MATHER, RICHARD (1596-1669), American Congrega tional minister, was born in Lowton, Lancashire, England. At I5 he began to teach at a grammar school at Toxteth Park, near Liverpool. In 1618 he attended Brasenose college, Oxford, for a few months, but in November became minister of the Toxteth chapel. His Puritan tendencies led the ecclesiastical authorities to silence him in 1634, and on Aug. 17 of the next year he arrived at Boston (Mass.). A year later he became teacher of the church at Dorchester, and held that office until his death on April 22, 1669. He was locally celebrated as a preacher, and his books on the principles of New England Congregationalism together with his activity in colonial church councils made him one of the most famous New England Puritans of his day. He was one of the translators of The Whole Booke of Psalmes (1640), the "Bay Psalm Book" designed for use in colonial churches. His greatest achievement was a statement of the creed and polity of Massa chusetts Congregationalism which, with but few alterations, was printed as A Platform of Church Discipline (1649). This, the
"Cambridge Platform," was for years the basic document of his sect in Massachusetts. He was an active advocate of the "Half Way Covenant," a plan which provided a modified form of church membership for those who were unable to meet the tests prescribed by the original Congregational polity.
By his first wife, Katharine Holt of Bury, whom he married in 1624, he had six sons, four of whom became ministers. His second wife was Sarah Cotton, widow of the Rev. John Cotton of Boston.