Theophilus Eaton

Theophilus Eaton (c. 1590—January 7, 1658) was a merchant, farmer, and Puritan colonial leader who was the co-founder and first governor of New Haven Colony, Connecticut.

He was born at Stony Stratford, Buckinghamshire, England about 1590, to Rev. Richard Eaton and his wife, Elizabeth. His father may have been the curate at that time, but later became Vicar of Great Budworth, Chester. Theophilus married Grace Hiller, and had at least a daughter (Mary), and a son (Samuel) before her death (some authorities think that he also had a son by the name of James).

In 1625 he remarried, this time to a widow, Anne Yale, who was the daughter of George Lloyd, the Bishop of Chester (some authorities say Anne Morton, the daughter of Bishop Thomas Morton of Chester). The couple had three children (Theophilus, Hannah, and Elizabeth), but the household raised eight children. Besides their three, and Mary and Samuel, it included Anne, David, and Thomas Yale from Anne's first marriage to Thomas Yale.

The three Yale children all had notable places in the history of Connecticut. Thomas Yale (son of Thomas and Ann (Lloyd) Yale) settled in the New Haven Colony and signed the Fundamental Agreement of the New Haven Colony on June 4, 1639. Anne Yale (the daughter) married Edward Hopkins in 1631; he later became the governor of Connecticut. David Yale, who married Ursula Knight in 1641, became the father of Elihu Yale, namesake of Yale College.

Governor Eaton's five children fared as follows. Daughter Mary Eaton married Valentine Hill of Boston in 1647. (His brother, Nathaniel Eaton, the first schoolmaster of Harvard, was present as a witness.) Samuel Eaton married Mabel (Harlakenden) Haynes in 1654. Both of them died in the small pox epidemic of 1655. Hannah Eaton married the Lt. Governor William Jones (1624–1706) in 1659. Theophilus Eaton, Jr., or Ellis, as he was known, returned to England with his mother after his father's death, settled in Dublin, Ireland, and married an Anne King. Elizabeth died in London in March 1637 before the family departed for the colonies.

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