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This letter to John Williams signed by Cotton Mather is really a copy of the letter written by Mather, a practice that was not strange in the days before typewriters, computers, and photocopy machines. Reverend Williams was taken to Canada, along with 108 others from Deerfield on February 29, 1704, and held captive there until he was returned in November 1706. Reverend Mather writes to give him courage to handle the separation, assures him that an answer is coming, and tells him that his oldest son, Eleazer (b.1688), is being educated by money given by Mather and others.