THE STORY OF THE TEAL

FAMILY OF THE

WASHBURN AND AIRE VALLEYS

IN YORKSHIRE

THROUGH 300 YEARS

by

David M. Teal

Privately Printed in 2002

Dedicated to every one of my Ancestors

Thank you for living!

PLEASE NOTE THAT DUE TO THE LARGE NUMBER OF GRAPHICS THE CHAPTERS MAY TAKE SOME TIME TO LOAD

Introduction

Chapter 1 THOMAS TEAL 1705 – 1771

Chapter 2 GEORGE TEAL 1754 – 1824

Chapter 3 JOHN TEAL OF SHIPLEY 1779 – 1848

Chapter 4 JOSEPH TEAL 1786 – 1853

Chapter 5 STEPHEN TEAL – LAST FARMER AT TIMBLE 1794 – 1875

Chapter 6 STEPHEN TEAL - LAST OWNER OF LINGBER FARM 1837 – 1906

Chapter 7 THE LATER TEALS OF FEWSTON & FENWICK

Chapter 8 NAYLOR TEAL 1831 – 1895

Chapter 9 FIVE SONS OF JOSEPH & BETTY TEAL OF YEADON

Chapter 10 STEPHEN SHELDON TEAL 1873 – 1950

Chapter 11 STEPHEN TEAL 1908 – 1998

This book details the history of my branch of the ‘Teal’ family from its earliest confirmed reference to the present day. The information presented is the result of research completed by my father Stephen Michael Teal in the 1960s and 1970s and myself in the 1990s and 2000s.

The ‘Oxford Dictionary of English Surnames’ gives the origin of the surname ‘Teal’ as ‘a nickname of the Wild Fowl’. Th exact meaning is now lost, however it probably relates to a gamekeeper or perhaps the keeper of the duck ponds that were popular in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries when surnames became fixed.

The book title is perhaps misleading, this is not a story of thugs or criminals. It is also not the story of Royalty or the very wealthy. It is the story of an average family making a living in Yorkshire through 300 years of history. These types form the backbone of the whole of the country, for every Sir there must be a thousand ‘average’ families.

The story however is not boring; it contains much of interest, much joy and much heartache. Ancestors are nearly drowned, are fined in Court, live in the great houses, own businesses, drop dead, have books written about them, make money, lose money, have illegitimate children, are thrown out of Church, become high up in the Church, drink, are teetotal. Its all here to read.

When reading this book remember that as the people and personalities whiz by, some only occupying a few lines or a couple of pages, that each one is a person, and that they lived their lives not in the two or three minutes you read about them but at the same speed you live yours. Their 30, 40, 50, 60 or 70 years took as long to live as yours and they all had many of the same trials and tribulations.

No family history is ever complete, the march of time moves on, relentlessly creating new history. Major family events may not even appear in the records of the day or those records maybe lost or destroyed. From what information survives I have pieced together the following story. Hopefully as further work is completed and as records are found or indexed new insights into my families past will be discovered.

It is remarkable what information does survive about ones ancestors, even from hundreds of years ago, but inevitably the further back you travel the fainter their echo's become. The story may also be a little morbid, as the generation of official records tends to happen at the major life events of birth, marriage and especially death.

David M Teal

Whitkirk, Leeds

Summer 2002