Ezekiel Cheever: New England colonial teacher

Abstract

This is the story of Ezekiel Cheever, teacher of colonial New England. His Puritan, middle class upbringing in England, his classical education there, his immigration to Boston, his remarkably long career of seventy years as a teacher in various New England towns illustrate something of the New England Colonial mind and something of the shaping residue it left upon American thought and American education. Ezekiel Cheever was born in London on January 25, 1614 or 1615. He was the son of William Cheaver, who made his living from the cloth trade. Whatever the family circumstances, poor or fair, Ezekiel did receive a good classical secondary education to prepare for Emmanuel College, Cambridge University. One account says he attended secondary school at Christ's Hospital in 1626 and another that he attended the famous St. Paul's School. If he attended Christ's hospital, he was in a school in London founded in 1553 by King Edward VI to support poor orphans. Originally the Priory of the Grey Friars, it was commonly called the Blue Coat School after the costume worn by the pupils. At its fullest it annually boarded and taught from one thousand to twelve hundred boys and a few girls who entered at ages eight to ten and left at ages fifteen or sixteen. Each year five or six of the best pupils were sent to Oxford or Cambridge Universities. It was located on Newgate Street in London.