Joshua Tetley (20 July 1778 – 26 August 1859) was the founder of the

Tetley's Brewery Tetley's Brewery (Joshua Tetley & Son Ltd) was an English regional brewery founded in 1822 by Joshua Tetley in Hunslet, now a suburb of Leeds, West Yorkshire. The beer was originally produced at the Leeds Brewery, which was later renamed the ...

Leeds Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by popula ...

, England. The brewery was founded in 1822 and Joshua Tetley bought the brewery for £400. In 1839, Tetley made his son a partner of the business. It is a common misconception that the former Tetley's huntsman logo was a depiction of Tetley.

Early life and dynasty

Tetley was born into a middle-class family of maltsters from the West Yorkshire village of Birkenshaw. His grandfather, William Tetley had formed a successful maltster's business in

Armley Armley is a district in the west of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It starts less than from Leeds city centre. Like much of Leeds, Armley grew in the Industrial Revolution and had several mills, one of which houses now the Leeds Industri ...

, (a village close to Leeds). The business became a success and William, became wine and beer merchants in Leeds city centre. Joshua Tetley was the third of four brothers, Isaac, William and James. His elder brother William died aged two.

The family business under Tetley's father

The Tetley business expanded under Tetley's father until 1801 when Tetley's business became bankrupt. When the bankruptcy was filed Tetley's had customers in Yorkshire,

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly. The non-metropolitan county of Lancash ...

, Cheshire and Surrey. By 1803, Tetley's father was back in business, as a Leeds-based agent for the Imperial Fire Insurance Office of London, an agency which kept running until 1857.

Joshua enters the business

Aged 29, Tetley married Hannah Carbutt on 12 March 1808 at Sheffield Parish Church. Carbutt was from an affluent family which included former Mayors of York and Leeds. They settled in a house on Park Square in Leeds. In 1822, aged 44, Tetley leased William Sykes' Brewery in Salem Place,

Hunslet Hunslet () is an inner-city area in south Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It is southeast of the city centre and has an industrial past. It is situated in the Hunslet and Riverside ward of Leeds City Council and Leeds Central parliamentar ...

. Unusually for the time, Tetley head hunted staff, looking only for the most skilled brewers and maltsters from as far away as Manchester. Once the brewery was established it became the second largest in Leeds and had an estimated value of £22, while

Robert Arthington Robert Arthington (20 May 1823 – 7 October 1900) was a British investor, philanthropist and premillennialist. He was the son of a wealthy brewery owner from whom he inherited his fortune. He was brought up in a prosperous Quaker family, but ...

's brewery held an estimated value of £100. Following the passing of the Beer House Act of 1830, Tetley's business grew and his recently acquired ale houses opened between 4 am and 10 pm. The

temperance movement The temperance movement is a social movement promoting temperance or complete abstinence from consumption of alcoholic beverages. Participants in the movement typically criticize alcohol intoxication or promote teetotalism, and its leaders emph ...

approved beer as a temperate alternative to

spirits Spirit or spirits may refer to: Liquor and other volatile liquids * Spirits, a.k.a. liquor, distilled alcoholic drinks * Spirit or tincture, an extract of plant or animal material dissolved in ethanol * Volatile (especially flammable) liquids, ...

, which led to the growth of many small breweries. When Tetley's father William Tetley died in 1834, Joshua received (according to William's 1820 will) £450 worth of his assets, much of which was invested in the Tetley business.

Death

Tetley's wife Hannah died on 13 May 1857 (aged 72) and was buried in

Hampsthwaite Hampsthwaite is a large village and civil parish in Nidderdale in the Harrogate district of North Yorkshire, England. It lies on the south bank of the River Nidd north west of Harrogate. In the 2011 census the parish had a population o ...

. Two years later on 26 August 1859, Tetley died and was buried with his wife.

References

Bibliography

External links

- The Independent article on the closure of the Leeds brewery
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tetley, Joshua 1778 births 1859 deaths People from Armley