Teesdale

This ancient and distinguished name is Anglo Saxon origin, and is a regional surname from Teesdale in County Durham and North Yorkshire. The area is recorded as "Tesedale" circa 1130, in Symeon of Durham's "Ecclesiastical History of Durham", and is so called from the British (pre Roman) river name "Tees", with the Olde English pre 7th century "dael", valley. The word "Tees" is related to the Old Welsh "tes", and the Gaelic "teas" meaning heat, and is thought to refer to "a boiling, surging river". Regional and locational surnames were acquired particularly by those former inhabitants of a place who had moved to another area, usually in search of work, and who were thereafter best identified by the name of their birthplace. Early examples of the surname include: Alan de Teysedale (1292, Northumberland); Mariota de Tesdale (1332, Cumberland); and Thomas Tesdall (1525, Sussex). The modern surname forms are Teesdale and Teasdale, and among the recordings of the name from church recordings are those of the marriage of Margaret Teasdale and George Watson, on August 27th 1593, in Danby in Cleveland, Yorkshire, and the marriage of John Teasdale and Elizabeth Kirkley, in Medomsley, County Durham, on February 2nd 1608. The family Coat of Arms depicts a thistle proper, between three blue pheons (arrow heads), on a silver shield. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Walter de Tesedale, a witness, which was dated 1235, in the Assize Court Rolls of County Durham, during the reign of King Henry 111, known as "The Frenchman", 1216 - 1272. Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. In England this was known as Poll Tax. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.