Nathaniel Eaton

Nathaniel Eaton
Portrait of Nathaniel Eaton accidentally painted on a John Harvard Olympus Cigar label in place of Harvard's founder John Harvard
Schoolmaster of Harvard College
In office 1637–1639
Succeeded by	Henry Dunster
Personal details
Born	1610 unknown
Died	1674 (aged 63–64) unknown

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

The sixth son of 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 Westminster School and went on to 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. Eaton later attended the University of Franeker, where he studied under Rev. William Ames. He emigrated to New England between 1634 and 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.

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 (such as Rev. John Wheelwright who founded Exeter, New Hampshire, and his sister-in-law, Anne (Marbury) Hutchinson, who founded a new colony in what later became Rhode Island).