The Teakle Step-Family


Anthony Jacques Cheeper / Clarke (1837-1918) was born a few months after his father died. Anthony's mother re-married less than 2 years after she was widowed. The step-family is not directly relevant, because the new husband appears to have had little interest in the three children his wife brought into their marriage. On the other hand, the Teakles are interesting in their own right.

Jane Bokenham/Cheeper remarried Charles Teakle, on 28 Feb 1839, at St Mary, Islington.

Charles Teakle was born in Minchinhampton, Gloucester in 1807, baptised 1810, to Isaac Teakle and Sarah Ankle. When Charles' parents married, his father was listed as Gentleman.

By 1839, at age 32, Charles was a gentleman and clothes manufacturer, located in Coventry and London.

In the 1841 census, the household was at No 1 Barnsbury Villas, Liverpool Tce, Islington. It comprised Charles Teakle (Merchant), 33, with Jane Teakle (30 – actually 36), and Anthony Cheeper (3). There were also two FS (family servants?), Rebecca Jones, 25 and Emma Miller,18.

Our Anthony Jacques isn't evident in the records concerning the Teakle family after 1841, at age 3.

In the 1843 London Post Office Directory, an entry shows 'Teakle Chas esq, 35 Camden Rd Villas', and another in the 1846 London Post Office Directory shows 'Charles Teakle, Watling St., Foreign Merchant'.

In the 1851 census, Charles and Jane Teakle are at 36 Camden Rd Villas, Kentish Town, St Pancras, North London. With them are Charles and Jane's children (and our Anthony Jacque's half-siblings) Fanny Teakle 9, Kate Teakle 8, and Charles Teakle 6, all listed as having been born in Middlesex, together with Anthony and Jane's children (and our Anthony Jacques's sisters) Jane Chacker 18, born Southwold, Suffolk, daughter-in-law, and Ellen Chacker 16, born Coventry Warwick (together with two servants, Eliza Ewart 25, and Ellen Weymouth, 22).

One possible explanation for the strange 'Chacker' surname of Jane's daughters is that they'd married brothers but were still living at home. The surname Chacker appears to exist, but only in the U.S.A. (probably as one of the many inventions of the imaginative Immigration officials on Ellis Island). So a much more likely explanation is that they were unmarried, and that the head of the household, Charles Teakle, created yet another variation on the highly-varied Cheeper name. This could suggest that he tolerated his step-children, rather than embracing them into his household.

In April 1851, Anthony was 13, but there is no sign of him in the household, and he hasn't yet been located anywhere else.

Jane died, in 1852, at age c. 51, leaving Charles with three children aged 10 and younger (together with some remnant responsibilities for the three step-children, then 19, 17 and 15).

Shortly afterwards, in 1854, at age 48, Charles Teakle sailed from London on 'The Sovereign of the Seas' to the colonies, arriving in New South Wales on 22 October 1854. His three young children by Jane were aged 12, 11 and 9, and it's unclear where they were at that time; perhaps with one of their step-sisters Jane (19) or Ellen (17) Cheeper/Chacker, or in Gloucester with Teakle relatives.

On 2 September 1858, Fanny (16), Kate (15) and Charles jnr (12) sailed on the 'Prince Alfred' from Milford Haven in Wales, arriving in Melbourne on 28 December 1858. The choice of emigration port lends credence to the supposition that they may have been living in Gloucester between 1854 and 1858.

Only 8 years later, in 1866, Charles snr died, at age 60, from a disease of the liver. He was an auctioneer.

Charles jnr was married to Rosina Whitehouse in 1865, at 19. They had 3 sons, and 2 daughters. One son and one daughter died in infancy, and one son died in 1901, at 36. Charles jnr died in 1878 at age, 33 from chronic disease of the liver and heart dropsy. (He was an auctioneer as well). The two death transcripts state Jane Bokenham late Cheeper as wife/mother.

Parts of the families are visible up to the 1940s, so there may be some living Teakle relatives (albeit only half-fifth cousins of Anne and Roger), perhaps in Sydney somewhere. The Sydney White Pages listed 7 subscribers of that name in 2000, suggesting that there were perhaps 10-25 people bearing the name among the > 4 million in the area.


We're missing a lot of information; and we'd love to know more!


This a page within Roger Clarke's Family Web-Site

Contact: Roger Clarke and/or Anne Kratzmann

Created: 21 October 2005; Last Amended: 9 November 2009