Theophilus EATON

Other Events and Attributes:

• Fact: Eldest so of the Rev. Richard Eaton, A.B. vicar of Great Budworth, Cheshire
• Fact 1: A wealthy merchant of London

Notes:

Name:
Theophilus Eaton, together with is wife, Anne, and his three step-children, David, Anne and Thomas Yale, sailed for New England in America, in the year 1637, in company with Rev. John Davenport, a celebrated London clergyman. They landed at Boston, Mass., and preferring to go into the wilderness, Eaton with a few men, after exploring the coast of the sound, spent the following winter at a desirable place in that region. As soon as spring opened, the company sailed from Boston and in de time, they arrived at the place where Eaton had spent the winter. There (in April 1638), under a large tree, on the Sabbath after their arrival, Davenport preached his first sermon in the wilderness. A day of fasting and prayer for direction was observed, and they formed a government, pledging themselves "to be governed in all things by the rules which the Scripture held forth to them." Such was the settlement of New Haven. They purchased from the Indians the right to the land (Quinipiak), and Eaton was elected the first governor of New Haven colony, in October 1639; which office he held for more than twenty years, until his death; having been re-elected annually. Mr. Eaton was prominent in the organization of the New England Confederation in 1643. In 1655, assisted by Davenport, he drew up the so-called Connecticut "Blue Laws."

On the fourth of January 1640 the General Court of New Haven agreed to make a division of certain lands in the town, according to the proportion of the personal property possessed by each planter, and at the head of the list is Theophilus Eaton's name, with a family of six persons and a personal estate of L3000, which was thrice as large as that of any other planter, and almost ten per cent of the whole amount listed.

Theophilus married Anne LLOYD about 1625. Anne died after 1659 in London, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]