Ezekiel Cheever (1614–1708) was a

schoolmaster A schoolmaster, or simply master, is a male school teacher. The usage first occurred in England in the Late Middle Ages and early modern period. At that time, most schools were one-room or two-room schools and had only one or two such teacher ...

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

Accidence In linguistic morphology, inflection (less commonly, 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, a ...

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

New England New England is a region consisting of 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 (state), New York to the west and by the ...

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 schoolmaster".

Biography

Cheever came to Boston,

Massachusetts Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode ...

in June 1637. Not much later, he went to

New Haven New Haven is a city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is located on New Haven Harbor on the northern shore of Long Island Sound. With a population of 135,081 as determined by the 2020 U.S. census, New Haven is the third largest city in Co ...

Connecticut Connecticut ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York (state), New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. ...

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 Magnet school, magnet Latin schools, Latin Grammar schools, grammar State school, state school in Boston, Massachusetts. It has been in continuous operation since it was established on April 23, 1635. It is the old ...

. 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 Puritan clergyman and author in colonial New England, who wrote extensively on theological, historical, and scientific subjects. After being educated at Harvard College, he join ...

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, Mid ...

. Ezekiel and Mary had six children. Their daughter, Elizabeth, was grandmother of Ezekiel Goldthwait. Their son, Rev Samuel, graduated from

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

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 1675–1678 between a group of indigenous peoples of the Northeastern Woodland ...

. 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. Practicing evil spells or incantations was proscribed and punishable in early human civilizations in the Middle East. ...

. 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 on 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 English emigrants to Massachusetts Bay Colony People from colonial Massachusetts Schoolteachers from London