Every family has a mythical character or two. Sir Geoffrey Eaton was supposed to have been the surgeon on The Victory, Lord Nelson’s Flagship. Research on Lord Nelson showed that the actual surgeon on The Victory was named Dr. Gillespie. A “Sir Geoffrey Eaton” has never turned up.
For many years I could find nothing on anyone named Eaton except for a few relatives who had “Eaton” as their middle names. Thanks to ancestry.ca and findmypast.com I’ve recently found information that puts Sir Geoffrey to rest – and introduces Thomas Eaton, who was an assistant surgeon on a gun vessel and who married Mary Brown in Stoke Damerel, Devon, England, in 1798.
Who knows where the “Sir” part came from? But there was an Eaton who was a surgeon.