Background
Theophilus Eaton was born in 1590 at Stony Stratford, England, and was one of the nine children of the Rev. Richard Eaton, later rector of a church at Coventry.
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Theophilus Eaton was born in 1590 at Stony Stratford, England, and was one of the nine children of the Rev. Richard Eaton, later rector of a church at Coventry.
In Stony Stratford the young Theophilus went to school as a classmate of John Davenport, who was to be his life-long friend. His father wished him to be a clergyman, but since his own taste was for trade he went to London where he was apprenticed to a merchant.
Theophilus Eaton finished his term and became a freeman of the city and a merchant on his own account, trading largely with the Baltic countries.
So conspicuously successful did he become that he was elected deputy-governor of the great East-Land Company, visited the northern countries in order to enlarge its business, and according to Mather was also appointed agent of Charles I at the Court of Denmark.
He resided for a time at Copenhagen and then returned to London.
Eaton took great interest in the plans for colonizing New England.
He had become a strong Puritan and it may be that his interest in the new company was partly commercial and partly religious.
In any event, he was one of the original patentees of the Massachusetts Company, and when it was determined to place the management of the company in the hands of ten men, five in New and five in Old England, he was chosen as one of the English five.
Within a few years the colony became firmly established. It is not known what finally determined Eaton, then a rich and prosperous merchant in London, to transfer himself and his fortune to America, but he with some others, including John Davenport, emigrated in a body in 1637, forming the wealthiest and, commercially, the ablest group which had yet gone to the New World. They landed at Boston in June.
Great efforts were made to keep so valuable an addition within the limits of Massachusetts, and they were offered various sites both there and in Plymouth, but they preferred to establish their own independent colony.
Eaton, having heard of the special advantages of the territory about Quinnipiack, explored the country in the autumn, and there the company decided to settle.
Accordingly, late in March 1638, they sailed from Boston and arrived, some two weeks later, at what is now New Haven. Thereafter, Eaton’s life was bound up with that of the New Haven colony, he and his boyhood friend, John Davenport, being “the Moses and Aaron” of the community.
At a town meeting held June 4, 1639, the fundamental laws for the new colony were agreed upon, limiting the franchise and office holding to church members.
The only dissenting voice was that of Eaton’s brother Samuel, who was promptly overridden. From that time on there was no opposition in New Haven to the rule of Theophilus and John.
On August 22 those two with five others were chosen to constitute “the church” and they proceeded to admit other members according to their own judgment. Eaton was elected civil governor of the colony and continued to be reelected annually until his death.
In 1655, the colony, having discovered the inadequacy of the laws of Moses, by which they had hitherto governed themselves, appointed Eaton to draw up a new code. This he did with Davenport’s help. It was accepted and sent to London where it was printed in 1656.
Eaton had evidently expected to establish himself as a merchant and had entered upon various trading schemes. One of these, an attempt which he and his associates made to establish a fur trading post on the Delaware, brought on long and complicated troubles with the Dutch. As a result, the New Haven men finally had to abandon the enterprise, with the loss of £1, 000.
Constant diplomatic conflicts with New Amsterdam marked the whole of Eaton’s service as governor.
In 1646 another effort was made to establish the colony on a mercantile basis. A 150-ton ship was built, freighted, and dispatched to Europe, but was lost and never heard from. Some of the leading men then deserted the colony and returned to England, but Eaton remained, devoting himself thereafter to agriculture. He died suddenly in 1658.
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In 1643 he was one of the first body of commissioners of the United Colonies of New England.
In London he married his first wife, to whom he had been engaged for three years but whose name is unknown.
After her death a few years later he was married to Ann, the daughter of George Lloyd, bishop of Chester, and widow of Thomas Yale. The couple had three children 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.
In 1645 occurred the celebrated trial of his wife for lying as a result of which she was condemned by the church and excommunicated. His relations with her had not been happy before that time and were less so afterward.
