Person:Ruth Eggleton (1)

Origins

Confusion about her birth location persists.

Other researchers-- without citing sources-- suggest a range of dates and locations any time between 1631 and 1639 and either in Biddleton, England, at sea, in Boston, or even in Woburn, MA. Dawes-Gates Ancestry Lines argues against her parents being Stephen Eggleton and Elizabeth Jane Bennett of Biddenton, co. Kent. A Stephen Iggleton died there about 1638; and an Elizabeth (Bennett) Iggleden emigrated on the "Castle" which sailed For New England in April 1638. She did bring with her a daughter Ruth who had been baptized at Biddenden on Nov. 8, 1631, as well as two other daughters and settled in Roxbury, but that Ruth did NOT marry Samuel Blodgett. [Author does not say why this is so, but it appears to be based the court document cited below, which since it shows Samuel Blodgets's mother-in-law to be Jane, rules out her being Elizabeth. That is the argument given in "Genealogical Research in England", which covered the family of Stephen Iggleden, NEHGR, Vol. 65, p. 187, but this article does not say who the daughter of Stephen married, if anybody.]

"Notes and Queries," NEHGS Register, volume 59 (1905), pp 417-418, implies a different set of parents for Ruth Eggleton -- or at least a a different mother-- i.e., a woman named Jane (not Elizabeth): Cole, Blodgett, Nutting. The following records would seem to show that Jane, the wife of Isaac Cole of Woburn, had previously married ____ Eggleton.

Middlesex Co. Court Record:

The Humble request of Jane Cole relict of Isack Cole, deceased, and of Samuel Bloghead & John Nutton, yt whereas Isack Cole of Woburn died intestate and left a one hundred twenty pound Estate; viz. fforty pounds in moveable and ye rest in house & Lands. Its their request yt their mother in law Jane Cole may have a competency to maintain her in her old age she being about 74 years old. If the court See fit to order ye one half of the sd Estate ye above mentioned parties are willing to Entertain her and ffree ye town from charges and ye Selectmen of Woeburn doe concur herein. Cambr 6. 8. 74

The Court having heard with all partyes concerned can say in this case, do order to ye widow forty pounds to be paid out of ye moveables as priced in the Inventory, or money, & ye widow to make choyc of her bed & furniture in pt. Woburn Town Records:

John Nutting married August 28, 1650, Sarah Eggleton

Samuel Blodgett married Dec. 13, 1655 Ruth Eggleton

Isaac Cole died June 10, 1674

Jane Cole died Mar. 10, 1687

1. ↑ Johnson, Edward F. Woburn Records of Births, Deaths, and Marriages . (Woburn, Massachusetts: Andrews, Cutler & Co., 1890-1919)
   Vol. 2, p. 15 - Deaths.

   Ruth, wife of Samuel, Oct. 14, 1703.

2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1 2.2} Hatch, Lewis M. Branches of our family tree: with charts. (unknown: unknown, c1938)
   page t1.
3.   Savage, James. A Genealogical Dictionary of the First Settlers of New England: Showing Three Generations of Those Who Came Before May, 1692, on the Basis of Farmer's Register. (Boston: Little, Brown, and Co, 1860-1862)
   Blodget Vol. 1, p. 203; Iggleden Vol. 2, p. 517.

   [Note: Savage mistakenly supposes that Ruth is "d. prob. of Stephen Iggleden of Boston".]