The following, with minor modernization of language and important [annotations], was abstracted from Franklin Bowditch Dexter's "Biographical Sketches of the Graduates of Yale College," 3:422-24.
• Allyn Mather, fourth son and fifth child of Nathaniel and Elizabeth (Allyn) Mather, of Windsor, Conn., born at that town Mar. 21, 1747 [Apr. 10, 1747 per Windsor VRs]. He was prepared for Yale by Dr. Eleazer Wheelock (Yale 1733), at Lebanon Crank, now Columbia, Conn., and was employed by him in two missions to the Indians of Central New York in the year 1768, which must have required a considerable absence from College duties.
• He studied theology, and in Sept. 1772 began to supply the Fair Haven Church, at New Haven, which had formed in June 1771, and was about to build a meeting-house on the site of the present United Church. This church gave him a call for settlement, with a salary of £100, on Oct. 21, and this call was confirmed by the ecclesiastic society connected with the church on Dec. 7, 1772. The society was composed of families which has seceded from the so-called White Haven Church, in disapproval of the settlement of the Rev. Jonathan Edwards, who represented what was then known as "New Divinity;" and accordingly Mr. Mather's sympathies were more with the old-fashioned Calvinists, and his church practiced the half-way covenant.
• In Dec. 1772 he bought a house lot at New Haven, and on Feb. 3, 1773 he was ordained as pastor of the Fair Haven Church, the ordination sermon preached by the Rev. Benjamin Woodbridge (Yale 1740), of the parish which is now Woodbridge. About the same time he married Thankful, dau. of Ebenezer and Thankful (Nichols) Barnard, of Hartford.
• From the time of his settlement he had a cough and indications of an infection of the lungs, and by 1779 his health began to fail seriously. He spent a part of the winter of 1780-81 at the South [North Carolina], and on Aug. 4, 1784 he sailed from New Haven for New Providence, in the Bahamas. Thence he went to Savannah, Georgia, where he died Nov. 4, 1784, in his 38th year [Æ 38.] The news reached his family on Dec. 4, 1784 and on the following 12th Pres. Stiles [of Yale] occupied his pulpit and preached a funeral sermon. A poetical elegy, of seven stanzas, was published in the Connecticut Journal July 6, 1785.
• His estate was inventoried at £471.
• His children were two sons and two daughters. Two of these died in childhood [d. Elizabeth and s. Increase], and neither of the others married, the surviving dau. [Sophia Thankful] died at New Haven in 1862.
• The widow married, on Nov. 20, 1785, Ebenezer Townsend, of New Haven, and died Aug. 31, 1805, aged 54 years [no, Aug. 19, 1828 at Middletown, aged 78, g.s.] Her portrait is preserved in the rooms of the New Haven Colony Historical Society.
• His successor, the Rev. Dr. Dutton, writing in 1842, says of him:
"He was devoutly pious, desiring to be spent for the honor of God and the spiritual good of his people. They would often come to him on the Sabbath, I am told, and, on account of his apparent feebleness, urge him not to preach. But he usually denied their solicitations, saying, that he wished to proclaim the riches of Christ, and preferred to die in the pulpit. He had few of the graces of oratory, and did not excel in profound investigation, or doctrinal discussion. But he was plain and practical in his choice of subjects and in his mode of treating them; earnest, affectionate, tender, and winning in his manner; and pathetic, touching, and persuasive in his appeals. He excelled in pastoral labor, so far as he was able to perform it, and was exceedingly beloved by his people."
---
In or about 1774 probably at Hartford, Conn. Rev. Mather m. Thankful Sophia Barnard, dau. of Capt. Ebenezer Barnard and Thankful Nichols, bap. of record Mar. 24, 1750/1 [Hart. 1st Ch.]. They had four known children bp. at New Haven, Conn., three who would be raised at New Haven by their stepfather, and one adopted by the maternal grandfather likely before Rev. Mather's death. The dates of birth, if shown, are from the Richard Mather Geneal. while the dates of baptism are from the records of the New Haven 2nd Cong. Ch. Society abstracted by Donald Lines Jacobus [Families of Ancient New Haven, 5-1151]:
• i. Allyn Mather, Jr., bp. Mar. 19, 1775 and never married. The Mather Geneal. claims he was initially a lawyer, who left that profession to be a sea Capt. trading in the West Indies and England, latter where he was lost on an unstated date in the English Channel. Historic newspapers place him in 1816 operating out of New York City the owner of two copper bottomed vessels that traded in the West Indies.
• ii. Elizabeth Mather, b. Feb. 19 (bp. Feb. 21), 1777, d. July 6, 1785 at Hartford, Conn., Æ 7 (g.s.) Due to the apparent poor health of her father, she was adopted by her maternal grandfather, Capt. Ebenezer Barnard of Hartford.
• iii. Sophia Thankful Mather, b. Jan. 4 (bp. Jan. 20), 1782, never married and d. at New Haven Feb. 20, 1862 [Newspaper Death Notice.] According to census records, she was a longtime resident in a Clark family at New Haven. Her occupation is not stated in the censuses but her positioning does not indicate she was that family's domestic servant.
• iv. Increase Mather, b. Nov. 4 (bp. Nov. 23), 1783, d. in his youth Sept. 14, 1795 at New Haven, Æ 12 (g.s.)
• Allyn Mather, fourth son and fifth child of Nathaniel and Elizabeth (Allyn) Mather, of Windsor, Conn., born at that town Mar. 21, 1747 [Apr. 10, 1747 per Windsor VRs]. He was prepared for Yale by Dr. Eleazer Wheelock (Yale 1733), at Lebanon Crank, now Columbia, Conn., and was employed by him in two missions to the Indians of Central New York in the year 1768, which must have required a considerable absence from College duties.
• He studied theology, and in Sept. 1772 began to supply the Fair Haven Church, at New Haven, which had formed in June 1771, and was about to build a meeting-house on the site of the present United Church. This church gave him a call for settlement, with a salary of £100, on Oct. 21, and this call was confirmed by the ecclesiastic society connected with the church on Dec. 7, 1772. The society was composed of families which has seceded from the so-called White Haven Church, in disapproval of the settlement of the Rev. Jonathan Edwards, who represented what was then known as "New Divinity;" and accordingly Mr. Mather's sympathies were more with the old-fashioned Calvinists, and his church practiced the half-way covenant.
• In Dec. 1772 he bought a house lot at New Haven, and on Feb. 3, 1773 he was ordained as pastor of the Fair Haven Church, the ordination sermon preached by the Rev. Benjamin Woodbridge (Yale 1740), of the parish which is now Woodbridge. About the same time he married Thankful, dau. of Ebenezer and Thankful (Nichols) Barnard, of Hartford.
• From the time of his settlement he had a cough and indications of an infection of the lungs, and by 1779 his health began to fail seriously. He spent a part of the winter of 1780-81 at the South [North Carolina], and on Aug. 4, 1784 he sailed from New Haven for New Providence, in the Bahamas. Thence he went to Savannah, Georgia, where he died Nov. 4, 1784, in his 38th year [Æ 38.] The news reached his family on Dec. 4, 1784 and on the following 12th Pres. Stiles [of Yale] occupied his pulpit and preached a funeral sermon. A poetical elegy, of seven stanzas, was published in the Connecticut Journal July 6, 1785.
• His estate was inventoried at £471.
• His children were two sons and two daughters. Two of these died in childhood [d. Elizabeth and s. Increase], and neither of the others married, the surviving dau. [Sophia Thankful] died at New Haven in 1862.
• The widow married, on Nov. 20, 1785, Ebenezer Townsend, of New Haven, and died Aug. 31, 1805, aged 54 years [no, Aug. 19, 1828 at Middletown, aged 78, g.s.] Her portrait is preserved in the rooms of the New Haven Colony Historical Society.
• His successor, the Rev. Dr. Dutton, writing in 1842, says of him:
"He was devoutly pious, desiring to be spent for the honor of God and the spiritual good of his people. They would often come to him on the Sabbath, I am told, and, on account of his apparent feebleness, urge him not to preach. But he usually denied their solicitations, saying, that he wished to proclaim the riches of Christ, and preferred to die in the pulpit. He had few of the graces of oratory, and did not excel in profound investigation, or doctrinal discussion. But he was plain and practical in his choice of subjects and in his mode of treating them; earnest, affectionate, tender, and winning in his manner; and pathetic, touching, and persuasive in his appeals. He excelled in pastoral labor, so far as he was able to perform it, and was exceedingly beloved by his people."
---
In or about 1774 probably at Hartford, Conn. Rev. Mather m. Thankful Sophia Barnard, dau. of Capt. Ebenezer Barnard and Thankful Nichols, bap. of record Mar. 24, 1750/1 [Hart. 1st Ch.]. They had four known children bp. at New Haven, Conn., three who would be raised at New Haven by their stepfather, and one adopted by the maternal grandfather likely before Rev. Mather's death. The dates of birth, if shown, are from the Richard Mather Geneal. while the dates of baptism are from the records of the New Haven 2nd Cong. Ch. Society abstracted by Donald Lines Jacobus [Families of Ancient New Haven, 5-1151]:
• i. Allyn Mather, Jr., bp. Mar. 19, 1775 and never married. The Mather Geneal. claims he was initially a lawyer, who left that profession to be a sea Capt. trading in the West Indies and England, latter where he was lost on an unstated date in the English Channel. Historic newspapers place him in 1816 operating out of New York City the owner of two copper bottomed vessels that traded in the West Indies.
• ii. Elizabeth Mather, b. Feb. 19 (bp. Feb. 21), 1777, d. July 6, 1785 at Hartford, Conn., Æ 7 (g.s.) Due to the apparent poor health of her father, she was adopted by her maternal grandfather, Capt. Ebenezer Barnard of Hartford.
• iii. Sophia Thankful Mather, b. Jan. 4 (bp. Jan. 20), 1782, never married and d. at New Haven Feb. 20, 1862 [Newspaper Death Notice.] According to census records, she was a longtime resident in a Clark family at New Haven. Her occupation is not stated in the censuses but her positioning does not indicate she was that family's domestic servant.
• iv. Increase Mather, b. Nov. 4 (bp. Nov. 23), 1783, d. in his youth Sept. 14, 1795 at New Haven, Æ 12 (g.s.)
The following, with minor modernization of language and important [annotations], was abstracted from Franklin Bowditch Dexter's "Biographical Sketches of the Graduates of Yale College," 3:422-24.
• Allyn Mather, fourth son and fifth child of Nathaniel and Elizabeth (Allyn) Mather, of Windsor, Conn., born at that town Mar. 21, 1747 [Apr. 10, 1747 per Windsor VRs]. He was prepared for Yale by Dr. Eleazer Wheelock (Yale 1733), at Lebanon Crank, now Columbia, Conn., and was employed by him in two missions to the Indians of Central New York in the year 1768, which must have required a considerable absence from College duties.
• He studied theology, and in Sept. 1772 began to supply the Fair Haven Church, at New Haven, which had formed in June 1771, and was about to build a meeting-house on the site of the present United Church. This church gave him a call for settlement, with a salary of £100, on Oct. 21, and this call was confirmed by the ecclesiastic society connected with the church on Dec. 7, 1772. The society was composed of families which has seceded from the so-called White Haven Church, in disapproval of the settlement of the Rev. Jonathan Edwards, who represented what was then known as "New Divinity;" and accordingly Mr. Mather's sympathies were more with the old-fashioned Calvinists, and his church practiced the half-way covenant.
• In Dec. 1772 he bought a house lot at New Haven, and on Feb. 3, 1773 he was ordained as pastor of the Fair Haven Church, the ordination sermon preached by the Rev. Benjamin Woodbridge (Yale 1740), of the parish which is now Woodbridge. About the same time he married Thankful, dau. of Ebenezer and Thankful (Nichols) Barnard, of Hartford.
• From the time of his settlement he had a cough and indications of an infection of the lungs, and by 1779 his health began to fail seriously. He spent a part of the winter of 1780-81 at the South [North Carolina], and on Aug. 4, 1784 he sailed from New Haven for New Providence, in the Bahamas. Thence he went to Savannah, Georgia, where he died Nov. 4, 1784, in his 38th year [Æ 38.] The news reached his family on Dec. 4, 1784 and on the following 12th Pres. Stiles [of Yale] occupied his pulpit and preached a funeral sermon. A poetical elegy, of seven stanzas, was published in the Connecticut Journal July 6, 1785.
• His estate was inventoried at £471.
• His children were two sons and two daughters. Two of these died in childhood [d. Elizabeth and s. Increase], and neither of the others married, the surviving dau. [Sophia Thankful] died at New Haven in 1862.
• The widow married, on Nov. 20, 1785, Ebenezer Townsend, of New Haven, and died Aug. 31, 1805, aged 54 years [no, Aug. 19, 1828 at Middletown, aged 78, g.s.] Her portrait is preserved in the rooms of the New Haven Colony Historical Society.
• His successor, the Rev. Dr. Dutton, writing in 1842, says of him:
"He was devoutly pious, desiring to be spent for the honor of God and the spiritual good of his people. They would often come to him on the Sabbath, I am told, and, on account of his apparent feebleness, urge him not to preach. But he usually denied their solicitations, saying, that he wished to proclaim the riches of Christ, and preferred to die in the pulpit. He had few of the graces of oratory, and did not excel in profound investigation, or doctrinal discussion. But he was plain and practical in his choice of subjects and in his mode of treating them; earnest, affectionate, tender, and winning in his manner; and pathetic, touching, and persuasive in his appeals. He excelled in pastoral labor, so far as he was able to perform it, and was exceedingly beloved by his people."
---
In or about 1774 probably at Hartford, Conn. Rev. Mather m. Thankful Sophia Barnard, dau. of Capt. Ebenezer Barnard and Thankful Nichols, bap. of record Mar. 24, 1750/1 [Hart. 1st Ch.]. They had four known children bp. at New Haven, Conn., three who would be raised at New Haven by their stepfather, and one adopted by the maternal grandfather likely before Rev. Mather's death. The dates of birth, if shown, are from the Richard Mather Geneal. while the dates of baptism are from the records of the New Haven 2nd Cong. Ch. Society abstracted by Donald Lines Jacobus [Families of Ancient New Haven, 5-1151]:
• i. Allyn Mather, Jr., bp. Mar. 19, 1775 and never married. The Mather Geneal. claims he was initially a lawyer, who left that profession to be a sea Capt. trading in the West Indies and England, latter where he was lost on an unstated date in the English Channel. Historic newspapers place him in 1816 operating out of New York City the owner of two copper bottomed vessels that traded in the West Indies.
• ii. Elizabeth Mather, b. Feb. 19 (bp. Feb. 21), 1777, d. July 6, 1785 at Hartford, Conn., Æ 7 (g.s.) Due to the apparent poor health of her father, she was adopted by her maternal grandfather, Capt. Ebenezer Barnard of Hartford.
• iii. Sophia Thankful Mather, b. Jan. 4 (bp. Jan. 20), 1782, never married and d. at New Haven Feb. 20, 1862 [Newspaper Death Notice.] According to census records, she was a longtime resident in a Clark family at New Haven. Her occupation is not stated in the censuses but her positioning does not indicate she was that family's domestic servant.
• iv. Increase Mather, b. Nov. 4 (bp. Nov. 23), 1783, d. in his youth Sept. 14, 1795 at New Haven, Æ 12 (g.s.)
• Allyn Mather, fourth son and fifth child of Nathaniel and Elizabeth (Allyn) Mather, of Windsor, Conn., born at that town Mar. 21, 1747 [Apr. 10, 1747 per Windsor VRs]. He was prepared for Yale by Dr. Eleazer Wheelock (Yale 1733), at Lebanon Crank, now Columbia, Conn., and was employed by him in two missions to the Indians of Central New York in the year 1768, which must have required a considerable absence from College duties.
• He studied theology, and in Sept. 1772 began to supply the Fair Haven Church, at New Haven, which had formed in June 1771, and was about to build a meeting-house on the site of the present United Church. This church gave him a call for settlement, with a salary of £100, on Oct. 21, and this call was confirmed by the ecclesiastic society connected with the church on Dec. 7, 1772. The society was composed of families which has seceded from the so-called White Haven Church, in disapproval of the settlement of the Rev. Jonathan Edwards, who represented what was then known as "New Divinity;" and accordingly Mr. Mather's sympathies were more with the old-fashioned Calvinists, and his church practiced the half-way covenant.
• In Dec. 1772 he bought a house lot at New Haven, and on Feb. 3, 1773 he was ordained as pastor of the Fair Haven Church, the ordination sermon preached by the Rev. Benjamin Woodbridge (Yale 1740), of the parish which is now Woodbridge. About the same time he married Thankful, dau. of Ebenezer and Thankful (Nichols) Barnard, of Hartford.
• From the time of his settlement he had a cough and indications of an infection of the lungs, and by 1779 his health began to fail seriously. He spent a part of the winter of 1780-81 at the South [North Carolina], and on Aug. 4, 1784 he sailed from New Haven for New Providence, in the Bahamas. Thence he went to Savannah, Georgia, where he died Nov. 4, 1784, in his 38th year [Æ 38.] The news reached his family on Dec. 4, 1784 and on the following 12th Pres. Stiles [of Yale] occupied his pulpit and preached a funeral sermon. A poetical elegy, of seven stanzas, was published in the Connecticut Journal July 6, 1785.
• His estate was inventoried at £471.
• His children were two sons and two daughters. Two of these died in childhood [d. Elizabeth and s. Increase], and neither of the others married, the surviving dau. [Sophia Thankful] died at New Haven in 1862.
• The widow married, on Nov. 20, 1785, Ebenezer Townsend, of New Haven, and died Aug. 31, 1805, aged 54 years [no, Aug. 19, 1828 at Middletown, aged 78, g.s.] Her portrait is preserved in the rooms of the New Haven Colony Historical Society.
• His successor, the Rev. Dr. Dutton, writing in 1842, says of him:
"He was devoutly pious, desiring to be spent for the honor of God and the spiritual good of his people. They would often come to him on the Sabbath, I am told, and, on account of his apparent feebleness, urge him not to preach. But he usually denied their solicitations, saying, that he wished to proclaim the riches of Christ, and preferred to die in the pulpit. He had few of the graces of oratory, and did not excel in profound investigation, or doctrinal discussion. But he was plain and practical in his choice of subjects and in his mode of treating them; earnest, affectionate, tender, and winning in his manner; and pathetic, touching, and persuasive in his appeals. He excelled in pastoral labor, so far as he was able to perform it, and was exceedingly beloved by his people."
---
In or about 1774 probably at Hartford, Conn. Rev. Mather m. Thankful Sophia Barnard, dau. of Capt. Ebenezer Barnard and Thankful Nichols, bap. of record Mar. 24, 1750/1 [Hart. 1st Ch.]. They had four known children bp. at New Haven, Conn., three who would be raised at New Haven by their stepfather, and one adopted by the maternal grandfather likely before Rev. Mather's death. The dates of birth, if shown, are from the Richard Mather Geneal. while the dates of baptism are from the records of the New Haven 2nd Cong. Ch. Society abstracted by Donald Lines Jacobus [Families of Ancient New Haven, 5-1151]:
• i. Allyn Mather, Jr., bp. Mar. 19, 1775 and never married. The Mather Geneal. claims he was initially a lawyer, who left that profession to be a sea Capt. trading in the West Indies and England, latter where he was lost on an unstated date in the English Channel. Historic newspapers place him in 1816 operating out of New York City the owner of two copper bottomed vessels that traded in the West Indies.
• ii. Elizabeth Mather, b. Feb. 19 (bp. Feb. 21), 1777, d. July 6, 1785 at Hartford, Conn., Æ 7 (g.s.) Due to the apparent poor health of her father, she was adopted by her maternal grandfather, Capt. Ebenezer Barnard of Hartford.
• iii. Sophia Thankful Mather, b. Jan. 4 (bp. Jan. 20), 1782, never married and d. at New Haven Feb. 20, 1862 [Newspaper Death Notice.] According to census records, she was a longtime resident in a Clark family at New Haven. Her occupation is not stated in the censuses but her positioning does not indicate she was that family's domestic servant.
• iv. Increase Mather, b. Nov. 4 (bp. Nov. 23), 1783, d. in his youth Sept. 14, 1795 at New Haven, Æ 12 (g.s.)
Family Members
Siblings
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Dr Charles Mather
1742–1823
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Elijah Mather
1743–1796
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Elizabeth Mather
1745–1745
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Col Oliver Mather
1749–1829
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Increase Mather
1752–1838
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Elizabeth Mather Foster
1753–1833
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Dr Timothy Mather
1755–1788
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Abigail Mather Allyn
1757–1843
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SGT Elihu Mather
1760–1831
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Hannah Mather Goodwin
1762–1805
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Roxany Mather
1765–1781
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