Dr. Increase Mather

     Increase was born on Tuesday, 21 June 1639 in Dorchester, Suffolk County, Massachusetts. On 23 June 1639, he was christened in Dorchester, Suffolk County, Massachusetts. He graduated from Harvard in 1656. Increase married Maria Cotton on 6 March 1662. “Puritan Colonial Leader, Educator. He was a Clergyman, College President, Pastor of North Church, Boston. . . In 1674,he delivered a sermon, entitled "The Day of Trouble is Near", this would be the first of manyspeechesthat would make him an influential Puritan leader in Boston and across the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Because of his predominant role in Puritan society he headed a commission sent to England to negotiate for a new charter for the colony. When he returned to New England in 1692, the events of Salem Village had already begun. The jailswerefilled with the accused witches. The new governor looked to him and other Boston ministers for guidance. He along with his son, Cotton, who was also a minster developed doubts as to whether the witchcraft trials were achieving justice and urged caution in the use of spectral evidence. He had only attended one trial, that of George Burroughs, Jr., but despite his doubts to the trials, he would not denounce the judges, because many of them were his friends. After the trial he presented his "Cases of Conscience", where he argued that it would be better that ten witches go free than the blood of a single innocent be shed. His strongdisapproval for spectral evidence so prominently used by the Courtended the trials. He was later criticized for his delay inputting his moral authority against the trials.”.¹ Increase married 2nd Anna Lake Cotton in 1715. He made his will Seveth day of the forth month 1718.² Increase departed this life on Monday, 23 August 1723 in Boston in the Massachuetts Bay Colony. He was buried there in Copps Hiill Burying Ground. His will was probated on 23 September 1723.