Cotton Mather

Cotton Mather (1663–1728) was a New England Puritan minister and the most prolific author of colonial America, with more than four hundred published works. The son of Increase Mather and grandson of John Cotton and Richard Mather, he entered Harvard at eleven and served Boston's North Church for over forty years. His Wonders of the Invisible World (1693) defended the Salem witch trials and has colored his reputation ever since, though he also promoted smallpox inoculation against fierce opposition and was elected to the Royal Society. Magnalia Christi Americana (1702), his ecclesiastical history of New England, and Bonifacius, his essays to do good, are his most enduring books.