A little is known about Mark from various church records, relating to him and to his family. No military records have been found.
It was Mark who, in his middle years, went to live in Hull, and started the Tattersfield family there, which exists to the present.
Mark’s parents, David Tattersfield and Martha, nee Hall, were married in Dewsbury Parish Church on 3rd Dec 1771, by Banns, both being “of Dewsbury”. Both signed with a X. In all, they had thirteen children, Mark being the third, all baptised or buried in Dewsbury. Five disappeared from the record after baptism, six died as young children, and only Mark and a sister appear to have married.
Mark was baptised on 26 July 1776, but his date of birth is not known. He married a girl called Hannah, but the record has not been found.
On 7 May 1807, Bishops’ Transcripts show that a daughter Jane was born to Mark Tattersfield and Hannah in Scarborough, on the east Yorkshire coast. Then, surprisingly, a boy David was baptised in Maker, Cornwall, on 19 Mar 1809, his father Mark “belonging to ye first West York Militia”, according to the Baptism register.
A third child Martha was born on 18 Mar 1811 and baptised on 23 Feb 1812 in Leeds Parish Church, the father being Mark Tattersfield of Bank. Martha was buried at St. Peter’s Parish Church, Leeds, on 21 Feb 1813, “daughter of Mark Tattersfield and Hannah of Bank”.
The fourth child, Joseph, was baptised on 2 July 1813 in the Church of St. Mary the Virgin, Dover, Kent. He was “of Dover Heights”. The father was Mark Tattersfield, a Private Soldier, 1st W. York Regt., as stated in the Register.
Next came Henry, baptised 1 Oct 1815 at St. Mary Lowgate, Hull, son of Mark and Hannah Tattersfield of Church Alleys, the father being a clothier. Henry was buried on 8 Feb 1919, when the family lived at Broadley Street, Hull.
Three more children Hannah, David and Jane Elizabeth, were all baptised in St. Mary, Lowgate, Hull, the father being a clothier.
It seems that Mark, born in Dewsbury, joined, first, the West York Militia, and was stationed at Scarborough, on the east coast of Yorkshire, and then at Maker, near the naval dockyard of Plymouth, in the south west. By 1813, in the 1st West York Regiment, he was in the important military centre of Dover, in the extreme south east.
From 1803 Britain had been at war with the France of Napoleon. No evidence has been found that Mark ever crossed the Channel to fight the French, but it is tempting to think he played his part in helping to prevent any invasion of England.
When Mark returned to the North, it is not known why he went to live in Hull. Perhaps his wife came from there? At all events, he set up as a clothier, a common trade in the Dewsbury area of his origin.
After 1824 nothing more is known of Mark, except that in the 1841 Census Mark Tattersfrield (sic) was in St. Swithin, Lincoln, about 35 miles south of Hull. He was aged 65 (or 68), staying with the family of a cooper called Hilton, and was not born in the County of Lincolnshire. No other detail is given.
Hannah, wife of Mark Tattersfield of Broadley Street, was buried in St. Mary, Lowgate, Hull on 18 Aug 1828, aged 46. No record has been found of Mark’s death.
The descendants of Mark and Hannah may be seen on Chart 6, under Tattersfield Trees.