elizabeth Atherton (1628–1678); Dorchester, Mass.
5. Rev. Samuel Mather (1651–1728) m. ca. 1676 Hannah Treat (1661–1708); Dorchester, Mass.; Windsor, Conn.
6. Rev. Nathaniel Mather (1695–1748) m. 1724 Ruth (Havens) Terry (ca. 1684–1743); Aquebogue, N. Y.
7. Increase Mather (1725–1794) m. 1744 Anna Brown (ca. 1724–1790); Aquebogue, N. Y.; Morristown, N. J.; Minisink, N.Y.
8. Kezia Mather (1749–1814) m. 1768 William Lain (1743–1811); Morristown, N. J.; Minisink, N. Y.

Sources

The classic work on this family is Horace E. Mather, Lineage of Rev. Richard Mather (Hartford, Conn.: Press of the Case, Lockwood & Brainard Co., 1890). In addition, transcripts of important documents appear in William Ferguson Irvine, The Parents of Rev. Richard Mather, New England Historical and Genealogical Register 54 (1900): 348-9, and Ralph J. Coffman and Mary F. Rhinelander, The Testament of Richard Mather and William Thompson: A New Historical and Genealogical Document of the Great Migration, New England Historical and Genealogical Register 140 (1986): 3-16.

Related surnames

7827. Atherton · 979. Brown · 1957. Havens · 61. Lain · 3913. Trott–Treat

Comment: Holt

Katherine Holt has long been identified as the daughter of Edmund Holt of Bury, Lancashire. According to her grandson, the Rev. Dr. Increase Mather, for a time he opposed her marriage on religious grounds. Coffman and Rhinelander notice (p. 13) that the Mather–Thompson testament links her to the armigerious Holt family of Griselhurst. The reference in the text itself is not very detailed:

The one [Thompson] marryinge with the Skellecornes and so allyed with the Heskethes & Holcrofts, the oth[e]r to the Holts: & so allyed to the Holts at Grislehurst. (p. 16)

Coffman and Rhinelander cite the 1613 visitation of Lancashire for more information on the Grislehurst family. Whether it gives precise data about Edmund’s placement within the family is not stated by these writers.