Perrean: a Dulwich College collector

[Roger Horton]

I have added information to the wiki for Jethro Justinian Harris Teall, mostly extracted from the Dulwich College Register but also other sources on the internet, and a signature from a letter of 29 Nov 1896, now held in Cambridge University Library. The way 'Teall' is signed you might take his final initial to be T, J, L, or Y, but not P - which has often been the case with Dulwich labels, so it seems highly unlikely that Teall was the writer of these label initials. The earliest Dulwich record in the database with initials in what might best be called 'idiosyncratic' handwriting is 1861 (sheet 347059), when Teall was just twelve years old, and living in Northleach, Gloucestershire.

Never the less, Teall had strong associations with Dulwich. His elder son attended Dulwich Prep school 1887-92 and the Tealls had a Dulwich address by 1890. Teall was associated with the college, both his sons being pupils, and he himself a governor. His elder son joined the college in 1893. The younger son left in 1900. Teall was a governor from 1913 until his death in 1924. Of the Dulwich College sheets in the database so far >80% are from 1887-1924. Directly after his death collection of herbarium sheets appears to decline. So perhaps Teall, preoccupied as a world-famous geologist, was an influence rather than a participant.

In 'Dulwich College: a history' * although several names of the period are linked to the teaching of geology, the only master mentioned specifically to have encouraged the collection of plants was Lawrence Beesley who served 1904-1911, after which he became famous as a survivor of the Titanic!

* Dulwich College: a history, 1616-2008 (Jan Piggott; Dulwich College Enterprises Ltd., 2008).

For much more detail see Teal in Encyclopedia.com , and in Geni .

[oldnick]

'M P junior' see http://herbariaunited.org/specimen/361904/

[oldnick]

There are 827 Dulwich College sheets in h@h, many or most in the same bad handwriting, many of these seemingly initialled MP or perhaps MD, some with names legible or otherwise, and many seemingly initialled JHT or perhaps JHP. The latter initials have been ascribed to Jethro Justinian Harris Teall, and his page features 3 samples; though I haven't personally seen a label with the name Teall written on it. Searching for sheets edited as 'Jethro Justinian Harris Teall' on h@h gives a list of 146 specimens, all I think from Britain. The labels of most of these are only initialled, and the legibility of the initials is very poor. Searching for sheets edited as 'J H Teesdale' gives 10 specimens, 1874 - 94, from Britain, (there are also 15 specimens collected by other Teesdales eg Nellie and Charlie, mostly also ex herb Dulwich so likely to be relatives). Only 4 of the J H Teesdale specimens carry his name, the others have seemingly the same execrable initials as those edited as Teall's. These 4 are from Minehead 8/1890 (Elsie Teesdale also has one), Beaulieu 8/1888 x2, and New Forest 8/1888. Among the sheets edited as Teall's but only initialled, are tellingly 1 from Beaulieu 8/1888, and 8 from the Minehead area 8/1890. The only firm conclusion I can draw is that all such Dulwich sheets that are merely initialled, should be marked as illegible, whether or not a putative name is entered. The only way I can see of improving on that would be if the person with that dreadful handwriting could be identified from other school archives, and a judgement made that where sheets are merely initialled, they are that person's - but since we know the specimens from Minehead and Beaulieu / the New Forest are a mix of initialled sheets and Teesdale's, a bold man could judge that all the sheets initialled 'JHT' are, in fact, J H Teesdale's .......!

[oldnick]

Teesdale family info:
http://herbariaunited.org/core/forum/viewtopic.php?t=13100