Nathaniel Heaton (1602-abt 1659) and Elizabeth Wight (1606-1683)

{Hills Ancestors}

(Unless otherwise noted, this information comes from the article on Nathaniel Heaton in Register Vol 152 p 431.)

Nathaniel Heaton, the son of Willam Heaton and Elizabeth Sedgewick, was baptized at Habrough, Lincolnshire, England, 22 December 1602. Elizabeth Wight was baptized at Hareby, Lincolnshire, 2 November 1606. She was the third of six children of the Rev. Robert Wight and his wife, Elizabeth (Fulshaw) Wight.1

Nathaniel and Elizabeth were married on 21 April 1630, at Alford, Lincolnshire, England. Their first three children were baptized in Alford, Samuel on 8 May 1631, Jabez on 20 July 1632, and Julia's ancestor, Leah, on 13 April 1634.1

Nathaniel Heaton and his family emigrated to America in 1634 between the baptism of their child Leah in April and 2 November 1634 when "Nathaniell Heaton, mercer [a dealer in textile fabrics, especially silks, velvets, and other fine materials.], and Elizabeth his wife" were admitted to the First Church in Boston.1

John Winthrop mentions the arrival of the ship Griffin on 18 September 1634: "...the Griffin and another ship arriving with about two hundred passengers and one hundred cattle..." bringing Rev. Symmes and Rev. Lothrop and the family of Ann Hutchinson. Ann Hutchinson was also from the Alford area, "making it extremely likely that Nathaniel Heaton and his family came with their neighbors to New England in the Griffin in September of 1634."1

Nathaniel was admitted a freeman of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, 25 May 1636. On January 1637[8], the town of Boston honored an act of December 1635 granting the "then inhabitants" a great allotment. Nathaniel Heaton was granted twenty acres at Muddy River, eighty rods long, bounded by James Johnson and Edmund Jackson.3

About 31 January 1639/40, Thomas Lechford paid Nathaniel Heaton "in full of writings & cutting wood" 5s.3

"As a respected member of Boston's First Church, Nathaniel Heaton was included in the private discussions held among the senior churchmen following public services on the Lord's Day. On 20 April il 1640, one Richard Waighte, a man who had long been excommunicated becauase of his drinking, keeping bad company, and general sinfulness, was encouraged to confess and be brought back into the church. His lengthy confession focussed on his lustful thoughts about a neighbor but failed to mention several major offenses. As the day wore on, the minister expressed impatience with Waighte and "Brother Heaton" spoke up, saying, "I desire to judge the best of him."1

"Sargent Hutchinson was not so easily satisfied. He found it very aggravating that Waighte impudently denied having caused trouble for "our Brother Heton." Waighte had claimed that Heaton falsely charged him, and that Heaton "wuld answer it before god at the greate day of judgment"; Hutchinson wanted Waighte to speak to these offenses, but he did not. The church eventually readmitted Waight, but his offenses aginst Nathaniel Heaton were never spelled out."1

Nathaniel and Elizabeth had three more children born in Boston, Eleazer born 22 September 1636,2 Nathaniel born 31 August 1639,2 and Elizabeth born 13 October 1643.1

Nathaniel Heaton's property (shown on Lamb's map of Boston according to the 1645 Book of Possessions as F-No. 6 lot 53) is described on page 81 as "F.53. Nathaniel Eaton (sic). [House and garden, with F. East north, W. Hudson, Sr. east, the street west, and R. Hogg south. _ W.H.W.]" It is at Downtown Crossing on Washington Street and Franklin St. and is now the location of the new Millennial Tower in Boston.

In a brief note on the history of Harvard, a Nathaniel Eaton is said to have been given the charge for the students of Harvard "for one more year." This was not our ancestor. There were two Nathaniel (H)Eaton’s in the Boston/Cambridge area during this time. Both had a wife named Elizabeth, and the records of their children have been confused by many people over the years.

The deed of John Lake of Boston, tailor, to Thomas Wiborne, sadler, dated 14 June 1648, but not recorded until 20 February 1685, showed Nathaniel Eaton as the bounder on the north of this property. The date of Nathaniel Heaton's death is unknown, and his estate was not probated in the usual manner. Nathaniel may have been living 14 June 1648 at the time of this deed, but died evidently not long after that, for by 1650 his widow had remarried and been widowed a second time.1

"The inventory of ‘the estate of Nathaniel Heaton long since deceased,’ presented 1 February 1664[/5], totaled £129 17s. 2d., of which £125 was real estate: ‘the house & land,’ £100; ‘10 acres of land at Muddy River,’ £15; and ‘1 acre & quarter of land at the Sentry Hill,’ £10. [SPR 4:215]. On the same day, "for the settling of the abovesaid estate between the widow of the said Heaton, the Court doth ordr that the widow shall have a double portion of the remainder, & the rest of the children shall have the remainder equally departed among them’ [SPR 4: 215-16]."3

Elizabeth married second, by 1650, Joseph Pell, a Boston butcher. Pell died by 23 April 1650 and his widow Elizabeth received the bulk of his small estate after debts were paid. From the wording of this probate and of Elizabeth's subsequent deeds, we assume that she had no children with Pell.1

"She married third after 30 August 1650 John Maynard. Hannah and Lydia Maynard were baptized in the First Church of Boston, 26 November 1648 as "the Daughters of John Maynard a Recommended member from the Church at Duxbury being about 4 Dayes old." He did not baptize any further children in the church, and it is likely that Elizabeth was near the end of her childbearing years when she married him. Maynard died between 8 August 1657 and 7 November 1658."1

"In her will, dated 11 March 1671[/2?] and proved 27 December 1683, ‘Elizabeth Minor,’ noting the ‘my eldest son Jabez Eaton hath had much more than his portion, yet I cannot byt manifest my motherly affection to him,’ bequeathed to ‘him four foot of land before his house next the street with the land his house stands upon & the land behind his house as far as the old house went and four foot more the same breadth’; to ‘my son Nathaniel Eaton,’ ten pounds and some household goods; to ‘my son eleazer that piece of ground of mine that runs the breadth from within ten foot of Jabez’s old house to the post there the boarded fence is & to the barn behind the land …, this land I give him adjoins to the land I sold to my son Barnes’; to ‘my cousin Mary Bartholomew all my wearing apparel not mentioned with a piece of new cloth’; to ‘my five grandchildren that came and are by my late daughter Fisher,’ fourty shillings apiece; to ‘my daughter Elizabeth Barnes the ten pounds my son Barnes oweth me for the land I sold to him,’ some clothing and ‘the old house that I and my daughter Elizabeth built together’; ‘my son Nathaniel Eaton to be sole executor’; ‘my loving friends Edward Rawson and John Maryon’ to be overseers [SPR 6:441].

"The inventory of the estate of ‘Elizabeth Mynard of Boston, widow, deceased’ taken 31 January 1682/3 totalled £110 4s. 3d., of which £23 was real dstate: ‘part of a house,’ £8; and ‘a piece of land ‘£15 [SPR 9:110-11]."3

Elizabeth died at Boston, Massachusetts, between 11 March 1671/2 when her will was written, and 27 December 1683 when it was probated,

Sources:

  1. NEHGS Register Vol 152 p 430 - 452 - English Ancestry of Nathaniel Heaton of Boston, Mass, and His Nephew, James Heaton of New Haven, Conn. by Douglas Richardson, and Dean Crawford Smith.

  2. Massachusetts, Boston: Births, Baptisms, Marriages and Deaths, 1630-1699 p 4, 8

  3. The Great Migration and The Great Migration Begins, 1620-1635 p 303 - 305 (electronic 386 -388)- Nathaniel Heaton.