Chapter 6: James EGGLETON b.1832 d.>1881

James Eggelton was a blacksmith by profession. As his father was ‘only’ an agricultural labourer he probably learned his trade by serving an apprenticeship, perhaps under the village blacksmith in Buscot, a parish near to his home parish, but over the county border in Berkshire. It was in Buscot that James married local girl Jane Wheeler Goodenough in the early 1850s. Their first child was baptised there in about 1854. Three years later the young family were living in the city of Oxford, but their stay was brief, as by 1862 they were back in Buscot. A chance to take over the smithy in his own home parish soon attracted James and his family back to Broad Blunsdon where James stayed until at least 1908.

Following the death of his wife, 76 years old James married widow Ann Hiscock nee Rose, who was ten years his junior.
At least two of James’ four sons also became blacksmiths. James George, who later married Phoebe Jane Wood and had a family of his own, was working with his father in the early 1880s, at which time Alfred Gerald was lodging with his sister Esther and her family in Cheshire. Esther had married Ely born William Cooper and travelled with him to Middlesex in the mid 1870s, Ireland in the late 1870s, and New Ferry, Cheshire by 1880, at which time William was a foreman in a brickyard. William and Esther had five children by 1881. Why the family travelled so widely is not clear.

James’ son Benjamin was an errand boy in the early 1880s. Nothing is known of the fate of Benjamin’s brother, William. One of James’ other three daughters Rosina was an unemployed servant in 1881. Three years later she married Charles Henry Bathe, an under gardener who had earlier lived in a servants cottage at The Abbey, Blunsdon St Andrew.

James EGGLETON b.1832 d.>1881 m.#1 Jane Wheeler GOODENOUGH m.#2 Ann ROSE
….Esther M. EGGLETON b.c1854 d.>1881 m.William COOPER
……..Arthur COOPER b.c1876
……..Ernest COOPER b.c1877
……..Edith COOPER b.c1879
……..Alfred COOPER b.c1880
……..Ethel COOPER b.1881
….William EGGLETON b.c1857 d.>1871
….James George EGGLETON b.c1862 d.>1884 m.Phoebe Jane WOOD
……..William Benjamin George EGGLETON b.1884
….Rosina Sarah\Jane EGGLETON b.1863 d.- m.Charles Henry BATHE
….Alfred Gerald EGGLETON b.1864 d.>1881
….Fanny Jane EGGLETON b.1866 d.>1881
….Benjamin EGGLETON b.1867 d.>1881
….Edith EGGLETON b.1872 d.- m.William Hunt TITCOMBE