Editing Nathaniel Eaton (section)

==Career==
In 1637, Eaton emigrated to the [[New England Colonies]] on the [[merchant ship]] ''Hector'', and arrived in [[Boston]] on 26 June 1637 along with a party that included his older brothers, [[Theophilus Eaton|Theophilus]] and [[Samuel Eaton|Samuel]], and [[John Davenport (clergyman)|John Davenport]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Great Migration: Passengers of the Hector, 1637 & 1638 genealogy project|url=https://www.geni.com/projects/Great-Migration-Passengers-of-the-Hector-1637-1638/6511|website=geni_family_tree|access-date=20 June 2017}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Calder|first1=Isabel MacBeath|title=The New Haven Colony|date=1934|publisher=Yale University Press|location=New Haven|pages=29–31}}</ref>

===Harvard College===
{{Main|Harvard University}}
In the fall of 1637, Eaton was appointed the first headmaster of the then-unnamed college which would later be named [[Harvard College]],<ref>{{Cite web |date=2007-02-05 |title=The Harvard Guide: Cambridge |url=http://www.news.harvard.edu/guide/commu/index.html |access-date=2024-07-21 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070205041058/http://www.news.harvard.edu/guide/commu/index.html |archive-date=5 February 2007 |quote=Cambridge was founded in 1630 as Newtowne. In 1637, the tiny village was designated as the location of the then-unnamed college, which would be named Harvard the following year.}}</ref> and was awarded 500 acres of land by the General Court of Massachusetts.<ref>{{cite DNB |wstitle= Eaton, Nathaniel |volume= 16 |last= Goodwin |first= Gordon |author-link= | pages=337-338 |short=1}}</ref> He erected Harvard's first building, in 1636, called the Old College; named, fenced and planted the [[Harvard Yard]] called the College yard;<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PQMdzhnfaSwC&dq=nathaniel+eaton+apple+orchard&pg=PA229|title=The Founding of Harvard College |publisher=Harvard University Press (Jan. 1 1935) |date=1935-01-01 |isbn=9780674314511 |access-date=2009-10-09 }}</ref> established the colony's first [[printing press]] in March 1639, and created its first semi-public library, the [[Harvard Library]].<ref name="Cambridge on the Charles"/>
[[File:Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass. LCCN2013647055.tif|thumb|right|[[Harvard Yard]], Cambridge, Massachusetts]]

Around the time that Eaton started teaching at Harvard, the [[Antinomian Controversy]] had erupted in the [[Massachusetts Bay Colony]]. The governor at the time, [[John Winthrop]], was noted for his extreme stance within the [[Puritans|Puritan]] community and was 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 (such as Rev. [[John Wheelwright]] who founded [[Exeter, New Hampshire]], and his sister-in-law, [[Anne Hutchinson|Anne (Marbury) Hutchinson]], who founded a new colony in what later became [[Rhode Island]]).

Eaton's older brother, [[Theophilus Eaton]], led the group along with [[John Davenport (clergyman)|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 (1637 to 1640, and many other terms). 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. Deciding that he didn't want to be involved in the animosity, he&nbsp;– like Rev. Thomas Hooker before him&nbsp;– founded a new colony, the [[New Haven|colony of New Haven]], though Winthrop and others begged both of them to stay.

In 1639, the year after Theophilus left, Eaton was brought before a court on allegations that he had beat his assistant Nathaniel Briscoe too harshly.<ref name="journal">[[James Savage (banker)|James Savage]], editor, Winthrop's Journal 'The History of New England  1630–1649'. Little, Brown and Company. 1853 edition, pgs 372-375.[https://books.google.com/books?id=KIarrcIX7QAC&q=Briscoe&pg=PA371]</ref> According to [[John Winthrop]]'s account, Briscoe had been hired by Eaton for less than three days when a dispute broke out. Eaton ordered others to hold Briscoe in place while he beat him with "200 stripes" using a walnut tree branch that Winthrop describes as "large enough to have killed a horse".<ref name="journal"/> The court also heard a number of other complaints, including that he would beat students with "20 to 30 lashes at a time" and that his wife had supposedly served students [[hasty pudding]] with goat dung in it as a substitute for raisins.<ref name="journal"/>{{ref|mrseaton}} As a result, Eaton was ordered to step down from his position and pay a fine. The school was subsequently closed the next academic year.<ref name="crimson">{{cite web |title=In The School of Tyrannus |url=https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2014/10/30/in-the-school-of/ |website=www.thecrimson.com |publisher=The Harvard Crimson |ref=crimson}}</ref> The only record of Eaton's own supposed confession was destroyed in a suspicious fire in the office of the historian [[James Savage (banker)|James Savage]] (1784–1873), and the full extent of his guilt remains in doubt.{{citation-needed|date=June 2024}} 

It is through the court case that we know that Eaton owned a slave referred to as "The Moor", in what is the earliest known record of slavery in Cambridge, Massachusetts.<ref name="journal"/><ref name="historycambridge">{{cite web |title=Self-Guided Tour: Stories from the Early African American Community of Old Cambridge |url=https://historycambridge.org/self-guided-tours/self-guided-tour-stories-from-the-early-african-american-community-of-old-cambridge/ |website=History Cambridge |access-date=16 June 2024}}</ref> During the trial students of Harvard complained about being served the same food as "The Moor".<ref name="journal"/> At that time, the term "Moor" was used as a blanket term covering all of the inhabitants of North Africa, including Black and Muslim peoples.<ref>See Oxford English Dictionary, Old English definition.[https://www.oed.com/search/dictionary/?scope=Entries&q=Moor]</ref> It is possible that "The Moor" had arrived a year earlier on the slave ship ''Desire''.<ref name="historycambridge"/> 

[[Henry Dunster]] succeeded Eaton in 1640 as Harvard's first [[President of Harvard University|president]], and the first students graduated in 1642.{{ref|grads}} Dunster resigned in 1654 over disagreements with the church about [[infant baptism]]. Around the same time, he was [[excommunication|excommunicated]] from the congregation in [[Cambridge, Massachusetts]]. In 1640, Eaton moved to the [[Colony of Virginia]], and then sent for his wife and children who left New England, except for his two year old son Benoni.<ref name="familybook"/>

===Family lost at sea===
According to Winthrop's ''History of New England''{{ref|winthrop}}, the ship in which the family traveled disappeared without a trace. His only remaining child, Benoni Eaton, had been left in Cambridge under the care of Thomas Chesholm and his wife, Isobel; Thomas was steward of Harvard College from 1650 to 1660.<ref name="familybook"/><ref>Primus V "Pay the Term Bill in Barrel Hoops" (September–October 2004) The Harvard Magazine ([http://harvardmagazine.com/2004/09/pay-the-term-bill-in-bar.html harvardmagazine.com])</ref><ref>Newell, W. (1846) "A Discourse on the Cambridge Church-Gathering in 1636" James Munroe and Company (pg 55, via [https://archive.org/stream/discourseoncambr00newe#page/54/mode/2up archive.org])</ref> Through Benoni, Nathaniel has modern descendants.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Eaton|first1=Daniel Cady|title=Papers of the New Haven colony historical society|website=Archive.org|year=1888|page=185|url=https://archive.org/stream/papersofnewhaven05newh#page/184/mode/2up|access-date=20 June 2017}}</ref><ref name="familybook">{{cite journal |last1=Fitzenry |first1=Barbara L. L. |last2=Garnon Peters |first2=Pauline |last3=Eaton |first3=David Danielson |last4=MacMillan |first4=Douglas James |title=Family of Nathaniel Eaton |journal=The New Etonian Newsletter |date=June 2015 |volume=13 |issue=12 |url=http://www.eatongenealogy.com/Newsletter/06%20Jun%2015.pdf |access-date=12 June 2020}}</ref>

Following the loss of his family, Eaton married the widow Anne (Graves) Cotton {{ref|spvar}} (1620–1684), the daughter of [[Captain Thomas Graves]] (1584–1635) of Virginia,<ref>{{cite web|last1=Graves|first1=Ken|title=Captain Thomas Graves|url=http://www.gravesfa.org/gen169.htm|website=Graves Family Association|access-date=20 June 2017}}</ref> becoming the brother-in-law of [[William Stone (Maryland governor)|William Stone]], the governor of the [[Province of Maryland]], and family members with future [[Founding Fathers of the United States|Founding Fathers]] [[Thomas Stone]] and [[Daniel of St. Thomas Jenifer]].<ref>The William and Mary Quarterly Vol. 19, No. 1 (Jan., 1939), pp. 34-41 (8 pages) Published By: Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture</ref><ref>Hiden, P. W. “The Graves Family of York County.” The William and Mary Quarterly, vol. 21, no. 2, 1941, pp. 157–71. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/1923627. Accessed 1 July 2023.</ref>

Eaton served for several years as an assistant to the [[Anglican Church|Anglican]] curate at [[Accomac, Virginia]] before returning to England, where he was appointed vicar of [[Bishop's Castle]], [[Shropshire]], in 1661 and rector of [[Bideford]], Devon, in 1668.<ref name="Acad"/>

In 1647, Eaton was exonerated of a £100 debt that Winthrop misstated as being for £1,000 in his ''History of New England'', 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 [[Financial endowment|endowment]] letter was footnoted in 1647 by Theophilus, who wrote:
{{blockquote|This money was put wholey into the hands of my brother Nath:Eaton. 9 August 1647. [signed] Theo:Eaton.<ref>{{cite web|title=College Books, 1636–1827.|url=http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.ARCH:10654350?n=37|website=Harvard University. Corporation. College Books, 1636–1827. College Book 1, 1639–1795. UAI 5.5 Box 1, Harvard University Archives.|publisher=Harvard University Archives|access-date=27 July 2017|ref=(seq. 37)}}</ref>}} 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&nbsp;, a carpenter who apparently assisted in the building of the college at Cambridge in 1639 and afterwards. was found to be in debt to one of the college's creditors, John Cogan, for the same amount. The college building was poorly erected, and Symonds was the responsible party after Eaton left. Symonds and at least one of his assistants were ultimately incarcerated in [[debtor's prison]].