Teasell

This unusual and interesting name is of Anglo-Saxon origin, and is an occupational surname for someone employed as a teaseler, one who teasels cloth, derived from the Old English pre 7th Century 'taesel', teasel. The surname from this source can be found as the metonymic forms of Teasel, Teasell and Taycel, and, with the addition of the agent suffix '-er', Tesler,Tessler, and Tazelaar. The teaseler was the person who drew up from the body of the cloth all the loose fibres with teasels, the dried heads of the plant known as the 'fuller's thistle'. The surname development includes Matilda la Taselere (1301, Essex) and Richard le Tesler (1332, Surrey). The marriage of Samuel Teasell and Sarah Ann Bayley was recorded at Gorleston in Suffolk on January 29th 1821. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Geoffrey Taseler, which was dated 1230, The Essex Pipe Rolls, during the reign of King Henry 111, '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.