When Bigelows organized in 1887 to publish the first Bigelow Family genealogy, some searching was done to try to clarify a connection with the Baguley family of Ollerton Hall in England. According to the account by Gilman B. Howe in his book, no positive relationship was established.

In February 1974, Laurel Barklow visited the home of Hester (Sproul) and William Wallace ⁸ Bigelow (Charles Chandler ⁷ , Job ⁶ , Paul ⁵ , Cornelius ⁴ , Samuel ³ , Samuel ² , John ¹ ) in Rockton, lIlinois. They showed her a letter to William from Charles Chase Bigelow, excerpts of which follow

Dear William Wallace:

...I have also the line of descent of the Baguley family from Sir Richard de Baguley down to John Biglo and his forge and hammer at Watertown. This makes our family line entirely complete from the present day back to 1243. The Baguleys were lords of Baguley Hall and Ollerton Hall, the latter acquired by marriage...

I wondered if the town of Baguley still existed. I looked it up in Buffalo's Grosvenor Library, third largest reference library in the U.S., and with the help of a librarian, I found it in an English atlas. It is just outside Manchester, England. I also looked up the Bigelow coat-of-arms in the Encyclopedia of American Biography, Vol. 32 {recorded by John Bigelow, Watertown, Mass. 1637).

From the EAB I made a copy of the coat-of-arms in colour. Then I wondered if we were the Baguley family of England, what about the Baguley coat-of-arms? I looked it up and found it to be the same as ours is.

And so John Biglo recorded the Baguley coat-of-arms at Watertown, and John Biglo's name was Baguley. He was a blacksmith and like others of that day, he could neither read nor write. The first recorded marriage in Watertown is that of John Biglo...

Shortly after I had done considerable of this research, a friend of mine, Ernest Davenport, was going to England to visit his mother who lived at Stoke-on-Trent. As this Stoke-on-Trent is about 25 mile from Manchester, I asked him if he would look up Baguley Hall.

This he did and found it. It seems that in the city of Manchester some of the buses are labelled "Baguley." He boarded one of these and said he wished to go to Baguley. The motorman said New Baguley or Old Baguley? It seems that of late years a whole new suburb of Manchester has grown up adjacent to old Baguley, which is new Baguley. There doesn't seem to be much to old Baguley except the hall, of which he brought back two photographs.

It is rather a sprawling structure and is widely known for its immense oak beams. Cut in the stone wall at the rear of the Great Hall is the Baguley coat-of-arms, identical with the Bigelow coat-of-arms. And so at last we know where we came from -- from the hall of Baguley, 1243, Cheshire, England.

Done this day, 20 Mar 1959 by Charles Chase Bigelow, 437 Rhode Island St., Buffalo, NY.

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See the following pages for more and sometimes the same information:
 Baguley Hall
 Baguley 5 the most detailed page on Baguley.
 Baguley History 1
 Baguley Hall 1982
 Baguley Crest 1
 Baguley Crest 2
Venables and Mainwaring Family links to Baguley

rodbigelow@netzero.net