Almost all the members of the Wheater family can be traced back to Nicholas Whearter who died at Yeadon, West Yorkshire in 1563. The paper records so-far searched do not reveal where he came from or what his occupation was. However, many of his earlier descendants were involved in the manufacture of woollen cloth which required many processes from rearing the sheep to dyeing the cloth. Before the Industrial Revolution, most of these tasks - wool sorting and combing, spinning, weaving and finishing etc. could be done at home, by individuals or family group members.  Many of those involved would have been agricultural labourers who would mostly be able to choose when and for how long they worked, at the same time supplementing their income from the land.

Those who facilitated the production of cloth were known as Clothiers. Often, they would be involved themselves in some aspects of the process – it allowed the clothiers to do as much or as little of the work by using a "putting-out" system without a massive capital outlay for themselves or their workers. This type of operation was well suited to small rural communities such as Yeadon, and it seems most likely that Nicholas and his family could have been and indeed probably were clothiers.

If you have visited this page previously you would have seen that I have been working on 6 distinct branches of the family. As of June 2020, I am very pleased to say that most of the branches are now connected. Along with my cousin Bill Wheater in Vermont, who has been a great help in researching the Wheaters of the United States and Canada, we have made the decision to submit much of our data to FamilySearch Family Tree which can be searched for free after you register of course (also completely free).

I am of course still very happy to assist with your research by e-mail.