Ezekiel Cheever (1614–1708) was a

schoolmaster The word schoolmaster, or simply master, refers to a male school teacher. This usage survives in British independent schools, both secondary and preparatory, and a few Indian boarding schools (such as The Doon School) that were modelled after B ...

, and the author of "probably the earliest American school book", ''

Accidence In linguistic morphology, inflection (or inflexion) is a process of word formation in which a word is modified to express different grammatical categories such as tense, case, voice, aspect, person, number, gender, mood, animacy, and defin ...

, A Short Introduction to the Latin Tongue''. Upon his death, it was said that "

New England New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York to the west and by the Canadian provinces ...

adnever known a better teacher."ABOUT BLS – History (375 Years) – Reflections on Alma Mater
, accessed July 15, 2011 He has been called "the chief representative of the

colonial Colonial or The Colonial may refer to: * Colonial, of, relating to, or characteristic of a colony or colony (biology) Architecture * American colonial architecture * French Colonial * Spanish Colonial architecture Automobiles * Colonial (1920 au ...

schoolmaster".

Biography

Cheever came to Boston,

Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett language, Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut assachusett writing systems, məhswatʃəwiːsət'' English: , ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is the most populous U.S. state, state in the New England ...

in June 1637. Not much later, he went to

New Haven New Haven is a city in the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is located on New Haven Harbor on the northern shore of Long Island Sound in New Haven County, Connecticut and is part of the New York City metropolitan area. With a population of 134,02 ...

Connecticut Connecticut () is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. Its cap ...

and taught school. In 1650, Cheever moved the family back to Massachusetts. On December 29, 1670, he was invited to become Head Master of the

Boston Latin School The Boston Latin School is a public exam school in Boston, Massachusetts. It was established on April 23, 1635, making it both the oldest public school in the British America and the oldest existing school in the United States. Its curriculum f ...

. He taught for seventy years, the last thirty-eight as master of the

.The Cambridge History of English and American Literature in 18 Volumes (1907–21) – VOLUME XVII. Later National Literature, Part II – XXIII. Education. – § 10. Ezekiel Cheever
accessed July 15, 2011

Cotton Mather Cotton Mather (; February 12, 1663 – February 13, 1728) was a New England Puritan clergyman and a prolific writer. Educated at Harvard College, in 1685 he joined his father Increase as minister of the Congregationalist Old North Meeting H ...

gave the eulogy at his funeral.Hassam, JT (1879) ''Ezekiel Cheever and some of his descendants'', David Clapp & Son (vi
google.com
In it Mather praised Cheever for his "untiring abjuration of the devil."

Family

In 1638, Cheever married Mary Culverwell, his first wife. She was the daughter of Ezekiel Culverwell, niece of Nathaniel Culverwell and cousin of

William Gouge William Gouge (1575–1653) was an English Puritan clergyman and author. He was a minister and preacher at St Ann Blackfriars for 45 years, from 1608, and a member of the Westminster Assembly from 1643. Life He was born in Stratford-le-Bow, Mi ...

. Ezekiel and Mary had six children. Their daughter, Elizabeth, was grandmother of

Ezekiel Goldthwait Ezekiel Goldthwait (July 19, 1710 – November 27, 1782) was an American merchant and landowner. Born in Boston, the capital of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, he rose to become on the city's leading citizens in the years leading to the Ameri ...

. Their son, Rev Samuel, graduated from

Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

in 1659. Mary died on January 20, 1649. On November 18, 1652, Ezekiel married Ellen Lathrop who was the sister of Capt Thomas Lathrop, a casualty during

King Philip's War King Philip's War (sometimes called the First Indian War, Metacom's War, Metacomet's War, Pometacomet's Rebellion, or Metacom's Rebellion) was an armed conflict in 1675–1676 between indigenous inhabitants of New England and New England coloni ...

. Ezekiel and Ellen had five children. Their son, Rev Thomas, graduated from Harvard in 1677. Their son, Ezekiel Cheever, was a resident at Salem Village during the time of the

Witch Trials A witch-hunt, or a witch purge, is a search for people who have been labeled witches or a search for evidence of witchcraft. The classical period of witch-hunts in Early Modern Europe and Colonial America took place in the Early Modern per ...

. Ezekiel was an ancestor of author

John Cheever John William Cheever (May 27, 1912 – June 18, 1982) was an American short story writer and novelist. He is sometimes called "the Chekhov of the suburbs". His fiction is mostly set in the Upper East Side of Manhattan; the Westchester suburbs; ...

Legacy

* Ezekiel Cheever School was named in his honor.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Cheever, Ezekiel 1614 births 1708 deaths 17th-century scholars Linguists from England Schoolteachers from Massachusetts Kingdom of England emigrants to Massachusetts Bay Colony People of colonial Massachusetts Schoolteachers from London