Person:Nathaniel Eaton (6)

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Nathaniel Eaton (17 September 1609 − 11 May 1674) was the first Headmaster of Harvard, President designate, and builder of Harvard's first College, the Old College, in 1636. Nathaniel was also the uncle of Samuel Eaton (one of the seven founding members and signatories of the Harvard Corporation by charter in 1650)

thumb|right|Harvard's first building, the Old College 1638-1670

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3} Nathaniel Eaton, in Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia.
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6} Rev. Nathaniel Eaton, in Doliante, Sharon Johnson. Maryland and Virginia Colonials: Genealogies of Some Colonial Families. Families of Bacon, Beall, Beasley, Cheney, Duckett, Dunbar, Ellyson, Elmore, Graves, Heydon, Howard, Jacob, Morris, Nuthall, Odell, Peerce, Reeder, Ridgley, Prather, Sprigg, Wesson, Williams and Collateral Kin. (Baltimore, Maryland: Genealogical Publishing Co., c1991)
   342.

   ... Ann (Graves) Cotton had m. (2) by Oct. 7, 1642, Rev. Nathaniel Eaton, who, on that date as "Nathaniel Eaton, Clerke" [Cleric - he was also a Rector of Hungar's Parish], assigned 350 z. of the lands formerly owned by William Cotton, Clerke" (Cleric) ... to John Holloway (Surgeon, and (1) husband of Elizabeth (Bacon)-Hollaway, who m. (2) John Nuthall). [Nugent, op. cit. , p. 135.]
   
   Nathaniel Eaton was a rogue and a scoundrel, who'd been previously married (see his reference to his wife in Governer Winthrop's Journal, Vol. 1, p. 186...and p. 187, where his age in 1639 is given as "about 30 years of age and upwards"), and had come to Virginia in 1639 "in Nole's barque", from Massachusetts. (NOTE: On June 11, 1635, Mr. Jeremiah Clement claimed land for the transportation into Virginia of one Nathaniel Eaton - Nughen, op. cit., p. 28; and in 1652, John Phillips also claimed land for having transported Nathaniel Eaton - Ibid., p. 269.] While living in Mass., he had served as the first principal of Harvard [Va. Mag., vol. 5, p. 130]. He'd got himself in trouble, there, and had run away, leaving behind him considerable debts and much ill feeling. IN Gov. Winthrop's Journal, vol. II (1826, James Savage, edition), p. 342, Gov. Winthrop, after confusing Ann's father with another Thomas Graves called Nathaniel Eaton "that apostate...who having spent all she (Ann) had, fled away, and left her miserable, 1646".
   
   It appears that the Eaton's had removed from the Eastern Shore to Warwick Co. (now Newport News), Va. for it was from the latter place that Nathaniel Eaton is said to have "slipped" away "deserting Ann and their children" [Wm. & Mary, op. cit., vol. XIX, p. 37 - also, his land in Warwick Co., is mentioned in a patent of Francis Rice, dated 1646 - Nugent, op. cit., p. 174 - and, in a patent of William Parry, who earlier assumed Admn. of the Estates of John and Thomas Graves, "Mr. Eaton's house", is mentioned - Ibid., p. 175.] ...
   
   Nathaniel Eaton died in England, in 1674 (while in prison for debt), but Ann clearly thought him dead long before this, for on June 8, 1657, she entered in to a marriage contract with the then REctor of Hungar's Parish, the Rev. Francis Doughty [Northampton Co. Records, No. 7, p. 48]...

3. ↑ Nathaniel Eaton, in earlyamericancrime.com.

   [last accessed 20130516]
   ... In 1637, Nathaniel Eaton filled the position of Head Master over the first classes of Harvard College. Less than a year later, Eaton was caught beating his assistant with a cudgel, which Winthrop described as “a walnut tree plant, big enough to have killed a horse.” During the inquiry into the event, information came out that Eaton had also been abusing the students at the college in a similar manner. Eaton was consequently put on trial.
   
   Eaton acknowledged during testimony that it wasn’t unusual for him to apply 20 to 30 stripes at a time to the students and that “he would not give over correcting till he had subdued his party to his will.” Eaton might have been found innocent if he could have showed that his students were obstinate, unruly, and ill-behaved, but he made no attempt to prove that this was the case. Instead, he maintained his innocence by claiming that as master he had the absolute right to punish the students as he saw fit. The court found Eaton guilty and sentenced him to quit his job and pay a large fine. After his dismissal, Eaton eventually returned to England and died after many years in a debtor’s prison.

4. ↑ ^{4.0 4.1 4.2} Nathaniel Eaton, in Morison, Samuel Eliot. The Founding of Harvard College
   199-205.
5. ↑ Shurtleff, Nathaniel Bradstreet. Records of the Governor and Company of the Massachusetts Bay in New England
   Vol 1 (1628-1641), 1853.

   p. 210 – [Eaton] left out of tax rate for 1637 on November 20, 1637
   p. 262 – 500 acres [2 km²] of land granted on June 6, 1639 vis-à-vis: "If hee continew his employment wth vs for his life".
   p. 275 – Removed from employment on September 9, 1639
   p. 275 – Judgements henceforth, after the Eaton Trial, to "bee recorded in a booke, to bee kept to posterity".
   (Same day as above: September 9, 1639, and written in after the above "deposition" event. It's probable that the "deposition" was a "first order of business", and not just something anticipated long before "recordation of facts" had even been conceived.)
   p. 277 – His estate attached on November 5, 1639
   p. 374 – Nathaniel Eaton Made a Freeman on June 9, 1638
   p. 375 – Nathaniell Heaten made free on May 25, 1636