Lydia (Lee) George Mather (ca. 1670–January 23, 1734) was the English-American wife of wealthy businessman John George and Reverend Cotton Mather. She was the mother of Katherine Howell and stepmother to five of Mather's children. Mather was a rare woman in the 17th century. She was well-informed, wealthy, and independent. She protected her financial assets before her marriage to Cotton by having a nuptial agreement drawn up and signed. Like other Colonial women of her time, she had few choices for improving her lot as a married woman. After a few years of marriage, she had a hard time dealing with the stress of her marriage and began to rage at Cotton, who became humiliated and depressed as a result, but did little to improve the situation. There seemed to be a change that came over Mather after she left Cotton for ten days. She returned after word spread to the family that Cotton's son Increase was lost at sea. She returned to their home and nursed him in his last five weeks of life.
Early life
Lydia Lee, daughter of Dr. Samuel Lee, was born in England about 1670. Her father was a minister, author, and collector of naturalists accounts of Native Americans, and a collector of information about American diseases and epidemics. He was somewhat wealthy, having received a large inheritance. The Lees immigrated to the American Colonies by 1686, when Dr. Lee was asked to be a minister in a church in Bristol, in the Rhode Island colony. He built a large home for his family. Her father, educated at Oxford University, was considered an intelligent and forceful man. Cotton Mather said of him, "hardly ever a more Universally Learned Person, trod the American Strand". Lydia had three sisters.
Marriage to John George
Lydia returned to the colonies by 1687, when she married John George of Boston. George was a wealthy merchant and exporter. He served as a town selectman. Their daughter Katherine was born about 1692. She married Nathan Howell, George's business partner, about 1711. They had two sons. John George died in 1714, leaving Lydia a wealthy woman.
Marriage to Cotton Mather
Lydia married Cotton Mather on July 5, 1715, becoming Lydia Lee Mather. They were married by Increase Mather, Cotton's father. She was Cotton's third wife. Due to the size of her fortune, and the disparity with Cotton's financial means, Mather had a prenuptial contract drawn up that gave her complete control of "all the lands, tenements, money goods, chattels or other estates whatsoever" that Lydia had at the time of the marriage. Cotton's third wife likely came into the marriage with different points of view than his previous two wives, who likely provided "uncritical adulation and unquestioning obedience," the ideal Puritan woman being defined in the book Ornaments for the Daughters of Zion. On the other hand, Mather was independent, better educated, richer, and older. Shortly after their marriage, the Mathers moved to a large house on Ship Street, near the harbor and the wharves on the North End. It had three or four floors, a great chamber, and both a small and large parlor. Outside there were pasture land, yards, and gardens. He used a number of the rooms in the house, like his study, library, and a great hall, for church business.
Nathan Howell died in the fall of 1715, leaving her daughter Katherine a widow. She and her sons moved in with Mather and her husband. Mather became stepmother to children from Cotton's previous marriages: Abigail (21), Hannah (18), Elizabeth (11), and Samuel (9). Cotton also had a son, Increase (16), nicknamed "Cresy", who was in London at the time of their marriage and returned in May 1716. The following year he fathered an illegitimate child and in 1721 he was arrested for his role in a "night riot" in Boston. She developed good relationships with the Mather children, which may have waned over time. Two children were their servants, a Spanish Native American girl and an enslaved by named Obadiah.
Cotton wrote in his journal about their marriage, stating that he found her to be very lovely and that he enjoyed talking with her about Scripture. They prayed several times each day. In April 1716, he said of her: "how happy I am in the conversation of so fine a Soul, and one so capable of soaring to the higher Flights of piety." He admired her intelligence, and how he considered her well born and well informed. He noted how much he and the children missed her when she was away for short periods, such as "We enjoy nothing as we used to do. We are not sensible that the sun shines into any room in the house, nor that our chocolate has any sugar in it."