♂James Egleston

James Egleston (died 1613) was a parishioner of Settrington, in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England, and the father of Begat Eggleston, who emigrated to New England in 1630 and settled at Windsor, Connecticut. He was the tenth great-grandfather of Frederic Roger Curtis (1928–2007), through his son Begat Eggleston (died 1674).

Life

James Egleston was a freeholder of Settrington as well as a parishioner. On 6 January 1592/93 he bought a free farm from James Hebletwhayte: a messuage, a meadow in Le Cliffe, and about thirteen and three-quarter acres of arable in the common fields^W, with common pasture. At the survey of the manor in March 1599/1600 he was the holder of that farm, held of the Queen by military service at a free rent of two shillings, and he signed the survey “Jacobus Egleston”. His house was one of the sixteen freeholders’ houses paying Grenehue.

The parish register of Settrington records the baptisms of five of his children: Bygod on 20 February 1586/87, Janeta in November 1595, James on 19 June 1600, John on 6 April 1606, and Margaret on 28 February 1606/07. The register never names their mother. His will of 12 November 1612 probably also names two more daughters, Dorothy and Alice. It leaves twopence each to the poor widows and gives his son John the part of the house then occupied by Rowland Colbye. His eldest son’s unusual Christian name, Bygod, was the surname of the leading gentry family of Settrington, whose own children were baptized in the same church in those years; in time the son’s name was written in New England as Begat. A John Egleston, described in a family history of 1935 as James’s brother, was also raising a family at Settrington in the same years.

James Egleston was buried at Settrington on 30 March 1613.

Notes

That the Bygod baptized at Settrington in 1587 is the Begat Eggleston of Windsor rests on a family history published in 1935 and on the rarity of the name; no record found so far states the link directly.

The will

The will, dated 12 November 1612, is known from an abstract printed by John G. Hunt in “English Origin of Bygod Eggleston,” The American Genealogist 37 (1961), p. 151, which cites the York Registry, vol. 32, p. 328, for its probate. The daughters’ names are known only from that printed abstract. The abstract writes the daughters’ names as Dorothie, Jane, Elizabeth, Margrett and Alice; Dorothy is the spelling used in the text above. The abstract also names five witnesses, spelled as it prints them: Mathew ffaram, Roland Coulbie, Thomas Bell, Ralphe Harker and Robert Holme.

The Settrington survey

The purchase and the survey are both printed in H. King (ed.), A Survey of the Manor of Settrington (Yorkshire Archaeological Society Record Series 126, 1962). The deed is dated 6 January 35 Elizabeth, which is 1592/93 in the usual reckoning. The survey of March 1599/1600 lists him as holder of free farm no. 5 and records his signature as “Jacobus Egleston”; his house is among the sixteen freeholders’ houses paying Grenehue.