♂James Eggleston

James Eggleston (died 1 December 1679) was an early settler of Windsor, Connecticut Colony. He was the eighth great-grandfather of Frederic Roger Curtis (1928–2007), through his son John Eggleston (1659–1731).

Early life

James Eggleston was a son of Begat Eggleston of Windsor; a will Begat made on 13 November 1673, naming “my son James” among his children, records the relationship. James is said to have been born in England about 1620, an estimate drawn from his recorded age of fifty-nine at his death. An 1892 history of Windsor states that he was made a freeman in 1637 and served in the colony’s campaign against the Pequot, and that he received a grant of fifty acres in 1671; these details rest on that later compilation and have not been checked against the colony’s own records.

Marriage and family

James Eggleston married a woman named Hester; her surname is not known. The same 1892 history describes her as a sister of Roger Williams and states that she was said to have been the first female child born at Hartford, a claim not otherwise substantiated and difficult to reconcile with the town’s own founding in the mid-1630s. A modern genealogical database gives her surname as Kelsey, likewise unconfirmed.

The couple had nine children, born between 1656 and 1676; the first, also named James, was stillborn. Their surviving children included John, Thomas, Esther, Nathaniel, Isaac, Abigail, Deborah, and Hannah. The Windsor records show Nathaniel marrying Hannah Ashley of Westfield in September 1694, and Isaac marrying Mary Stiles in March 1694/5.

Death and estate

James Eggleston died suddenly at Windsor on 1 December 1679. A jury examining the circumstances of his death found that he was “taken with a swond and so dyed”: he fainted and died. A jury of inquest was the usual step when a man died suddenly, to rule out violence. His estate was inventoried at £275-16-6, and administration was granted to his widow on 4 March 1679/80. In the distribution of the estate on 21 April 1680, the widow received £35, the eldest son £45, six of the other children £21 apiece, and “the defective child” £36, more than any of the other younger children: a disabled child who could not be expected to earn a living or marry was given a larger portion to provide for life. Hester remarried James Enno on 29 April 1680. In 1701, four of James’s sons — John, Thomas, Nathaniel, and Isaac — signed an agreement concerning their father’s estate.

Notes

James’s birth year and his service in the Pequot campaign rest on a single later compilation and are not independently confirmed. His wife’s surname is not known; two later sources give conflicting and unproven surnames for her (Williams and Kelsey), and both are noted here without adopting either.