Robert Eaton

Robert Eaton was born circa 1620, possibly at Daresbury, and was educated at at Christs College Cambridge before taking his degree of M.A at All Souls College, Oxford, in 1653.

His first living was in Inworth, Essex, and he remained here until about 1659 when he was appointed to the vicarage of Walton-on-the-Hill, Liverpool. According to family tradition the circumstances of this appointment were rather curious!
“In 1659 took place the unsuccessful rising of the Royalists of Cheshire and the neighbouring counties under leadership of Sir George Booth, of Dunham, a movement in which many Puritan clergy and laymen were involved. Amongst them was Henry Finch, vicar of Walton. On the failure of the enterprise, the Parliament naturally sought to lay hands on those who had taken part in it. Finch was compelled to leave his living, and his goods were seized by the Parliamentary sequestrators. By a friendly arrangement, Robert Eaton who was also a Royalist, was put in to hold the vacant living. But in the following year another change took place, owing to the restoration of the monarchy; for one result of that event was to replace in their former benefices all clergymen who, for whatever reason, had been deprived by authority of Parliament since the establishment of the Commonwealth. Consequently Finch returned to Walton, and Robert Eaton had to go elsewhere. He was presented to the perpetual curacy of Daresbury near Warrington, probably through the good offices of Sir George Booth.“

However the truth behind this may actually be more nuanced – according to Edmund Calamy’s account of the ministers and others ejected and silenced, 1660-2: John Heywood petitioned House of Lords for rectory, had been duly presented, but Eaton on a pretended title from Cromwell, with the help of Maj.Gen. Worsley and a party of soldiers, evicted him.

Robert was at Daresbury until the “Great Ejection” on St Bartholomew’s day (24th August), 1662, when he became one of around 2000 or so ministers who refused to conform to the Act of Uniformity.

The Act required all ministers to exclusively use the revised version of the Book of Common Prayer, declare their assent to everything contained in the prayer book, and renounce the Solemn League and Convenant. This covenant had been created in the Civil War in order for the Parliamentarians to receive help from the Scots, and those who took the Covenant swore before God to, among other things,
reform the Church of England and the Church of Ireland according to “the Word of God and the example of the best Reformed Churches.”

The Act of Uniformity required ministers to declare that:
“…there lies no obligation upon me or any other person from the oath commonly called the Solemn League and Covenant…”

For many Presbyterians this was a problem, as they believed an oath made before God could not simply be declared void by Parliament.
This suggests that, although Eaton had supported the Royalist cause during the Civil War, he probably also held Presbyterian convictions. Like many moderate Royalists, he appears to have supported the restoration of the monarchy without accepting the return of episcopal government in the Church of England.

By this time Robert had married and two young children to support (their mother Anna died in 1661), but once again he was able to call upon his old friend Sir George Booth, now Lord Delamere, who appointed him as family chaplain at Dunham Massey.

A diary entry by Henry Newcombe for May 14th 1667, says “went to Dunham with Mr. Finch to see Mr. Eaton. Mr. Eaton lived three years at Dunham and his children at Warrington.” and, in speaking of seperation from his family, said: “I had this hint of comfort in my condition that Mr. Eaton three years lived at Dunham and his children at Warrington, and sometimes he saw them not of half a year together, and counted it no punishment, but a privilege that he had so good an occasion to be away“

At some point after 1667, he moved to Manchester where, on the 29 Oct. 1672 he received the first Presbyterian ordination in the north since 1660, being licensed as Preacher at his house in Deansgate.

He died in Manchester and was buried at Collegiate Church on the 25 Aug. 1701