CHEEVER FAMILY LINE

The Cheever family is one of distinction and infamy on the North Shore of Massachusetts. The emigrant, Ezekiel Cheever, was a distinguished educator in 17th century Boston as Headmaster of the Boston Latin School Ð the oldest public school in America and still a fine high school in Boston, Suffolk co., MA.

On the infamy side is Ezekiel's namesake son -- the dedicated bureaucrat who played a part in the Salem Witch Hysteria of 1692 as clerk to the judges and witness against several of the accused. He is the Ezekiel Cheever immortalized in Arthur Miller's play, "The Crucible".

The emigrant Ezekiel was also involved in a lawsuit which besmirched his name when he spent years trying to get the courts to give the estate of his wife's brother to him and his wife instead of Thomas Lothrop's own wife after his death in the Battle of Bloody Brook during the King Philip's War.

The many name variations on "Cheever" make this one a tedious family to investigate. Name variations include: Cheaver, Cheavers, Cheever, Cheevers, Cheevor, Chevar, Cheveer, Chever, Chevers, Chevor, Chiveer, Chiveers and Chivers. I am sure there are others I have not yet come across. On the plus side, it is a family which provides many generations of direct line in the family tree.