John William Argyle was baptised 28/06/1849 in Barking, son of John Argyle, a fisherman in Barking, Essex (18490628).
Mary Catherine Bower. She was baptised 05/07/1849 in Norwich. Her father was porter (18460705).
JWA and Mary marry in the St Nicholas church in Yarmouth (18690622). He is grocer at SMarket, she is spinster at Brighton Tce.
Children known:   − 28/03/1870 Edith Mary, baptised 01/05/1870;    − 04/12/1871 Alice Bower, baptized 18/03/1872 (parents William Argyle, grocer, and Mary Catherine). For these two birth see Baptism Project Great Yarmouth.   − 24/09/1881 Frank Wilkinson (date from the "Alumni Cantabrigiensis", the year from the census 1901).   − 1874 Ernest Luther Argyle (see at 1900 Ernest).
Note on the church records: Some records are damaged, explaining perhaps that with Alice the father is given as just William Argyle. No further baptisms are found in the records up to 1880 (later ones not [yet] available through the internet).

John William Argyle became a succesful businesman in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk.
His progress in business can be followed by using the Directories of Great Yarmouth published between ca. 1850 and 1910, being available for internet searches (here referred to as, e.g., H77, K88; see list at bottom).

1870, 1871. With the baptism of each of the two daughters, John William Argyle is mentioned as "grocer".

From P75

1875 is the first year J.W.Argyle has an entry in a directory. He is grocer with a shop on South Market Road in Great Yarmouth. He is then about 25 years old.

Map of Gt Yarmouth (surveyed 1883). Some landmarks are named. Old Gt Yarmouth is on the left (densely built, the thin black line marks the old town wall), the newer part stretches to the beach. Three piers can be discerned on the right. The dashed ellipses mark the area of the activities of J.W. Argyle within the dotted outline of the map. To see the expansion of J.W. Argyle's shop network within the dotted area click for four periods on  1875-86,  1888-92,  1896-00  and  1904-08.  In these maps, street names of shops are given abbreviated. Residences have a filled red square.

1877. His trade as well as his aspirations grow. In H77 he is listed as "family grocer, tea dealer, and provision merchant" at South Market Road.

1881. Son Frank Wilkinson Argyle is born.
In 1884, Finch-Crisp publishes his history of Great Yarmouth. He mentions, in relation with an event in 1851 in which C.C. Wilkinson living 1880 in Gt Yarmouth was involved, that this Wilkinson is related to John William Argyle of Gt Yarmouth. Indeed, JWA's mother was Mary Wilkinson, C.C. Wilkinson may have been a brother of her.

1883. In this year JWA is listed in the directory K83-p.583 as "grocer and tea dealer"; his shop is now at 1 Nelson Rd north. He is not listed with a private address.
1886. His shop is still at 1 Nelson Road north. Now he also appears under "residential", at 45 Victoria Road. This dwelling most likely is at the corner of Victoria Road and Havelock Road, possibly a good location for a shop (see C86-p.128).

1888. Business is booming. JWA has in the mean time become (see K88-p.654) agent for W. & A. Gilbey, wine and spirit merchants. He has outlets at Victoria, 1 Nelson north (which includes a post office), and at 74 Blackfriars road. It is not clear if Victoria is nr. 45, his residence, or the later shop located at nr. 20.
1890. He continues as agent for Gilbey's wines and spirit. The number of his outlets increases. They are now at (from W90-p956) 20 Victoria rd., 95 Blackfriars rd., 92 Nelson rd., 1 Nelson rd. north, as well as South market rd. Note, 95 Blackfriars rd. is a new location, he is no longer at nr. 74.
1892. Business as before. Directory K92 (shown is clip K92-p.702) under the heading "Official Establishments, Dispatch of Mails" informs us about his activities with the postal service on Blackfriars road; it suggests forms of insurance brokering.

1896. JWA now has a new residence address: Fair View on 21 Euston road. This plot was empty in 1883 (see map) but now appears to have several new dwellings.
1899. Son Frank Wilkinson goes off to Cambridge to study theology.
1900. Business as usual. But....   new is the post office at Nelson road cnr of St Nicolas road (see K92, p.702) now run by Ernest L. Argyle (K00-p.57). This Ernest is also listed as lieutenant in the 1st Norfolk Voluntary Artillery.

The Argyle residence on 21 Euston road (image from streetview) seems to look the same as around 1896.

The 1904 directory shows some changes compared to 1900. First, the comapny is now Argyle, John William & Son. Ernest must have become official partner in the business. They are (K04-p.559) Grocers and Tea Sellers and deal for Gilbey in wines and spirit. The outlets are at 1 Nelson rd North, 20 Victoria rd., 42 Market place (a new one!), 30 Regent rd., 95 Blackfriars rd., and 44 St Nicholas rd. Post office service is continued at two locations.

1905. The grocery and tea continues. Wines and spirit as well. For the wines and spirit they now have a Head office in Norwich, with a new feature, a telephone connection (J05-p.211). In addition, they sell beer from Victoria road (J05-p.184).

1906. The directory T06 contains the listing for JWA&Son as merchants in wine and spirit (as in 1905), with the outlets in Norwich: Queen street, 28 Market place and Middlegate street. The head opffice is on Haymarket, with telephone 124.

1908. The full bisiness of Argyle & Son is given. At Nelson rd North crnr St Nicholas road Ernest Argyle continues to be in charge of the post office. And the family still lives at 21 Euston road.
This clip is from the last directory available in which JWA is mentioned. In a much later directory (1931) the business does not exist.

1910. Frank Wilkinson marries. The marriage took place in the Aston Parish church near Birmingham. Numerous people must have travelled there, including Rev. J.A. Bevan from Gt Yarmouth. The marriage announcement says Frank is the second son of Mr. J.W. Argyle.

John William died in 1913 (19130130), the date of death of Mary Catherine is (as yet) unknown. Directories of Gt Yarmouth later than 1910 are not accessible through the internet, except for the year 1931. In that Kelly's directory, resident J.W.Argyle is absent (as well as a Mrs Argyle).
 

Daughter Alice stayed at home long. The census of 1911 has her (aged 39) at 21 Euston road. Intriguing is a listing in Kelly's 1931 where "Miss Argyle" lives on Royal Avenue in Great Yarmouth, in "The Rosary" (K31-p.161).
Son Ernest entered the company between 1900 and 1904. However, he is not mentioned in the 1931 directory of Gt Yarmouth.

Above, the life of JWA and his wife is described based on the developments of the business, with also a little bit on three of the four children. Nothing is known about their emotions and their interactions with other people. This is necessarily so, because everything described is based on only internet searches. Adding any tale still circulating among the descendants would help to turn JWA and MC into real persons.

Sources:
Hist = Finch-Crisp, William, 1884, "Chronological Retrospect of the history of Yarmouth and Neighbourhood from A.D. 46 to 1884"  (google books; downloaded 17.07.2020).
Map of Great Yarmouth. The map was surveyed in 1883 and poublished in 1887 by Bradwell, Gorleston. It has been taken from Nat. Libr. Scotland and been annotated.
 
Directories, Maps:  Directories,  Norfolk Maps, UK
C86 = G S Cook's Directory, Great Yarmouth 1886
H77 = J.G. Harrod, Trade Directory 1877
J05 = Jarrold Norwich Directory 1905
K83 = Kelly's Directory Cambridgeshire Norfolk Suffolk 1883
K88 = Kelly's Directory Norfolk Suffolk Cambridgeshire 1888
K92 = Kelly's Directory Norfolk 1892
K96 = Kelly's Directory Norfolk 1896
K00 = Kelly's Directory Norfolk 1900
K04 = Kelly's Directory Norfolk 1904
K08 = Kelly's Directory Norfolk 1908
K31 = Kelly's Directory Great Yarmouth 1931
T06 = Town and County Directory 1906-1907
P75 = Post Office network Directory 1875
W90 = White Norfolk Directory 1890

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