Nathaniel Eaton

Nathaniel Eaton (1610–1674) was the first schoolmaster of Harvard College in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and later became a clergyman.

Biography

The sixth son of the Rev. Richard Eaton (1565–1616) and Elizabeth Shepheard (1569–1636), Nathaniel was christened October 16, 1610 at the church of St Giles Cripplegate, London, England. He was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he was contemporary and good friend of John Harvard, and then later at the University of Franeker in Leiden, where he studied under the Rev. William Ames. He emigrated to New England around 1637 and became the first "professor" of the nascent Harvard College. He erected Harvard's first building, planted its first apple orchard, established the Colony's first printing press in March 1639, and created its first semi-public library.

Related Topics:
October 16 - 1610 - St Giles - Cripplegate - London, England - Trinity College - Cambridge - John Harvard - University of Franeker - Leiden - Rev. William Ames - New England - 1637 - Harvard College - Printing press - 1639

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Around the time that Eaton started teaching at Harvard, an Antinomian controversy had erupted in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. The Governor at the time, John Winthrop, was well noted for his extreme stance within the Puritan community and was greatly feared by many of the colonists. Even those who were Winthrop's close allies, such as the Rev. Thomas Hooker who co-founded the Colony of Connecticut, were repulsed by his certain personality. As such, many left the Colony; and Antinomians who didn't leave voluntarily were forced out, banished, or excommunicated such as the Rev. John Wheelright who founded Exeter, New Hampshire, and his sister-in-law, Anne (Marbury) Hutchinson, who founded a new Colony in what later became Rhode Island.

Related Topics:
Antinomian - Massachusetts Bay Colony - John Winthrop - Puritan - Rev. Thomas Hooker - Colony of Connecticut - John Wheelright - Exeter, New Hampshire - Anne (Marbury) Hutchinson - Rhode Island

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Eaton's older brother, Gov. Theophilus Eaton, emigrated to the colonies at about the same time.{{ref|1637}} Deciding that he didn't want to get caught up with all this animosity, he – like the Rev. Thomas Hooker before him – founded a new colony, the Colony of New Haven, though Winthrop and others literally begged both of them to stay.{{ref|stay}}

Related Topics:
Gov. Theophilus Eaton - Colony of New Haven

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In 1639, the year after Theophilus left, Eaton was fired from his job following allegations that he had beat one of his students too harshly, and that his wife had supposedly served students hasty pudding with goat dung in it.{{ref|mrseaton}} Eaton's trial is the reason we have court reporters today. After the Church of Cambridge attempted an appeal on his behalf, Governor Winthrop refused them, saying that enough evidence had already been presented by several witnesses. The Church, however, was able to secure a promise that all subsequent trials would be accompanied by a recording of facts such that defendants and plaintiffs could refer to evidence already presented without witnesses having to go through the whole thing all over again.{{ref|ctrptr}} The only record of Eaton's confession was destroyed in a fire and his guilt remains in doubt.

Related Topics:
Hasty pudding - Court reporters

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Henry Dunster succeeded Eaton in 1640 as Harvard's first president, and the first students graduated in 1642.{{ref|grads}} Interestingly, Dunster also found himself confronting the students, albeit in a sterner fashion, having actually to whip two of them publicly for abusing one of the citizens of Cambridge. The students finally won, however, and Dunster resigned in 1654 over disagreements with the Church about infant baptism.

Related Topics:
Henry Dunster - 1640 - President - 1642 - 1654 - Infant baptism

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At around the same time that Eaton was dismissed from Harvard, he apparently was also excommunicated from the congregation in Cambridge. He moved to Virginia in 1640 and then sent for his wife and children, but according to Winthrop in his History of New England {{ref|winthrop}} (known to be full of inaccuracies) the ship in which they traveled disappeared without a trace. Following the loss of his family, Eaton married the widow Anne (Graves) Cotton {{ref|spvar}} (1620–1684), the daughter of Capt Thomas Graves (1584–1635) of Virginia and Massachusetts, and served for several years as an assistant to the Anglican curate at Accomac, Virginia, before returning to England where he was appointed the Vicar of Bishop's Castle, Salop in 1661 and Rector of Bideford, Devon in 1669.

Related Topics:
Excommunicated - Virginia - Anglican - Accomac, Virginia - Bishop's Castle - Salop - 1661 - Bideford - Devon - 1669

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In 1647, Eaton was finally exonerated of a £100 debt that Winthrop mentions as being for £1,000 in his History of New England, ibid, and with which Eaton had supposedly abscounded to Virginia in 1640. The record of this exoneration is recorded in Henry Dunster's record book for Harvard College as a copy of a letter that Dunster recorded in his book directly underneath his first design of the Seal of Harvard College. Ironically, Eaton died in 1674 in King's Bench Prison where he had been incarcerated for a similar debt, and quite possibly having been mistaken for the same £100 from which he had already been given relief.

Related Topics:
1647 - 1640 - Seal of Harvard College - 1674 - King's Bench

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