The sixth son of Rev. Richard Eaton and Elizabeth . Nathaniel was baptised in Great Budworth, Cheshire, 17 September 1609. He was educated at the Westminster School, London, and then attended Trinity College, Cambridge, where he was a contemporary and good friend of John Harvard who at the time was a student at Emmanuel College, Cambridge. He then pursued his studies, obtaining a M.D. and a P.h.D. from the University of Padua. Eaton later attended the University of Franeker, where he studied under Rev. William Ames. He emigrated to New England on the Hector landing in Boston 26 June 1637 in a party including his older brothers, Theophilus and Samuel along with Rev. John Davenport. In the fall of 1637 he was appointed 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. 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 Rev. Thomas Hooker, who cofounded the colony of Connecticut, were repulsed by his personality. As such, many left the colony and any Antinomians who didn't leave voluntarily were forced out, banished, or excommunicated. Eaton's older brother, Gov. Theophilus Eaton, led the group along with John Davenport as their religious leader. They intended to start their own settlement – probably due in part to the commanding persona of John Winthrop, Governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony at the time. Winthrop was termed "an object of great fear in all the colonies," and caused the Rev. Thomas Hooker and others to go off and form their own colonies as well. Deciding that he didn't want to be involved in the animosity, he – like 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. 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. Eaton's trial gave rise to the concept of court reporters. 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 so that defendants and plaintiffs could refer to evidence already presented without witnesses having to go through the entire process again. The only record of Eaton's own supposed "confession" was destroyed in a suspicious fire in the office of the famous historian, James Savage, and his guilt remains in doubt. Henry Dunster succeeded Eaton in 1640 as Harvard's first president, and the first students graduated in 1642. Dunster also found himself confronting the students, albeit in a sterner fashion, actually having to whip two of them publicly for abusing one of the citizens of Cambridge. However, the students finally triumphed in the situation, and Dunster himself resigned in 1654 over disagreements with the church about infant baptism. 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 who left New England, except for Benoni. According to Winthrop in his History of New England , the ship in which the family travelled disappeared without a trace. Benoni Eaton, left in Cambridge, was taken in by Thomas Chesholm and his wife, Isobel; Thomas was steward of Harvard College from 1650 to 1660. Through Benoni, Nathaniel has a large number of modern descendants. Following the loss of his family, Eaton married the widow Anne Cotton , the daughter of Captain Thomas Graves of Virginia, 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. In 1647 Eaton was finally "exonerated" of a £100 debt that Winthrop misstated as being for £1,000 in his History of New England, ibid, and with which Eaton had supposedly absconded to Virginia in 1640. The exoneration is documented in Henry Dunster's record book for Harvard College as a copy of a letter by two benefactors that Dunster recorded directly underneath his first design of the :Image:Harvard shield-University.png|seal of Harvard College. The 1640 endowment letter was footnoted in 1647 by Theophilus, who wrote: Clearly, the intention of the footnote was to indicate that his brother had finally been repaid, and apparently Nathaniel had in part used the money to further his education. As for the £100, Thomas Symonds – a carpenter who had apparently assisted in the building of the college at Cambridge in 1639 and afterwards – was soon found to be in debt to one of the creditors of the college, John Cogan, for exactly the same amount. As stated elsewhere, the college building itself was poorly erected – Symonds being the responsible party after Nathaniel left – and eventually Symonds and at least one of his assistants were thrown into debtor's prison.
Religious convictions
Nathaniel Eaton's troubles seemed to mount, however, after he graduated from the JesuitMissionary University. Thus, he left for England around 1652, where he had already been accepted back by the Church of England and honoured as both a vicar and rector, though obviously he had his scruples, and was said to waver back and forth between devotions to his newly found home and that of his former, which he could never return to. In all likelihood, that "back and forthedness" and covering up set up a scenario of confusion, which seems to have also confused every recordkeeper involved. Ironically, Eaton died in 1674 in King's Bench Prison, where he had been incarcerated for a similar debt: quite probably the same £100 debt from which he had already been given relief. Also, his imprisonment coincided with the restoration of the Stuart Throne, and was likely reposted on an old list that King Charles II's father had kept concerning those of lingering or questionable indebtedness. He was given a burial service on 11 May 1674 at St George the Martyr, Southwark, Surrey, England.
Confusion with Nathaniel Heaton of Boston
There was also Nathaniel eaton, Heaten, wife, Elizabeth and children, who emigrated on the Griffin with William and Anne Marbury Hutchinson landing on 18 September 1634 in the town of Boston, but who spelled his name "Heaton". This Nathaniell Heaten was made free on 25 May 1636. Nathaniel Eaton of this article had not yet arrive in the Massachusetts Bay. He arrived on the Hector on 26 June 1637, cited above. Nathaniel Eaton, subject of this article, was made a Freeman on 9 June 1638. In 1903 a series of plans of Boston, showing existing ways and owners of property from 25 December 1630 to 25 December 1645 inclusive was published showing the work of cartographer, George Lamb. In these maps #98, Nathaniel Eaton is cited as a property owner in Boston from 1638 to 1645. The subject of this article, Nathaniel Eaton, was known to have left Cambridge in the fall of 1639 and relocated to Virginia by 1640. The Nathaniel Eaton cited in the Lamb map collection is most likely Nathaniel Heaton. This error may have caused further conflagration of two distinctly separate individuals, Nathaniel Heaton, and Nathaniel Eaton, the subject of this article from Cambridge. In The Crooked and Narrow Streets of the Town of Boston – 1630–1822, by Annie Haven Thwing, Nathaniel Heaton is accurately cited.
