Eggleton - Norfolk to Wayne County Pennsylvania

Back in 1871 an Eggleton family from South Creake, Norfolk, England emigrated to make a new life in the USA. They settled in the Damascus township of Wayne County, Pennsylvania. I believe they settled at that time near Lookout in the top left hand corner of the township quite possibly on Roddenburg Road.

When the 1880 census was recorded the families of Robert and Lydia Eggleton, William and Honor Lake lived almost as neighbours, that's not surprising as Honor Lake was also the daughter of Robert and Lydia and married William Lake before leaving England. I have been researching this family for some time now and would love any additional information or documentation fellow researchers can provide. Please feel free to contact me, I would be very happy to collaborate with you on your own research into this family.
 
The family concerned are that of Robert Eggleton (son of Robert Eggleton and Elizabeth Whitesides) and Lydia Prudence Armiger (daughter of Samuel Armiger and Elizabeth Bernard)

They emigrated from Norfolk in England with their children Honor, Ann, John, Mary Jane, Prudence, James and Hagai. Some of the Eggleton children were already married when they made the trip and and some still to find partners, see below :-

• Honor Eggleton (1849-1907) - already married to William Lake
• Ann Eggleton (1853-    ) - I have still to identify a spouse for Ann in Wayne Co. 
• John A Eggleton (1855-1917) - later married to Mary Alice Blackwell.
• Mary Jane Eggleton (1857-    ) - later married to Albert J Shuman.
• Lydia Prudence Eggleton (1859-1935) - later married to Virgil Young.
• Armiger James Eggleton ( 1861-    ) - later married to Minnie Darling.
• Hagai (Hager) Eggleton (1862-1910) - already married to John Ewain.

One other son died before the family emigrated from England, that son was William Robert Eggleton. William Robert married Amelia Laws (Lawes) daughter of James Laws and Mary Ann Simpson, in 1868 and they had one child, Amelia Eggleton in 1869. Unfortunately William Robert also died later in 1869 and I have still to discover the fate of Amelia Eggleton.

When the 1880 census was taken there were several families within a few pages of the return for the Damascus township. James and Phebe Darling, Robert and Lydia Eggleton, William and Honor Lake, Virgil and Prudence Young and Albert and Mary Shuman were all living very close in 1880. 

As far as I am aware to this date the family never were to return to Norfolk. Both Lydia and Robert Eggleton lie buried in Wayne County. Various other headstones of the families of descendants can be found in the area including that of the Mawdsley (Maudsley) family.
 
I was lucky enough during a trip to Wayne County to learn of one Lela Mawdsley Traver who was born on a farm in Lookout, Pennsylvania. Lela later moved from Wayne County with her husband to Poughkeepsie New York. Lela had completed extensive research into these families, much of which I was able to view including correspondence back and forth with England. Lela was the daughter of Joseph Mawdsley and Sarah Lake (daughter of William Lake and Honor Eggleton) and died in 2005 at the age of 97 years. Although I was not lucky enough to have met Lela in person her valuable research will carry on.

With the 1890 census being effectively missing, the next census return is 1900 and that finds Honor, Prudence and James still in the Damascus township. John and Mary are recorded as being in the Lebanon township and to date I cannot find Hagai and her father Robert on the 1900 return. Robert does turn up again on the 1910 census return living in the household of his daughter Hagai but now in the Manchester township.

I have been very lucky in obtaining some photographs of family life in Wayne County and meeting some direct descendants of those early imigrants from Norfolk. I would still very much welcome contact from anyone who can add to the stories of how these families lived and worked in Pennsylvania. I am sure, in return, I can add a lot of interesting facts and some images to their own research.