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The Aglio Family

The Aglio family originates in Cremona, Northern Italy,  with Agostino Aglio born in 1777 to Gaetano Algio, a lawyer, who later worked in Milan and his wife, Anna Maria (nee Mondoni). Within a year of his birth his brother and two sisters all died of smallpox.

Documents and notes suggest that the family derives from the Aelius family with roots way back in antiquity.

On one scrap of paper there is a seal and hand written the motto:

Mordetenii e Morite

Be Bitten and Die 

Although Aglio is noted as a Cremonese artist in fact the family moved to Milan during his childhood with his father practicing law there. The family was sufficiently sugnicant that Aglio was noticed by Emperor Leopold II on a visit to Milan and offered a place in University for when he was older. 

Agostino Aglio came to England as a young man, married Letitia Clarke, a lady of some means, and had a son and two daughters:
Augustine Aglio
who married Margaret the sister of John Absolon, the painter
Emma Walsh Aglio who married the son, Francis, of his very close friend Captain Walsh
Mary Elizabeth Aglio who married a Mr. Gray.

It was Augustine's daughter, Marian Aglio, who married William Joseph Dibdin.

Tree showing the relationship between  the Aglio and Dibdin and Absolon families
Tree in more detail

Agostino Aglio Senior 1777-1857 Painter & Engraver was born at Cremona and came to England in  1803 at the invitation of Mr Willaim Wilkins (Architect).
He was the Father of Augustine Aglio Junior, who painted watercolours as well as working in photography. sculpture and architecture and was the grandfather of Marion Aglio who married William Joseph Dibdin

The Aglio name was used a middle name by a number of  William Joseph Dibdin's family.

Both Aglio Senior and Junior produced a considerable number of similar watercolour paintings. It is thought that they can be told apart because Agostino (Augustine) (senior) worked in very high definition similar to that required for engraving work while Augustine (junior) produced in a slighter looser style. There is a noticeable difference between their signatures, however in  the light of the fact that Aglio Senior (Agostino) produced a number of water colours with his left hand after having a stroke, more work will be needed to sort who did what.

Augustine Aglio (Junior) worked with Hugh Wolfgang de Mansfield Absolon, brother of John Absolon the painter, as a commercial Photographer in Piccadilly. He painted in watercolour, produced  sculpture and passed on a lot of detailed information to Agostino Aglio's Biographer, Federico Sacchi. He was married to John Absolon's sister Margaret. There is now written evidence that he knew T.C.Dibdin who was born seven years before him. Subsequently the offspring of these two artists, Marion Aglio and William Joseph Dibdin married on 5th Sept. 1878.