Increase Mather (June 21, 1639 – August 23, 1723) was a prominent New England Puritan minister, scholar, and president of Harvard College. Born in the Massachusetts Bay Colony to a distinguished ministerial family, he was educated at Harvard and later in Ireland and England. He served as pastor of Boston's North Church for 57 years and was a key figure in religious reform, education, and colonial politics. He played a controversial role in the Salem witch trials, initially supporting them but later opposing the use of spectral evidence. He also successfully negotiated a new charter for the Massachusetts Colony in England. Mather's legacy as a religious leader, educator, and political representative endures in early American history.
