Tier/Tyer
William Tyer
William Tyer 1760-?
Joseph Tier 1788-1834
James Tier 1811-1886
That’s an actual Emsworth tree in the picture there. It’s a beautiful little town/village, on a tidal inlet, just behind Hayling Island to the east of Portsmouth, and the Tier family lived in and around it for a hundred or so years. The older members of the family - the men we eventually get to were sailors. And there are a very large number of them buried in Warblington (the next village) churchyard.
Annie Tier, the last person on our list, was not technically a Tier - or rather her father wasn’t. But we currently don’t know who her father was, so she takes her mother’s name. Her mother may well have been a little wild when young, but as an old lady she was a pillar of respectability.
Before her, we have the sailors, men who plied the coastal trade up and down the English coast and across the sea to France and Spain. They all lived tough but eventful lives, even though they were just ‘ordinary’ people. And the Tier name lives on in Emsworth still.
Portsmouth, Emsworth and Warblington
Tier
meaning and origins
Very difficult to find a definitive meaning online - but I think it must be Irish and probably means regal. I will investigate this further. Another site implied that it was an English name related to an occupation, because it ended in er. So a tie er I suppose - one who tied things? The variations of Tyer and Tire certainly imply that it is pronounced that way rather than teer.
variations
Tyer, Tire, Teer
distribution in England and Wales
In 1881 the Tiers were fiercely concentrated in Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, with a few in neighbouring Dorset and Wiltshire. There was another small group up in Lancashire. But very local this name.
