and that with tears, so as they did hope he had truly repented,’ the court dismissed him from his employment, forbade him to teach within their jurisdiction, and imposed a fine of 20l., a like sum to be paid to the unfortunate Briscoe. ‘A pause being made, and expectation that (according to his former confession) he would have given glory to God and acknowledged the justice and clemency of the court, the governour giving him occasion by asking him if he had aught to say, he turned away with a discontented look, saying, “If sentence be passed, then it is to no end to speak.”’ The church authorities at Cambridge then intended to deal with him, but before they took action he fled to Pascataqua in New Hampshire, where he managed, after desperate manœuvring, to get on board a barque bound to Virginia. ‘Being thus gone, his creditors began to complain, and thereupon it was found that he was run in debt about 1,000l., and had taken up most of this money upon bills he had charged into England upon his brother's [Theophilus] agents and others whom he had no such relation to. … And being thus gone, the church proceeded and cast him out.’ His wife and children, except a boy named Benoni, followed him the next year (1640), but the ship in which they sailed was never again heard of (Winthrop, i. 370–6, ii. 26). Eaton drifted back to England and married again. During the interregnum he ‘lived privately’ (Mather, bk. iv. p. 127). In 1647 he appeared before the university of Padua as a candidate for the degrees of doctor of philosophy and medicine, which he obtained. The oration which he delivered on the occasion was published, ‘Oratio habita a Nathanaele Eatono, Anglo, pro laurea doctorali, sibi et perexcellenti D. D. Richardo Danbæo, Anglo, in Academia Patavina publice concessa, 7 Cal. Decembris anno 1647,’ 4to, Padua, 1647. At the Restoration he conformed, and in 1661 was holding the vicarage of Bishops Castle, Shropshire (Wood, Athenæ Oxon. ed. Bliss, iii. 674), when, if we may credit Mather (Magnalia, bk. iv. p. 127), he became ‘a bitter persecutor’ of his former brethren, the dissenters. During the same year he, ‘upon the knees of his soul,’ dedicated to Charles II a slight volume of no merit, ‘De Fastis Anglicis, sive Calendarium Sacrum. The Holy Calendar: being a treble series of Epigrams upon all the Feasts observed by the Church of England. To which is added the like Number of Epigrams upon some other more especiall Daies, which have either their Footsteps in Scripture, or are more remarkeable in this Kingdome,’ 8vo, London, 1661. With a return to prosperity Eaton sank into his old habits. He ran deeply into debt, and on being arrested at the suit of Francis Buller of Shillingham, Cornwall, in 1665, he endeavoured to evade the law by perjury and subornation (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1665–6, p. 93). Yet on 18 March 1668 he was preferred to the richly endowed rectory of Bideford, Devonshire (Watford, Hist. of Bideford, pp. 114–15). His affairs coming to a crisis, he was lodged in the king's bench prison, Southwark, and died there in 1674. From the letters of administration granted in P. C. C., 7 Dec. 1674, to Mary Eaton, his widow, it appears that he was allowed to retain possession of his rectory (Administration Act Book, P. C. C., 1674, f. 176).
[Winthrop's Hist. of New England (Savage), ed. 1825, i. 308–13, ii. 22, ed. 1853, i. 370–6, ii. 26; Savage's Genealogical Dict. of the First Settlers of New England, ii. 96–7; Shepard's Memoirs of his own Life in Young's Chronicles of the First Planters of the Colony of Massachusetts Bay, pp. 551–3; authorities cited in the text.]
EATON, SAMUEL (1596?–1665), independent divine, third son of Richard Eaton, vicar of Great Budworth, Cheshire, was born in the hamlet of Crowley in that parish. He was educated at Magdalene College, Cambridge, where he graduated B.A. 1624, M.A. 1628. He took orders and was beneficed, but being unable to conform to the regulations of the church as interpreted by Laud, he accompanied his eldest brother Theophilus [q. v.] to New England in 1637, and became the colleague of John Davenport [q. v.] at New Haven. A difference of opinion afterwards arose between him and Davenport. At the convention of 4 June 1639 (O. S.) Eaton took exception to the fifth article of the constitution, which limited the right of voting and of holding public office to church members only on the ground that ‘the free planters ought not to surrender this power out of their hands.’ After his brother and Davenport had replied, he found so little support that he withdrew his dissent. The following year he set out for England with the design of gathering a company to settle Toboket, afterwards Branford, of which a grant had been made to him. On his way he preached for some time in Boston, but declined an invitation to settle there permanently. Arrived in England at a time when his own party was everywhere triumphant, he found more encouragement to remain there than to return to the ‘wilderness.’ He soon showed himself a vigorous asserter of independency. Annexed to Sir Thomas Aston's ‘Remonstrance against Presbytery,’ 4to, 1641, are ‘Certain Positions preached at
