Description

Samuel G. Drake here presents Increase Mather's "A Brief History of the War with the Indians in New England" which was first published in late 1676, just a few months after the end of the war, along with the account of the same war written about twenty years later by Cotton Mather, as it was published as the seventh part of the latter's history of New England, "Magnalia Christi Americana" in 1702. Drake, who was a founder of the New England Historic Genealogical Society, editor of the first fifteen volumes of the "Register", and a prominent antiquarian and historian, has added an extensive introduction and numerous informative notes. Drake's annotated edition of these works was published in 1862.

Increase and Cotton Mather were, respectively, the son and grandson of Rev. Richard Mather, the immigrant minister of Dorchester, Massachusetts, and the founder of one of New England's most prominent families. The Mathers were prolific writers and collectors, and the extant materials from their libraries, much of which is now preserved at the American Antiquarian Society, are an invaluable historical resource. Included in this work is a genealogical chart tracing the Mather family through several branches from the mid-1500s to the mid-1700s.