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Genealogy is something of a passion of mine.  I don't know how much of my life I have spent researching family-trees but it's too much - both for my sanity and waistline.  The purpose of this site is to share my interpretation of the records and invite you to confirm, correct or extend my work. It is certainly not presented as a definitive history of the Eggintons or Mellers of Staffordshire or any other of the families I have researched out of curiosity.  
 
In this on-line tree, there are: incorrect assumptions; errors introduced by my software; typos caused by my old eyes and fingers; codes that I've added as memos and individuals who I've invented just for fun (some very obviously).  I apologise if I end up misleading you in any way - do not take any of my 'findings' as 'facts carved in stone' - I urge you to put them to the test. The vast majoriity of information is in the 'public domain' and I have tried to put in as many links to source material as possible but note that recently the LDS have changed their databases and some of my hundreds of links are stilll broken.

Worried about your name being here?  A word or two about Privacy and Identity Theft.

The Eggintons of Staffordshire

My cousin Terry (Teresa) has spent many years tracing our shared 'Egginton' ancestry and collating details from other family members, especially Diana Robinson and Pat Wilson.  The fruits of their labours form the backbone of this site - thank you.  I've filled in some details using information found on the internet and from people who have contacted me through this page (many thanks to them too).

The story begins, with any degree of certainty that is, with the baptism of Thomas Egginton in 1793 at St.Peter & St.Paul's Roman Catholic Church in Wolverhampton.  It is likely that his parents, Thomas Egginton and Sara, were the Thomas Egginton and Sarah Dovey who were married at St Peter's Church ten years previously and that, sadly, Sarah died a couple of months after giving birth.  Where Thomas senior was born, we don't know, he may have been a local lad (there were Eggintons being baptized in the town before 1700) or it may be that he was born in Tamworth in 1763.  This Tamworth connection, I was given a long tiime ago and whilst I have been able to confirm many of the elements of the 'backbone', I have not yet found any evidence to support the notion that anyone from Tamworth did ever come to Wolverhampton - and indeed there are problems with that suggestion when you start to look at the individuals - be sure to read my notes about these individuals.   It is unfortunate then, that some years ago, when I was less unsure of the Tamworth connection, a few family-tree enthusiasts stumbled across this site and copied the connections given here to other on-line genealogical sites and now it seems to be taken as fact.

Our earliest record of the Tamworth Egginton clan is that of the marriage of Samuel Egginton & Mary Hair in 1681 at Lichfield Cathedral although the index of students at Oxford University in 1674 does include a 16 year old Samuel Egginton, son of Richard of Tamworth - it is very tempting to think that this is the same man, the age certainly fits, however, there were several Egginton families living in the Tamworth area at that time.  The relationships between the individuals from Samuel b1658 through to Thomas b1763 are based on reasoned guesswork - there is little corroborating evidence to support them - beware.  

Not all of the 'Victorian' Eggintons in Wolverhampton are descendants of these Thomases, a few other like-named families came to the town from Clent, Stone and Pelsall and there were clusters in other nearby villages too - if there was any connection between them, I don't know of it - yet.  In Sedgley,  John Tertius Egginton's Chemist's shop held a particular fascination for me as a child - with 'my' surname writ big for all to see.  I have attempted to explore JT's roots and a partial tree and discussion can be found by clicking on his link but as yet I have found no connection to the Wolverhampton Eggintons - although, intriguingly, Thomas b1793 and Frances Beatrice Roden were married in Sedgley.. 

Andrew Ward contacted me about an ancestor of his, John Egington b1857 and wondered if he was a member of the Wolverhampton Egginton clan. After some digging, it's clear that John was in fact born in Kinver and his father, Joseph, is from Wordsley/Kingswinford. This made it more likely that he is connected to the Sedgley Eggintons above - and after further rummaging around in the LDS database - I believe I that I have found that the two lines converge at Walter Egginton b1715 in Himley. It would seem that Joseph took his family and relocated to Brightside, Sheffield but John didn't stay long - he 'escaped' a life in the iron industry became a very successful Music Hall artist and agent adopting the stage-name of 'Jack Lotto'.  He and his children formed several troupes of trick-cyclists using names like 'Lotto, Lilo & Otto' (Google search) and toured the world. Jack himself was one of the founders of the charity The Grand Order of Water Rats. Click here to listen to the 2 minute story behind the origin of the name.

I have created a table of Staffordshire Eggintons from the 1841-1901 Census returns and started to link the individuals in an attempt to identify the various local Egginton strands.

To those who ask whether the 'Egginton' surname originates in the Derbyshire Village of Egginton, I would guess that the answer is a definite maybe - the Oxford Dictionary of Placenames gives Egginton as the town and people of Ecga, so it is a possibilty.

Deep Ancestry

Mike Stubbs-Egginton has very generously shared with us a report from National Geographic that is relevant to every descendant of the fore-fathers of Thomas Egginton b1793 going back at least 14,000 years: Deep Ancestry . It uses known changes (or 'markers') in the Y-chromosome, passed from Egginton father to Egginton son, to trace the route by which this line came of out Africa about 50,000 years ago and made their way to the middle of England.  It is well worth a read.

Thanks are due to Sandra Jenkinson who has aided me with the details of Richard Jones b1805 from Ludlow & Munslow (photos), Shropshire whose daughter Clara married Walter Egginton in 1855.

Here are the charts of my Egginton grandparents:
 Arthur Egginton b1899 & Millicent Southall b1900 


The Mellers and Mellors of Staffordshire

The spelling of Meller or Mellor is of very little significance - seemingly, it became fixed as and when individuals learned to write their names for themselves, each making their own choice, I default to the E variant.  I am told that one of the earliest spellings was 'Melior' and is distinct from the occupational name of 'Miller' 

I am fairly confident in starting 'my' Meller ancestry with John Meller b1791, a potter in Lane End (in the Potteries of course). Details of earlier forebears are being brought to light with the kind help of Laura Bowcutt who has researched this line over several decades.  John moved, with his young family, to Higham-on-the-Hill, Leicestershire around 1815 (many thanks to Celia Hornbuckle for helping with this) and many of his descendants either worked the land in the local villages or moved to the more industrial areas.  My great-grandfather Samuel, born in Higham in 1838, moved away in about 1860 - just before smallpox hit the village, claiming the lives of a number of his kith and kin - to work on the farms around Lichfield.  In 1885 his wife Sarah gave birth to my grandfather James who became a chorister in the Cathedral and a baker before moving to Compton, Wolverhampton at the end of the 19th century.

Here are the charts of my Meller grandparents:
James Meller b1885 & Annie Burns b1887

A contact from Roger Ward has taken me in an unexpected direction - to Chicago in the USA.  It would seem that one of John's sons, Charles b1844, decided to try his fortune in the New World and made the crossing to Cook County, Illinois, with his wife Ann Wheatley and two very young children,  in 1872.  Carol King, a descendant of Charles has done a goodly amount of work on his family on that side of the Atlantic and I have attempted to link him in to the family they left behind. Here are the latest results of that research, spanning over 235 years: 
Charles Meller's Family of Chicago, Cook County, USA.

I have been asked many times by my Meller relatives whether 'our' family is connected to that of the late John P Mellor OBE QSM, a prominent and very active figure in Wolverhampton.  In the summer of 2010, after reading a letter of his in the local Express & Star, in which he outlined his origins, I decided to explore his roots more fully and see if there was indeed a connection.  Alas, I have managed to get back to about 1750 in Abbots Bromley near Uttoxeter without finding one - but who knows - at this point the families were only 10 miles apart.  At John's request, I have now expanded my research to include more than just the Mellor line. John did have his own website - a real treasure-trove of remembrances, musings and stories and I thank him for those relating to my grandfather, 'Jim the Baker', when Compton was one part of John's 'beat' as a village 'Bobby' back in the early 1950s.  Here in 'Pedigree' layout (so, some text will be small, be ready to use Ctrl-'+' to zoom in) are my findings:
John P Mellor OBE QSM

Yet another Meller connection: Erddig (pronounced Erthig), a stately home near Wrexham (NT), was in the possession of a John Meller in the early 1700's and his coat of arms can be seen there. He had no children of his own but there could still be a link with his wider family.


If you can help extend our venture then please send any information to me, Clive Egginton, here:


The Bishtons of Worfield and Donington

My grandmother Annie Burns's grandmother was Tryphaena Bishton b1808 from Worfield and her father was Thomas Bishton but as yet we have no record of his birth or baptism.  Much work has been done trying to shed light on their ancestors and we have records of many Bishtons in the areas around Worfield, Donington & Kilsall (nr Albrighton, Shropshire) going back to Shrewsbury and 1495

One branch became quite wealthy, rubbing shoulders with the likes of Abraham Darby, with their coal and iron works out at Dawley. Remnants of their industry can be found at Blists Hill Museum near Ironbridge and they owned land and various prestigious properties in and around Kilsall, near to what is now Cosford.  A group of their early C19th graves, set in a rather privileged position, can still be found today at Donington Parish Church in Albrighton (photos).  We have been very fortunate in that the Rev.Joseph Dale, the father-in-law of one of this famliy, had extracted many of the relevant parish records and set them down in a letter which is still available, see his notes.

Warning: the precise link between Tryphaena's father, Thomas, and the earlier Bishtons is not yet known, as such, I have tentatively attached him to John Bishton b1767 & Mary Robinson, parents of a Worfield family that has a suitable gap in their list of offspring.  This is not  much more than a guess I'm afraid.  Even with the wider family, I am sure that my interpretation of the records wiill contain many errors here and I would love to hear from anyone who can help me build up a more accurate set of connections.

Burns of London - Help Needed

My grandmother Annie Burns's father James Burns b1859 has been a bit of a mystery for me for the last few years with many hours spent trying to find his roots without success.  After trying, yet again, to discount an 1881 census return showing him in Salop Street, Wolverhampton, I stumbled across a reference by 2nd cousin Tony Smith to the 1871 census record. 'Ancestry' had read 'Burns' as 'Broms' and the enumerator had heard 'Sheward' as 'Shuara'  - no wonder it was so elusive.  That 1871 census records James's place of birth as 'Enfield, Middlesex' and his absent father as being a 'Gun Locksmith' these facts match exactly the informationn we find on his marriage certificate and the 1911 census.  This, along with recently discovered military documentation, seems to demolish the idea that he was the James Burns born in West Ham who previously had seemed to be the most likely candidate. There are still plenty of gaps, particularly regarding his father John and his whereabouts in 1861.

The Selveys of Wolverhampton

Selvey (or Selby) is a name that has cropped up a couple of times in connection with the Eggintons back in the early 1800s.  The strongest link being that of Rachel Selvey b1823 & Moses Egginton and  who were married in 1844.  At the end of 2009, I began working with Roger Szendy in Connecticut, USA, to bring some clarity to the relationships.  In 1870, Roger's great-great-grandmother Lucy Selvey b1836 & Henry Fletcher, her husband, left Wolverhampton for New York with their children.  Our working partnership has been successful and most enjoyable and the results are continuing to grow with contributions from Henry E.P. Pritchard of Philadelphia, USA.  We have recently made contact with some Selveys still living in the UK and I have to thank Sandie Morgan for some details of the family of Ellen Washbrook b1867, wife of William Selvey b1864..

The gaps in the on-line records of St Peter & St Pauls RC Church in the IGI and at Ancestry between 1830 and 1837 have required direct inspection of the registers on microfilm.  Enough work has been done, by Roger & myself, to paint a wider (but rough) picture of the descendants of William Selvey b1763 & Mary Gill who were married in St Peter's in 1790. 

It would seem that there were a few separate Selvey families in Wolverhampton around 1800 and at least one with Walsall/Bloxwich connections.  Here is a working document listing the records of all of Selveys in Wolverhampton at the time. Most of the individuals have been associated with their respective families but there are still a few unplaced ones. If you can help place the 'orphans' please let us know.

Whilst exploring the other famlies connected to the Selveys, new strands connecting them to the Eggintons have been uncovered.  As a result, a substantial number of Careless and Leek family members have been woven into this picture of Victorian Wolverhampton, however, a couple of mysteries still remain to be solved - in particular the precise connection of Ann Careless b1848 and Hannah Leek b1820 to their respective families.

Roger has a brilliant website covering his wider family circle and lots of charts and photos here:  Szendy Genealogy

The Shepherds of Willenhall

My wife's grandfather was Henry Shepherd a locksmith from Willenhall and his background is another tangle I'm trying to unravel, some of my preliminary findings are here. It is clear that there were quite a few Shepherd families and if they were linked, it was well before 1800. There were also numerous 'Josephs' born just before 1850, this marriage certificate has helped to determine that the father of Joseph Shepherd b1847 (husband of Fanny Cotterhill and Henry's grandfather), was William Shepherd b1822.

Brevitts and Cotterills

Henry's other grandmother was Ann Brevitt b1840 and with the encouragement and support of Edna van Genderen in Brisbane have included some of the Brevitt families in the area.  One Horatio Brevitt born in Darlaston became a solicitor and Town Clerk in Wolverhampton, a role for which he was knighted in 1915.

 A fair bit of work has gone into mapping-out the various Cotterill families that lived in Tettenhall and Tettenhall Wood throughout most of the 1700s and 1800s.  Much of that work has been done by Dr Richard A.Y. Jones and I hereby 'tip my hat' to him in gratitude.  We start with Joseph Cotterill born there about 1690

Other Families

In an attempt to map out some more of my closer connections, I've been looking at the stories of my cousins June Evans and Carol Brownsword's fathers (Edward Henry Evans and William Brownsword) and husbands (Eric Millington and Bryan Bayley) and cousin Royston Slater's wife, Linda Middleton. Cousin Terry's daughter, Charlotte, put in a request for me to take a look at her 'other' side, and so I did, here are her  'Russell' grandparents. Although there are a few mysteries unsolved, there's enough to warrant being included.

Other family names traced back are those of Cross and Allen of Blackpool and Bradford, look for them in the Surname List. A recent contact from a Meller descendant has resulted in an expansion of the Pugh branch of West Bromwich and Madeley.

A friend of mine, Vic Beards, has a surname that I'd seen in my tree and so I had a look to see if there was any connection between our two clans - and there is, here it is: Egginton-Beards  - not surprising with two lock-making families rooted in Wolverhampton for over 200 years.  Other new names added include Turner, Dean and Anslow.




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This Web Site was Updated December 2016 with Legacy 8 from Millennia