Nathaniel Appleton (9 December 1693 – 9 February 1784) was a Congregational minister in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

He was educated at Harvard, taking his degree in 1712, studied theology, and was ordained on October 9, 1717, succeeding William Brattle as Congregational minister in Cambridge.

In 1729, Appleton was recorded as owning an enslaved man named Pompey.

[1] During his long career, Appleton published sermons and occasional discourses, and died, aged 90, in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

As part of his employment as minister, he was given "a Lott of Land att Menotomy Called Bare Hill, about 40 acres," located near today's Route 2 and the Lexington border, and probably accessed by today's Appleton Street.