Peter Dzik's Revised Eardley and Yardley Historical Notes June 2011
I began this through ancestral research on the four Benjamin Yardleys of the parishes of Norton in the moors, and Horton, in Staffordshire, but especially because of a brief reference found about an admirable Quaker leader, William Yardley (1632 – 1693), of Horton, and later Bucks County, Pennsylvania. He had stated his birthplace to be Ravensclough, Rushton Spencer, outside Leek town. It is surprising how many Yardleys and Eardleys came from one hitherto unknown Yardley of Horton and Rushton, spreading across the Moorlands, the fast growing Potteries, and the world. All spellings are as in the old records, when there were no rules, dialect was a problem, and some writing is difficult to read. The link to Eardley End in Audley parish becomes clear as I progress. I was also intrigued as to whether I could connect the persons referred to in Yeardley stories to historical events. I find that the poor internet genealogies of the Yeardleys come from Thomas Yardley’s Genealogy (Philadelphia) book of 1881; and previously from work by Sir Walter Chetwynd of Staffordshire in the 17th century; who drew on details in the Heraldic Visitations of 1583, 1614 and 1664. However, even he left out one of the Williams of Yeardley Hall in his pedigree list, though he wrote under a hundred years after them. Also confusing the issue, the former mixed in details from the Heraldic Visitations of Cheshire of 1613 with the Staffordshire listings. Some key references are missing, but Pennsylvania Quaker records apparently have little known but accurate details.
The area of Yeardley (Yardley) End in Audley parish is the known origin of the Eardley family, but it was not a village name unique to Staffordshire, with a number of Yardley families from Yardley Hall in Thaxstead in Essex; Warwickshire, Stratford on Avon, Wiltshire; and Northamptonshire (Yardley Hastings and Yardley Gobion). Far from being isolated, Audley had been since Roman times on a national road junction of the main route to the North and Scotland, and the key port of Chester road for Ireland. There is also the complicating existence of Erdele in Hertfordshire which dates from before Domesday Book (1086), with recorded variations in spelling as Yerdeley, Yardley, and eventually as Ardley. See Professor Skipp’s book – "Medieval Yardley" (now a Birmingham suburb), where he has a translation of the original Saxon word "Gyrd – leahe (pronounced yer – lee)".It is "an enclosed area (yard) in a clearing in the woods", recorded in King Edgar’s charter of 972 A.D. The site of Eardley Hall fitted this with its backdrop of the wooded Foxley hills of Audley. The first reference I find is c.1200 with Erdeley owned by the Stafford family, and later by the Bagots of mid – Staffordshire. All the wills and deeds of the 1500’s refer to this Staffordshire area as Yardley or Yerdeley End, and the 1608 map of Staffordshire clearly shows the township of Yardley next to Audley. Local dialect obviously had something to do with the spelling, as nearby Endon and Eaton, Congleton, are often recorded with a Y at the front of the name. Even recently, rural people in Audley pronounced it as Yeardley. The first century of Audley parish records also have no Eardley entries, but Yardleys. And during World War I there were 52 Yeardleys serving in the British armed forces, though over time, most surnames locally had crystallised as Eardley.
I have driven often in a straight line from Farndon and Holt on the Welsh frontier forty miles through to a place called AUDLEY! The former is the home of a Yardley branch listed in Cheshire heraldic records who say they originated from Audley in the mid 1400’s. The strategic Roman bridge over the Dee at Farndon was rebuilt by Edward 1 (King 1272 – 1307) for his conquest of north Wales. I know that stonemasons from Biddulph Moor were involved in building the string of fortress castles across Wales for Edward. Presumably there were supplies from the ancient iron mines and metalworkers of Audley, and obviously soldiers under Lord James Audley. Lord from 1246, he was Baron of the Welsh Marches of Cheshire from 1251, covering many castles and lands. The constant warfare peaked in major warfare destroying some of these castles later when James was in Germany, when his close friend Richard of Cornwall, became German king (Holy Roman Emperor?). With local forces, James crushed the Welsh uprising. His son William, with his knights, was to die in battle in the Anglesey island landings of 1282 in King Edward’s invasion. A charter of 1465 also refers to the Audleys owning much land in this area, and they could have brought Audley settlers, including Yardleys, to it earlier. There are quite a few Yardley wills of this border area around Caldecot from the 1500’s onwards. A John Erdeley (also recorded as Yardley), was Sheriff of Chester in 1449, to be later followed by the Sneyds from Keele parish in Staffordshire, adjacent to Audley.
Looking for the first Eardleys I referred to the several Lord Audley family Inquests up to 1308 which list their possessions and tenants. Most tenants didn’t have a surname (although the Crockets did), but possibly Walter and Peter of Hullockspool could have later been given an Eardley name. But in the 1332 Subsidy Rolls (a form of graduated poll tax) for Audley, three John and one Will de Erdele are listed .It is about this period that nationally, surnames became formalised, sometimes by allocation by the Lord of the manor. Generally, the surname was based on occupation in towns or castle areas, or in rural areas on the specific locality they inhabited. There are Yeardley family documents in Matlock, Derbyshire showing the Yeardley line of Eardley Hall back to the 1300's. Deeds refer to Richard de Erdeley and wife Agnes, and his 3 sons Thomas, Richard and John in 1397 & 1398, and their first lands were in the "old park at Audley". This Richard is shown in 1368 as son of Egidius de Audeley and Sibilla. The forename Egidius is Dutch/Flemish, and may have some connection to the large numbers in Cheshire with the surname Fleming (from Flanders). Henry I in 1108 encouraged skilled Flemish workers to settle throughout the country, e.g. leaving a strong concentration of alien blood group A in Glamorganshire among the native Welsh (early British). The possibility is that several Eardley families were of old stock, but the Eardley Hall family was of a Flemish merchant/artisan, connected to the Audleys who were then prominent in the French wars.
The next reference found is to a Staffordshire Assize case of 1362 where James and John Magot had beaten and wounded John de Yerdeley. There is also a record of the 1377 Member of Parliament for nearby Newcastle under Lyme being Henry de Erdeley, though he is certain to be one of the Audley family. Entrepreneurship is shown in 1490, when John Erdeley of Bignall End, Audley and Thomas Erdeley of Talke leased a coalmine in Bignall End from Squire Hugh Egerton. Ten miles north up the old Roman road in Middlewich in Cheshire, a Richard Erdeley owned land and important salt wiches in 1459. He is possibly the son of William and Joan Erdeley who were leasing saltpans from 1424 onwards. These were passed to his son Edward in 1467. A William Erdeley in 1567 leases salt wiches in the same town. Salt was a key trading product from before Roman times here, with national distribution by packhorse. The Bishop of Lichfield’s Staffordshire family listing of 1532 shows one Yardley family, and 6 Yeardley families in Audley parish, together with wives and children’s names. (Staffs Historical Collections, Series - 4, volume 8). The 1539 Staffordshire Muster Rolls for Audley (militia) give five Yerdleys with weapons, including Richard and John of Miles Green.
Some four years ago I came across the less than virtuous Abbot Thomas Yardley or Eardley, of Chester Abbey (Benedictine monks) – 1413 to 1434, after earlier records of him in church disputes. He had also been accused of kidnap and rape of a pilgrim in Staffordshire; and later found to have stolen silver spoons and plate from his predecessor Abbot Sutton. Coincidentally, the abbey (later Chester cathedral) was then half owner of Lawton parish (Cheshire), adjoining Audley parish. Even more interesting is the leasing of the Lawton water mill for several years in this period by one Richard Erdeley – perhaps a relative of the abbot. The mill was almost exactly where the old parish boundaries of Audley, Wolstanton and Lawton joined. The occupation of miller crops up a lot for Yardleys in later times. Samuel of Horton in 1704 was one, as was his son Richard who migrated to Solebury, Pennsylvania. Thomas’s nephew Benjamin also acquired mills in North Staffordshire, adapting them to grinding flint for the pottery industry. The church of St. Martin in Ludgate, near St. Paul’s, London, has an eight line inscription to a William Yeardley and his wife Elizabeth, he dying on 28th October 1523, although I don’t know his origins.
Names connected to the early Eardleys: Henry de Audithley (Audley), who died 1246, supported his king, John, in 1215 against a major rebellion of nobles ending in the Magna Carta. The Audleys were already lord of the Red castle at Market Drayton when the king made them Lord of Audley. Henry’s son Hugh married Margaret of Stratton Audley in Oxfordshire. There is argument as to whether these two names were the origin of the name Eardley. Edward (1603 – 1657) Eardley’s sister Mary married Thomas Boughey in May 1628 at Wybunbury, Cheshire, who later became baronets and major landlords in Audley, and developed Aqualate Hall, near Newport. The Thicknesses (Tickens) of Betley and Balterley (3 miles from Audley) are a recognised heraldic family, supplying several Members to Parliament for Staffordshire. One of the Staffordshire Thickness knights was in the English army at Paris in 1419. But the Birkes and Childs appear to be yeomen of Audley. William Child of Boyles Hall, Audley, married Clara Eardley (William Eardley’s youngest child) in 1623. Her brother John gave her an allowance out of the Eardley hall lands. Her great, great grandson Smith Child was to become "Admiral of the Blue" in the English navy. He also developed coal mines at Talke in the parish around 1800, and is buried at Wolstanton church. The Parkers of Talke are recorded for at least 600 years, their name implying being the keepers of the park for the Lord Audleys. As to the often mentioned Dorothy Drake, I cannot find any relevant marriage entry, but one such widow of Chatham, Kent, left a will in 1658. She probably is linked to the Yardleys of Thaxsted Hall, Kent, just across the river Thames. The place name Marbury mentioned in the 1881 book must refer to the ancient parish church next to ruined Combermere abbey, only 8 miles west of Audley.
The Staffordshire Heraldic visitation of A.D.1583 names Eardley Hall’s William Yardley's five sons – William, Ralph, John, George and Randall - and wife Elizabeth Moreton (of Little Moreton Hall) - they married c.1551. William Yardley took over the Hall in 1547 after his father John’s death. John, son of John, had married c.1525 Margaret, daughter of Robert Vernon of Haslington, Cheshire. From this time, the forename William appears very frequently, seemingly as an indication of connection to the Eardley Hall family. The marriage settlement of 4th Aug. 1578 of eldest son William, and Margery Lawton points out the social gap between gents Yardley and yeoman Lawton. And their first son John was born, in London in 1579. The elder William’s fourth son George was born c.1562, & apprenticed by bond to William Carter of London, of the Society of Merchant Adventurers, on Feb.8th 1576. This would have been a good step as the Company had a Royal monopoly for exporting cloth, which then made up 80% of English exports. The Society provided most of the Lord Mayors of London during this 50 year period and made huge loans to the Monarchy for the running of the government. I note that the Carters are one of the early dominant families in Virginia and have remained so to this day (i.e. President Jimmy also). Third son John is shown living in Friday Street, London with another merchant. Third son John is shown living in Friday Street, London, with another merchant. Six churches are recorded for Friday street.
As for William of Eardley Hall’s youngest son Randall, he had been vicar of Faversham in Kent until he died in 1605, according to Cambridge University records. These show the spelling of his surname varying as Yardley, Eardley and Yearlie. But Biddulph parish registers of Staffordshire show the burial of a Randolph (Randall) Yeardley, gentleman, in April 1615. No other entries for Eardleys or Yardleys for seventy years in Biddulph. The Royal College of Heralds advise me that as William Yerdeley was certified by the king’s Herald as a gentleman in 1583, entitled to a coat of arms, his five sons could also claim, as long as they had the financial means to live as one. And I note that the Yardleys of Yardleyend are the only family of that name in Staffordshire to be officially classed as gentlemen. The 1583 Staffordshire Heraldic records at the Royal College of Arms also note - "that in ancient times the Yardleys were called Eardley." William Yeardley the elder – c.1525 to 1595 - seemed to move in important circles, because he is, with Robert Vernon, executor in December 1570, of Ralph Moreton of Little Moreton Hall, Cheshire (his father in law, I believe). The latter is described as gentleman usher to Queen Elizabeth.
Some believe the George from Audley mentioned above is Governor George Yeardley of Virginia (died 1627). Although there are many coincidences; on balance there are two Georges, but Audley George’s later career is a mystery. Governor Yeardley was known to have been awarded a medal for war service to the Dutch and it throws up a coincidence. When England declared war on Spain in 1574 to assist the Dutch rebellion, the English garrisoned for the next 30 years, the two Dutch coastal forts of Brill and Flushing. These guarded the River Scheldt entry to Antwerp, the main port and trading centre of western Europe. In 1600 government records show a William Yardley provisioning from his own pocket, the fortress of Brill. Was this because he had a son George there, or is it a different Yardley from the Audley one? There was also an official English army in the Low Countries fighting the Spanish from 1584 for 20 years.
We know that the William Yardley’s second son Ralph (living at Talke, Audley), died aged 33 in 1587, and therefore is NOT the brother Ralph who handled the will of Sir George Yeardley after 1627. The officially recorded father of Governor Yeardley, Ralph, lists four sons, Raphe, George, John and Thomas, all under21, in his Aug. 1603 will, and a brother Thomas, with a cousin Richard Yearwood (a north Cheshire name!). There also seems to have been confusion with Raufe (Ralph) Yerdeley of Caldecott and Farndon (Cheshire), on the river Dee, whose will is dated 1598, made because he was risking going to the West Indies. As England was in its 24th year of war with the Spanish Empire, with no colonies in the Indies, the trip was probably with George Clifford, the Earl of Cumberland’s 1400 man pillage of the Spanish West Indies that year. This was long before the Virginia colony, but the Heraldic Visitation of Cheshire in 1613 shows Ralph still alive that year. The same family members and in-laws are shown in both documents, including father in law Randall Dodd of Edge, in the parish of Malpas (west Cheshire). The 1613 Visitation records shows the Yardley family line of Farndon back to Thomas, brother of Oliver Yardley of Yardley (presumably directly east in Staffordshire, not Warwickshire), in King Henry V1 time (1422 – 1471). It also shows many male Yardley members, and they spread across Cheshire as Yardleys, and to London. One of these Ralph Yardleys was second in command of an expedition up the Orinoco River in Venezeula in c.1592. Some information about Sir George could be found in another 1656 Will of Ralph Yardley, Apothecary, of Saint Alban Wood Street, City of London (his brother I believe).
Perhaps someone can trace George Yeardley serving in the great English expedition of 1596, of 140 ships, which captured the main Spanish port of Cadiz (the destination of the great Spanish treasure fleets from South America). The English fleet picked up the veteran English army from Holland en route. Most of the key future governors and administrators of Virginia were involved, with Thomas Smyth, Gates and Thomas West (future Lord de la Warr, after whom Delaware is named), being knighted at Cadiz. Other participants were Samuel Argall (vice admiral), Thomas Dale, Radcliff, Sir Edwin Sandys (vice treasurer of Virginia company), etc. All these were close colleagues of Sir George Yeardley, but I have yet to find him at Cadiz. Lord De la Warr’s brother married Governor Yeardley’s widow, Temperance Flowerdew. Governor Yeardley was to name his son after Samuel Argall.
In 1611 William Eardley of Eardley Hall, with heir John, contributed to the founding of Audley grammar school. This William the younger of Eardley Hall died 1624, aged about 72, some12 years after his wife, with no mention of second wife in will, although one of his grand-daughters was a Dorothy. Thomas Yardley’s book must have got his Dorothy entry from the records about the Drake family of Devon. These show Sir John Drake of Ashe (died 25-8-1636), High Sheriff of Devon, as having a daughter Dorothy, marrying a William Yardley, with no further details. But he must have been of good background for the marriage, as Dorothy’s younger sister married Sir Winston Churchill of Somerset in May 1643, and was the mother of the military genius, the Duke of Marlborough (of Blenheim palace).
William Yeardley the younger’s heir John, married Alice Sutton of Rushton Spencer, in 1601, as recorded in many historical references and per Sleigh's History of Leek. He gives as his source the Harleian manuscripts, document 1415. The marriage of Alice Sutton’s parents in 1576 is fully covered in many peerage and Plantaganet records. Dowry included the Ravensclough estate and the corn mill in Rushton Spencer, where the 6 sons & 5/6 daughters of John and Alice were probably born. Only the Bucks county (Pennsylvania) records seem to have these correct. The lovely small manor house John built in 1612 stands as built, in a superb location below the Cloud hill, and is a small guesthouse, and should be visited.
John Yardley’s wife Alice, and mother in law Anne (nee Stanley) are several times listed as Catholics by the Religious Gestapo, as was John in 1615. This was extremely dangerous at the time, due to hysteria over the 1605 Guy Fawkes plot to blow up King and Parliament, linked to a Spanish invasion. Some 67 Catholic priests were tortured to death in the 1590’s, some fairly certainly being assassins to kill Protestant Queen Elizabeth. However, Anne Stanley’s family (and army) of Lancashire had been crucial in bringing the Tudors to the English throne in 1485 (see Shakespeare’s Richard III), and had been made Earl of Derby as reward. Surprisingly, the Stanleys, of Anglo Saxon origin pre 1066, originated from nearby Stanley village in Leek parish – 5 miles from Horton church. The Alice Yardley charity that she founded for the poor of Rushton Spencer still exists, some 360 years after its founding. Further, Anne Sutton junior’s descendants produced US president Madison and General Robert E. Lee, who knew well the Custis family of Audley farm, Berrington, Virginia (George Washington’s wife’s family). Is this farm name a coincidence? It just happens that there was a Washington family in Horton parish alongside Quaker William Yardley.
John Eardley’s eldest son Edward (1603-1656, from raised tomb engravings) was named after his maternal grandfather of Rushton Hall (opposite Rushton church), was Justice of the Peace locally and for Cheshire and North Wales. There was apparently a portrait of this last direct male heir of Eardley Hall at Betley Court, home of the Tuchet family. Edward married late c1642 to Anne Moncks of Radwood Hall, near Whitmore. I have not seen any connection to Major - General Moncks, a senior member of the republic and military governor of Scotland, who assisted the return of the Stuarts to the throne in 1660. Remember that the country drifted into a long Civil war early in 1642. The Eardleys, with most of the North Staffordshire gentry and commoners, were strong supporters of Parliament against the king. Edward’s colleague, John Bradshaw, Recorder for Newcastle under Lyme, Staffordshire, Attorney General for Cheshire and North Wales, and living at Greenway Hall, Bagnall (4 miles north of Stoke), had been chairman of the Parliamentary committee that signed the death warrant of King Charles I in 1649. Bradshaw’s body was dug up for his sins in 1660 and impaled on pikes in different areas. His extremist Puritan colleague Major general Harrison of Newcastle Under Lyme, Staffordshire, was also slowly butchered alive that year. When John Eardley died in November 1645 a document records that his four middle sons – William, Ralph, Thomas and Richard – were all in London, at least two in the army .All five younger sons signatures are eventually on the sale document of Hallhouse, Rushton Spencer, to Daniel Knight of Cloudwood in 1649. John’s heir Edward inherited Eardley Hall. It seems the Hall and its 230 fields were sold by the Wilmots in 1730 to ironmaster Thomas Cotton.
The Hall at Yeardley End was quite extensive, as the 1666 national Hearth Tax lists it as having nine hearths, with one being the norm. William Yardley’s tenanted stone farmhouse at Horton had six hearths. Edward’s daughter Elizabeth – after a special marriage license issued from the Archbishop of Canterbury - took all the Eardley lands to her 1665 husband, Robert Wilmot of Derbyshire .But he seems to have had cash problems, because on 17th April 1684, he mortgaged Eardley Hall to a William Eardley of London. Who was he? The noted William Yardley (or Yeardley) of Horton, outside Leek, had already left in the Quaker fleet of 28 ships that settled Pennsylvania in 1682. The clues are in Cromwell’s regimental commanders and Westminster Abbey. For some reason the Eardley name had some "cachet" that kept it in the Wilmot family for generations. There was even a Baron Eardley in the early 19th century. The Eardley Wilmots were to produce many notable establishment members in the next 200 years.
The Irish Eardleys may have been soldiers of Sir Anthony Colclough of Oldcott/Chell (now in Stoke on Trent), of North Staffordshire, who was sent to County Wexford in 1543 by Henry VIII, to put down the Irish uprisings. He was given the former Tintern Abbey as a home. I note that he had kin in Audley parish at this time, and it was normal to raise forces in your home area, he could have taken the early Eardleys with him. He himself certainly left many descendants in Ireland, as he settled permanently. The bloodthirsty Sir Nicholas Bagnall of Newcastle under Lyme was Knight Marshall of Ireland for many years after this, with some Staffordshire moorland men as captains. It may well have included Eardleys. Sir Nicholas sold his Dieulacres Abbey lands at Leek to the Rudyard family, this being the birthplace of barrister Thomas Rudyard, close colleague of William Penn, and acting Governor of New Jersey. Young William Yardley’s family lived in one of these properties, Roche Hall, in the 1640’s. Cromwell’s settlements in Ireland could also be relevant, as Major Richard Eardley of Audley is referred to as acquiring lands there in 1655. I see that the 1880 US census lists 13 Eardleys born in Ireland, and 57 from England plus 7 Yeardleys.
The Yardleys and Eardleys were spreading quite widely into neighbouring parishes by the 17th century. By the mid 1650’s register entries for Yardleys suddenly turn into Eardley. In records of the small Staffordshire parish of Standon, nine miles south of Audley, in the 1660’s Ralph Yardley is variously also listed as Eardley and Yeardley. Neighbouring Barthomley parish in Cheshire had Yardley B.M.D entries from 1563 onward. Newcastle under Lyme, a national centre for hat manufacture, had several Yardleys shown working in the trade as craftsmen in the early 1600’s. The fumes from the mercury used in processing the felt for hats, produced insanity, but was equal to Viagra in side effects. Do Eardley women still see these two effects in their men folk? King Charles II died in 1685 from excess mercury vapours in his private laboratory (known for his numerous mistresses and illegitimate children). In Barthomley registers in Cheshire (only three miles away), we have William Yardley, son of William of Audley, baptised 23/5/1647, plus many others. Later Newcastle, Burslem and Wolstanton registers are full of Eardley entries, as is Eccleshall parish from the 1570’s. Richard Yeardley is listed there from 1593 at the impressive Horsley Hall., marrying in 1602. He has son and grandson baptized George. William Yardley in 1666 has tax returns for the same hall... There are many more Yardley and Eardley entries in registers across neighbouring Shropshire. The first years for Stoke parish register – 1634 – 5, show two Yardley women marrying. Even St. Peter’s Church, Wolverhampton, in south Staffordshire, lists persons as both Eardley and Yardley from the early 1600’s.
TO AMERICA
William and Jane Heath Yardley, with their three sons
Enoch, Thomas and William, and with his brothers in law Thomas Janney
and James Harrison, were listed by William Penn in 1684 as three of the
six crucial leaders in the new Pennsylvania colony. The Quakers were
leaving confiscation of assets and persecution – some 450 Quakers are
listed as dying in prison or shortly after release. The Thomas Yardley
who went to Bucks County, Pennsylvania in 1704, from whom many US
Yardleys descend, was baptised on February 19th 1676 at St. Michael’s,
Horton, outside Leek He was the nephew of founding Pennsylvania Quaker
William Yardley, and son of Thomas (died in February 1712 at Horton
aged c. 74) and Jane. He had at least six brothers and sisters. Thomas
was living at the Birches farm in Horton with his father prior to 1704.
He was delegated to sort out the American properties of their famous
uncle William Yardley and his 3 adult children, formerly of the unusual
stone built Dairyhouse - still standing - in Horton parish. By clicking
on this link - www.jeremycrick.info/
Thomas Yardley junior seems to have been highly regarded because he received powerful help in sorting out Prospect farm and its 500 acres. Samuel Carpenter had been Pennsylvania Acting Governor from 1694 to 1698, and Provincial Treasurer from 1694, being the richest man in the colony. The others, Richard Hough and Robert Heath, were also Assembly members and had had William Yardley as a witness at their weddings back in the Staffordshire Moorlands. Thomas repurchased Prospect farm in Pennsylvania and its acreage for 350 pounds sterling in 2sixth month" (June?)1710 from Quaker Thomas Janney (a relative by marriage), who had only legally bought it the previous month. Thomas had just received 150 pounds sterling from his father in laws will. He carried on the Yardley ferry across the Delaware, possibly set up by his dead cousin Thomas. Originally I thought his younger brother Richard had accompanied him to Pennsylvania - baptized 29 Dec. 1681 of Thomas and Jane Yardley, but it is more likely to be his nephew Richard and wife Mary Dale, some 25 years later. Richard set up or operated on behalf of Thomas a flour mill and sawmill at Solebury, 10 miles north of Prospect farm in Yardley.
Thomas married Ann Biles, daughter of a Quaker Member of the Provincial Council, and died in 1756, leaving 9 children, and a number of slaves – names and ages known. The marriage at Pennsbury - home of William Penn – implies Thomas was a quaker, and presumably has significance. Son William, born 25 May 1716, was to become a Quaker, sheriff of Bucks county, and Justice of the Courts 1764 – 1770. Thomas’s two eldest daughters, Quakers Mary Janney and Jane Hague, settled from Maryland to Loudon county, Virginia, and were crucial to the setting up of Waterford Meeting. Son in law Amos Janney was a surveyor for Lord Fairfax in Virginia. One of Thomas’s descendants was a Pennsylvania senator just after the U.S Civil war.
Thomas’s nephew Richard at Solebury (spelt Yeardley in his will of 1760) left 7 children (Enoch, William, Benjamin, Thomas, Samuel, Richard, and Mary Harvey), and wife Mary. These six male names match exactly those of relatives’ families in England through the generations. The three Yardleys married at Christchurch, Philadelphia, in 1754, 1759, and 1768 seem to be this Richard’s sons). I believe three of these, Samuel, Benjamin and Richard, or maybe grandsons, moved to Rutherford County, North Carolina by 1790. They are on the list of settlers in the new Buncombe County near the future Tennessee boundary. The Great Wagon Trail ran from Philadelphia to the Piedmont area of North Carolina where these Yardleys settled. Curiously, Pennsylvania records show the wills of Thomas (1676 – 1756), his son William (died 1774), and nephew Richard (d. 1761), with surname spelt as Yeardley. It happens with many other Yardleys , even William (1632 – 1693).
Explanatory Note 1
As I say at the beginning, much stimulus came from trying to verify the Yardley genealogy list printed in 1881 in Philadelphia, especially the claim that Dorothy Drake from Devon was the mother of Quaker William Yardley. First, I cannot find any record yet of this Yardley father in biographies of the Drake and Churchill families, although he could have come from anywhere, and even then he would have been the uncle to one of the most famous men in English history – John Churchill, Duke of Marlborough. There is a clue from one very old Devon record which shows Dorothy Drake marrying William Frye of YARDBURY, near Colyton, on 10 September 1633, which is where Sir John Drake lived. It is in the parish of Musbury, Devon. Is this an example of old registers being misread? i.e. Yardbury read as Yardley. The Devon Heraldic records show Sir John’s daughter, Dorothy, as aged three in 1620, but no baptism record found. Dorothy and her sister Elizabeth were also nieces to the 1st Duke of Buckingham. Sir John Drake (1591 – 1636) received his legal training at the Inner Temple, London with a William Frye of Yardbury, Devon, who is presumably the same man who was later Justice of the Peace in Devon. The claimed father William Yardley of Audley died in 1624 aged c. 72, some 8 years before Quaker William was born (as per Quaker records). Dorothy Frye apparently died in 1695. William Yardley’s stepmother of the Taylor family of Birchall was still alive in 1664. Lastly, the father of the Quaker William Yardley is definitely in the Staffordshire Moorlands, where he was buried in February 1664 at St. Michael’s Horton.
Note 2
To emphasise how most of the Yardleys and Eardleys of the Staffordshire Moorlands, as well as other places, are from the same ancestor, I have referred to times where the spelling was flexible. Thus in Jan 1779 the vicar or churchwarden at Leek entered Samuel Yardley’s name at the top of a marriage certificate when marrying Hannah Clowes. But Samuel clearly signed it as Eardley, as did witness William. The second Solomon Eardley was also variously listed as Yardley in some parishes. Benjamin is recorded as Yardley at baptism and when he married Dorothy Biddle (Biddulph) at Leek in 1737, and on his grave, but all his children are baptized as Eardleys in nearby Biddulph parish. All these children are married, buried and leave wills as Yardleys. I’ve seen some incorrect pedigrees due to this confusion. Even at Audley at the sale of lord Audley’s lands in 1790 (as per the Audley Millinnium book), one tenant is listed as Oldcott Yeardley. Yet in parish records he is shown as Eardley; important as he is ancestor to the majority of current Audley Eardleys. Another recent oddity showing this problem is the engraved gravestone of Enoch Yardley Bradburn in Silverdale cemetery outside Newcastle under Lyme. Yet in his marriage to Elizabeth Holland in 1855 he is officially recorded as Enoch Eardley.
Note 3
Periodically, royal heralds were sent out to each county to record all gentlemen’s entitlement to a coat of arms. These had to provide documentary proof of their ancestry and time of entitlement. Previously these markings would have been on a knight’s shield etc. Lists of those who were rejected are often available. Annual fees then paid.
Note 4
Did the Crockett families of old Audley emigrate west to the colonies? There is an ancient place at Caverswall, Stoke, called Crockett's Field, with old pottery making remains. The Saxon word croche means pottery, and as locals know, we call it "crockery".
Note 5
John S. Pemberton, founder of coca based Coca cola, was a direct descendant of Horton and Pennsylvania William Yardley’s nephew, Phineas Pemberton, (through his wife Jane Heath).
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