CHAPTER 9

THE FIVE SONS OF JOSEPH TEAL AND BETTY TEAL OF YEADON

Joseph and Betty Teal of Yeadon had five sons, William their eldest was born in 1821 and baptised in Guiseley Parish Church on the 5^th August. Whilst his father Joseph was a staunch Methodist he had all his children baptised in the Church of England at Guiseley, this was because, at this time, without a baptism certificate from the established church, entry to certain institutions and jobs was barred.

William Teal, Circa 1880

William married Ruth Abbot, daughter of a Yeadon grocer, John Abbot, at Otley Registry Office on the 10^th October 1847, his brother Joseph Teal and Ann Parkinson were witnesses. They had one child themselves, Abbot Teal born on the 24^th August 1853 who survived less than one day. Around 1870 they adopted a daughter, Jane Barton Melson, she had been born around 1862 in East Heal, Lincolnshire and had presumably lost both her real parents. Following William’s death she was given a legacy of £60 and continued to live with her adoptive mother Ruth, working as a dressmaker.

William worked as a cloth manufacturer and then a small farmer gradually building up a farm from five to thirteen acres in the Swinecar area of Yeadon. In the 1870s and 1880s along with his brother John, William lived in Kirk Lane, Yeadon, the house being renamed ‘Teals Row”

William died on the 28^th April 1883 and Ruth on the 24^th January 1895, both are interred at Yeadon cemetery.

Joseph and Betty’s second son was called Joseph, he was born around 1824 and baptised at Guiseley on the 7^th March 1824. On the 14^th December 1842 described as a minor he married the pregnant eighteen year old Ann Parkinson. They had one child Margaret, born on the 10^th June 1843, she died aged twenty on the 11^th July 1863. Joseph worked as a woollen weaver & cloth manufacturer employing up to three men. He died aged only forty-three on the 1^st December 1867 and was buried in the Yeadon Methodist Chapel Hill burial ground. Ann remarried, first Joseph Popplewell in early 1869, he died on the 1^st December 1869 then William King, who had been her coachman and gardener. Ann died on the 1^st January 1892 after which William was looked after by a housekeeper called Miss Purnell.

The couple’s third son was named John Teal, born around 1829 and baptised at Guiseley on the 25^th October 1829. He married Esther Hodgson on the 23^rd May 1853 at Otley Registry Office. She was a descendant of the famous and wealthy Fairfax family of Yorkshire, her mother or grandmother had eloped with a boy called Hodgson and had been cut off from the family.

Esther was one of the founders and a lifelong supporter of High Street and Queen Street Methodist Chapels and a member of the Church for seventy-three years. In the jubilee souvenir of this Church published in 1905 it is her particular claim that “she became a member in 1842, was in William Kenion’s class at the time of the split (see Chapter on Joseph Teal for details) and then amongst the most active of John Booth’s class during the thirty-nine years of his memorable and valuable leadership. She has also taken part in every Shrove Tide tea, and served at the tables, since the cutting of the first sod for the High Street Chapel (1854)”. An interesting entry in the “Minute Book of the Leaders of the Wesleyan Methodist Reform Society, Yeadon” previously referred to, states:

“At a special meeting held May 8th 1893, moved by J. Cooper, seconded by C.Pickard.... That we ask Mrs. J. Teal to lend us a horse and trap on Whit. Monday.”

The couple had three children, an adopted daughter Lydia Sykes born in Yeadon around 1857, John William Teal born 17^th December 1868 he died aged 21 on the 9^th March 1890, and Joseph Teal born in July 1860. John died on the 29^th September 1878 and Esther on the 16^th March 1921.

John Teal Circa 1875

Esther Teal (nee Hodgson) Circa 1910

Joseph their only surviving son would visit his great Uncle and Aunt Stephen and Ann Teal at White Crag, Timble as a boy and was once nearly drowned in a water barrel on the farm. He married Elizabeth Hudson on the 23^rd December 1890 at the Queen Street Methodist Chapel. He became a successful cotton merchant and lived at Banksfield House in Yeadon.

In Joseph Teal’s Garden at Banksfield House, Yeadon, Whit-Monday 1917.

Possibly a Methodist Church gathering

In 1930 Abraham Teal of Fenwick House, near Doncaster received a letter from a Mr. Teal in Australia who was trying to trace his family history. He contacted Joseph Teal of Banksfield House, Yeadon whose reply is above.

MEMORANDUM

Telegraphic Address:

"TEAL, BANKSFIELD, YEADON."

Aug 14th 1930

FROM

JOSEPH TEAL, TO Mr Abraham Teal

Cotton Merchant Fenwick

Banksfield House, nr Askern

YEADON, Nr, Leeds.

Dear Sir

Many thanks for your letter of yesterday’s date which I have read with interest. I am writing to Mr. Teal, Australia asking him to give particulars as to dates, names + place of birth etc. and if I get any information that is material will let you know.

My Grandfather Joseph Teal + your Grandfather Stephen Teal of White Cragg, Fewston were brothers. I often went to White Cragg when a boy, and even go there sometimes now for the sake of old associations.

Yours Sincerely -

with Kind Regards

Joseph Teal

(In September 1998 the original was in the possession of Nancy Elsom (nee Teale) of Barnby Dun, Doncaster)

Page 15 from the United Methodist Church, Queen Street, Yeadon, Official Handbook and Programme of the Grand Bazaar held in the Town Hall, Yeadon 26^th – 30^th October 1909 listing Joseph Teal of Banksfield House as Chairman of the organising committee (From the Archives of the Aireborough and Horsforth Museum Society)

He had two children, Edith Mary Teal born about 1895, she married Sydney Wormald Parsons who was the organist at Queen Street Chapel. Their second child Esther Gertrude Teal was born about 1898 and married Percy Robinson in 1922. She provided vital information in her letters of the 1970s about the Teals of Yeadon, much of which is incorporated into this book.

Local Rawdon Newspaper cutting 1972

Golden Wedding of Percy Robinson and Esther Gertrude Robinson (nee Teal). Esther was the youngest daughter of Joseph and Elizabeth Teal (nee Hudson) of Banksfield House, Yeadon.

Joseph died on the 12^th September 1944 and his wife Elizabeth on the 9^th November of the same year. Both are interred in Yeadon Cemetery.

Joseph and Betty’s fourth son was called Stephen a twin with his brother Naylor Teal who is discussed in a separate chapter, he was born on the 23^rd May 1831 and baptised at Guiseley on the 21^st August 1831. He is always listed first on official records for example, censuses, and therefore it is assumed that he was the older twin. He married Martha Brown, daughter of James Brown, Cloth Manufacturer of Yeadon, on the 30^th July 1853 at Otley Registry Office. They had no children. Stephen worked as a successful woollen agent. He lived in Yeadon all his life, towards the end moving into a large newly built property called Grange House (also referred to as The Grange). As with most of the family he was a member of the Queen Street Methodist Chapel and a Sunday school teacher for thirty-seven years.

Grange House, Yeadon, shortly before demolition in the early 1970s

Stephen died on the 24^th February 1887 and Martha on the 24^th August 1922, both are interred in Yeadon Cemetery.

Stephen Teal

Circa 1875

Memorial to Stephen Teal, interior of Queen Street Methodist Chapel, presumed destroyed following demolition of Chapel in 1970.

In Memory of Stephen Teal of Grange House, Yeadon, born May 23^rd 1831, died Feby 24^th 1887. He was a member of the free Methodist Society from its foundation, also a Sunday school teacher for upwards of 37 years. He was a modest Christian of tender & gentle spirit, he walked humbly with God & closed a useful life in comforting faith in Christ’s atonement. “Blessed are the dead who die in the lord.”

References;

Aireborough & Horsforth Museum Society – Document & Image Archive

General Register of births, deaths and marriages.

Principal Probate Registry

Teal Family Bible – Personal Collection

Jubilee Souvenir – Yeadon United Methodist Free Church 1855 – 1905

Census 1851 - 1901

Guisley Parish Registers – Printed Privately

Letter from Esther Gertrude Robinson to Stephen Michael Teal 1970s – Personal collection