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I am descended directly from an Alexander Eagleton, born in Scotland circa 1600's and whose son, David, fought in the American Revolutionary War. I became interested in the ealier origins when I passed through the town of Egleton in southwest France.
Probably all Eagletons and variations of the name, Egleton, Eggleton came from France shortly after the Normany conquest in 1066.
First of all, it seems highly probable that all eagletons originally came from an older ancestor named d'egleton. By coincidence a high concentration of eagleton, egletons and eggletons are found in the birth/death records of the same county of England, rutland country where a small village, Egleton exists.
Prior to 1600, all eagletons or egletons that showed up on records had the "d'" attached which in Norman French means from. The earliest reference to a d'egleton in England was around 1210 with other references to a Simon d'egleton in Northern England around 1300. I also found an amazing 3 page Norman text which is basically old French. It refers to practically every real historical character in Shakespeare's play "Henry the 4th" along with a citation of the Chivalier (Knight), Guy D'Egleton. He was a sort of representative, magistrate holding a high administrative post in Scotland the 1360's and was privy to some treaty settling land disputes and other quarrels over territory. The treaty was signed in Scotland, but most administrative positions were held by the minority Norman population which migrated in large numbers from France between 1066 and the 1100s.
In fact, thanks to William the Conqueror's Doomsday Book, which took about 35 years to complete, the link with the Egleton town in France is a pretty solid one. Willian ordered a census of every place name, cow, pig and person when he conquered his new country. He wanted to know exactly how rich he was to the closest penny. Thousands of place names can be found in England in the book which was completed around 1100, but the town of Egleton in Rutland Country England did not exist, while other towns in the Doomsday book still exist to this day. My hunch is that one or more of the d'egleton settlers, founded a homestead and the gave it the place name, Egleton. His descendants then probably spread out over England, even though concentration of early Egleton's, gleaned from parishes point to Rutland County, which by the way is the smallest county in England.
One thing that just didn't seem to fit was the fact that I haven't come across any French Egletons in the French yellow pages. However, I did come across two 14th French Popes, one was the uncle of the other, residing in Avignon whose last names are rosiers d'egleton. Since popes aren't allowed to marry and have kids, the egleton line could very well have been extinguished. Also, the town of rosiers d'egleton is a very old and small town with an 11th century church and there are traces of 11 century castle called the chateau of egleton near the village. The family emblem of the egleton popes of Avignon has roses as its main insignia, referring to the roses of their home town of rosiers d'egleton; this smaller town predates the adjacent town of egleton.
In any one has any historical evidence to add to this thesis, I'd appreciate it.
It may also explain why people looking for links for Scottish Egletons to some clan may be disappointed. There most probably never was an Eagleton Scottish clan. Also if you look up Anglo Saxon etymology of egleton, it means horrible or someone similar. I prefer to believe the Norman - French version of our origins.
Tony Eagleton
Le Mesnil le Roi, France
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