550 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



SKETCH OF WILLIAM WILLIAMS MATHER. 



AMERICA will never cease to benefit from the influence of its 

 - Puritan stock. Although the former preponderance in na- 

 tional affairs of New England as a section has disappeared with the 

 widening of our territory, the vigor, the intellect, and the con- 

 science of the settlers at Plymouth and at Boston have been diffused 

 by their restless descendants through every State in the Union. 



William Williams Mather came from one of the most cele- 

 brated of the Puritan families in America. He was descended 

 from Rev. Richard Mather, who fled to Massachusetts in 1635 to 

 escape persecution for nonconformity. Richard Mather brought 

 four sons to America, from the second of whom, Timothy, was 

 descended the subject of this article. Two other sons, Eleazer and 

 Increase, were born to Richard in this country, and the latter of 

 these was the President of Harvard College from 1688-1701. Cot- 

 ton Mather, the eminent divine and author, whose misguided zeal 

 was such a strong support to the " witchcraft delusion," was a 

 son of Increase. The paternal grandfather of William, Eleazer 

 Mather, and his grand-uncle, Elisha, were officers of the Connecti- 

 cut troops in the Revolutionary War. The eldest son of this 

 Eleazer, who bore the same name, was the father of William. He 

 learned the hatter's trade in Norwich and set up a business for 

 himself at Brooklyn, in Windham County, Conn., which he car- 

 ried on successfully for a number of years. He then traveled for 

 a time in Canada, and returning to Brooklyn married Miss Fanny 

 Williams, whose father, Nathan Williams, was also a soldier 

 of the Revolution. After his marriage he ceased to follow his 

 trade, and kept a temperance hotel, also giving considerable at- 

 tention to the improvement of worn-out lands. His son William 

 Williams was born in Brooklyn on May 24, 1801. 



The Hon. Ivers J. Austin, who wrote the memorial sketch 

 of him for the New England Historic Genealogical Society,* 

 was unable to find any information concerning William's child- 

 hood, and very little in regard to his early youth. While still 

 in his teens William formed the purpose of becoming a physi- 

 cian, and went to Providence, R. I., to take up medical studies. 

 There he became much interested in chemistry, and on the occa- 

 sion of a visit home he brought with him an elaborate piece of 

 chemical apparatus, the cost of which rather astonished and dis- 

 pleased his father. But he so amused and instructed his family 

 by his chemical experiments and explanations that his father be- 

 came entirely reconciled to this outlay. In 1822 the young man 



* It is from this memorial that most of the facts in the present article are derived. 



