Mather (Richard) is born in Lancashire, England.

The minister of a church in Toxteth, England, Richard Mather flees to avoid prosecution for his religious dissent, and arrives in Boston on August 16, 1635. He settles in Dorchester, becomes minister of the First Church of Dorchester in 1636, and is said to deliver his sermons with a “deliberate vehemency.” Mather writes the preface to the Bay Psalm Book, and he, his sons, and grandsons become prominent church leaders in Boston for many years. Mather dies in Dorchester on April 22, 1669.