Born in Dudley, Worcestershire, England, the eldest son of Mary Fisher (Badley) and John Badley, F.R.C.S., he apprenticed in his father's surgery, tried his hand at farming on a family property "Insetton" Bellbroughton, Worcestershire. Hearing of American from their Uncle Anthony, who was at Box Hedge, by this time, and knowing that their own father had taken an interest in the 'experiment' in America, but was unable to abandon the responsibilities of his patients and family, so the two eldest sons, John and William set sail for the new world in the 1840 visiting first the Reverend Ebenezer Rodgers to whom they carried letters of introduction from their father (his brother would later marry their host's eldest daughter). After traveling West to the Rockies and to Mexico they returned to England, but both ultimately settled in Illinois, developed properties, and raised their families there. He married Sarah Jane Morrison Barry on 26 October 1852 at Alton, Madison County, Illinois. He purchased land and built a home know as the "Woodburn Grange" in Macoupin County, Illinois planting at least two of every variety of tree that would grow in the climate there. He was always exploring new methods to develop and expand his property. They had one daughter, Sarah Jameson Badley who married and had two children. It is said that toward the end of his life he was so lonely for intellectual conversation that he could be heard talking to the horses in Greek and Latin. His daughter was included in her grandfather's will, written in 1867 after both of his eldest sons had died, to receive her father's portion the remainder of which was £2,000 sterling when he died in 1870. This would be roughly $300,000 in 1998 American dollars*.(bio by: )

*based on a House of Commons Research Paper 99/20 on the value of the pound sterling.