Some time ago I embarked on research of my family tree and discovered that my surname EGLETON should probably not be the one I use.   This has led me to a search for the wider family and its name.

The family has its roots in the county of Norfolk, England where the  surname was quite common in the 19th century, ranging in various records through EGGLIN-EGLIN-EGLEN-EGLING-EGLINGTON-EGLINTON-EGLITON-EGLETON-EGGLETON-EAGLETON. 

Whilst some branches of the family retained the name Eglin and then Eglen, at least one seems to have adopted variations of the name Egleton at the beginning of the 19th century.  

In the 18th century, Norfolk was one of the wealthiest and most densely populated counties in England but in the early 19th century, competition from the textile industries of Lancashire and Yorkshire brought economic collapse in a county unable to compete with the cheap local energy sources (coal and fast streams) of its northern rivals.   This period also coincided with an agricultural slump affecting the whole country which led to a major depopulation of the countryside as people migrated to cities and northern industries.

 Eglen branches of the family moved to Yorkshire whilst an Egleton branch  went to County Durham.   Since then, there has been greater dispersal around the country and  it has not, at this time,  been possible to trace relatives still living in the county of Norfolk where there might be branches using variations of the name.

Although the names are certainly not unique to Norfolk, the number of persons using the names and living there in the 19th century suggests, at least in that locality, that there might be a common line  among them.

But where did we come from?   Who are we?   What is the origin of the surname?  What does it mean?    The following pages will, I hope, give some insight into  these questions although I doubt that definitive answers will ever be found.

George Stephen Egleton