Dear Eardley Family Member, August 1998

On Saturday, July 15th at noon in the year 2000, the millennium Eardley 'family get together' will be held at St. James Church Audley, near Stoke-on-Trent, England. The event will commence with a special address by the Vicar in St. James Church to a congregation of Eardleys returning to their true ancestral home parish. Professor David Hey of Sheffield University had established that Eardleys have lived in Audley since at least 1223 and that we are one of four names to have continuously existed in the area since records began. Audley is named after the Audley family, a very powerful titled medieval family who wielded great power and influence in the Welsh Marches for many years.  There was certainly a strong connection between the two families - a fact supported by the similarity of the two Coats of Arms.  Also, it is of interest to me because on more than one occasion when asked my name, my response of course is Eardley, and they spell it AUDLEY

In the early 1600's the Audleys moved to Ireland taking some Eardleys with them. The Audleys became the Earls of Castlehaven and an Audley Castle exists near Belfast, Ireland. The existence of a large colony of Eardleys in Ireland can only be explained by Eardleys marrying into the Irish population and becoming quite prolific. Eardley is clearly an English name, but in Ireland they quite naturally converted to Roman Catholicism. Back in Audley the Eardleys became the leading family and resided at Eardley Hall, a fine building which remained standing until the 1970's. Back in the 1600's Edward Eardley became one of the few people documented as having the authority to solemnize marriages in the time of Oliver Cromwell, when for a short time England had no King after the execution of Charles I.

There was a clearly defined pecking order in Parish Society. In the case of Audley it was decided by the Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry and the point at issue was where people were allowed to sit in church. The following list originally made up by Bishop William in 1585 shows the three Eardley families to occupy 1st, 5th and 8th in the Audley Parish.

The list made in 1687 from the one of 1585 read thus:

About this time the Eardleys began to spread into other local areas. The Parish Registers tell us that over a period of time Eardleys spread into Shropshire, Cheshire and Derbyshire, but by 1800 there were only about 30 related families in the entire country and most of these were within a fifteen mile radius of Audley. So at this time Eardleys were mainly farming people found in Staffordshire and Shropshire and who had spread through marriage to a dozen or so other local areas. They had been related to the Audleys, had their own "Hall" and Coat of Arms and were a family of considerable local influence, which peaked in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

Two interesting developments took place in the 1700's. Firstly the Eardley male line failed and a female married into the wealthy Derbyshire family, the Wilmots. From this marriage came the noted Eardley-Wilmot family which produced a Lord Chief Justice, a Bishop and the Governor of Tasmania. Sampson Gideon, a gentleman of wealth married a female Eardley and at the urging of Prime Minister William Pitt bought the title of Lord Eardley of Spalding in Lincolnshire. From this connection we discover a connection with the Fiennes family which produced the famous Arctic explorer and mountaineer and Ralph Fiennes - star of "The English Patient."

By the mid 1700's the Industrial Revolution was taking place across the Trent Valley in what is now Stoke-on-Trent. Although many of us stayed in farming and remained prosperous, others were attracted by the bustle of the pottery industry which was beginning to "take off" and attract people from the surrounding communities and from even further afield. Audley lies opposite Tunstall and Burslem, the first pottery towns, and was only an hours walk away. Eardleys became particularly prolific in Burslem and their centre of operations seems to have been in the Hot Lane area. Throughout the last century census returns confirm this and it is also easy to see they were all related. You can follow families through the generations if you study the census' from 1841 to 1891. At this time it was rare to find Eardleys in the southern part of the city. Audley, Silverdale, Newcastle-u-Lyme, Wolstanton, Tunstall and Burslem were where Eardleys could be found.

The coming of the railway system in the 1840's enabled this fairly localized group to gradually start the worldwide family it is today. Between 1838 and 1864 (almost two generations) I was able to count 181 Eardley marriages and here they are - year by year - district by district and each with a code number. Whenever possible I have given a Quarter number, e.g., 2 Qr means that the marriage took place in April, May or June. Now I would estimate that no Eardleys had reached Scotland before 1838 - so even the Scots have their English Eardley ancestor in this list.

The exciting thing is that every one of you reading this letter will find his/her great great grandfather or great great great grandfather here. In my own case I was able to trace my great grandfather, Henry Eardley's marriage to Elizabeth Kirkham in 1853. so whether you live in Britain, Canada, U.S.A., Australia or South Africa, Switzerland, Hong Kong or Germany - your ancestor is here. The data is dominated by Wolstanton, Newcastle-Under Lyme and Stoke Town - but people have started to move out. London, Manchester, Exeter, Coventry, Nottingham, Bangor, Oxford and Plymouth all feature as well as other locations outside the immediate Stoke area.

Again, what we need to remember is that many of these males would have been brothers and those married in the 1830's and early 1840's were the fathers of those featured in the 1860's. Almost 100 of the 181 marriages listed here took place within a couple of hours walk from Audley and only 36 were too far to reach in one day on horseback. Of course, tracing the Eardley ladies would have been impossible - and in addition many children simply didn't live long enough to marry. Reading Parish Registered Deaths makes for grim and tragic reading.

Well, how can this information put us all together? The answer is that if each one of us were to trace our Eardley family back to one of these people on the list, I'm sure we could do it. All of these people were obviously related - in the 1500's there were only three or four related families in Audley. We've just "increased and multiplied" - that's all! If you know how to work back from your grandfather - fine. If all this is new to you, I suggest several ways of doing it - but you will need someone to help start you off. The local libraries are a good starting point. Most libraries have a Local History section and the staff are usually very patient with beginners. Secondly, your local Mormon Church is an excellent source of help. They claim to have the best records in the world. County Record Offices are excellent and again they are happy to start you off. I am familiar with Stafford, England and that office is extremely helpful. I'm sure that wherever you live there are excellent records and genealogical sources available. Canadian facilities are particularly good. I cannot speak for those in Australia and South Africa - but I would be surprised if they were not at least as good.

Basically, you need to get hold of Certificates. Everyone's birth, marriage and death has been recorded in Britain since 1837 and they can be obtained either from your local Registrar, if you live in the United Kingdom and know what you're looking for, or if you need to link your non-UK Eardley family into the British line you will need to contact St. Catherine's House. The one I deal with and have found to provide an excellent service is the one in Southport, Lancashire. You can call or write and pay by credit card.

The telephone number is U.K. 0151-4714200

The address is: 
St. Catherine's House
Smedley Hydro
Southport
Lancashire
England

Certificates cost only a few pounds. From a death certificate you can work out the year the person was born. From Birth and Marriage Certificates you are told who the parents were. I work on assumption that most children are born between 21 and 35 years after their fathers birth - so you ask them to search in blocks of ten years until they find each ancestor - grandfather - great grandfather - great great grandfather until you link up with the list.

It might work out something like this:

1. Grandfather born 1904

2. Great grandfather born 1879.

3. Great great grandfather born 1856.

4. Great great great grandfather born 1838.

Please contact myself or Robert Francis Eardley as soon as you reach your listed ancestor. We can then guide you further back still through Parish Records.

Again, if you have thus far been unable to share details of your family history with us - it is never too late. Please share your family story with us - no matter how much or how little you know. Often an apparently insignificant piece of information can put families together. For example, we noticed a while ago that a number of Eardley families had retained the name of "Warrilow" in their name. We have been able to connect a number of these Eardley families who are now dispersed throughout Great Britain. Again, many Eardley families contain a member with the Christian name 'Allen' (not Alan or Allan) and these are clearly related. Yet another group are those Eardley families having 'Pope' as a retained part of their surname.

With so many Eardleys to unravel it is important to include the 'maiden name' of grandmothers and great grandmothers. This information enables us to sort out very quickly the various family groupings. The longer we study our family, the more we are convinced still that we are all related. We are also convinced there is an Eardley 'look.' It is difficult to describe - but I'm sure you'll know it when you see it. One of the more fascinating aspects of the millennium 'get-together' will be to see all those Eardleys recognizing what we have observed - a distinct facial similarity which is often unmistakable.

I should remind you again that the surnames of Eardley and Yardley are interchangeable. It is quite complicated as to how this happened - but it partly has to do with a Yardley from Warwickshire marrying a female Eardley from Audley. Confusion reigned for a while and from then on it became a matter of luck and the whim of the person who filled in the Parish Register. Some parishes used Eardly - some Yardly, whilst others kept to Eardley or Yardley. Around 1830 someone almost magically unified the name to EARDLEY. North Staffordshire dialect also played its part. The name used to be pronounced EEARDLEY. YARDLEY in Potteries dialect is also pronounced EEARDLEY. I trust you are not too confused. Since hardly anyone could read or write until the mid Nineteenth Century - people merely knew how their name sounded - the spelling was left to the few literate people in the parish.

This information should be of assistance to the many Mormon Eardleys located in Utah and Wyoming and the Western States. I am aware they are seeking a Leverson Eardley (or could it be Yardley!) born circa 1760 somewhere in the Stoke area. By way of Blackfordby, Leicestershire his descendants made their way to Salt Lake City. It seems one of them at least stayed briefly in East Liverpool, Ohio. The descendants now live in different areas of the western U.S.. Anyone who has a Leverson in their family history should let us know. Interestingly enough the family name of the Dukes of Sutherland - owners in past times of the huge Trentham Estate in South Stoke-on-Trent - is Leverson-Gower. Could it be that the Leverson Eardley family is connected to the Sutherlands? There is also a Leverson street in Longton, Stoke-on-Trent. Can anyone tell us how the street acquired its name?

Again, I mention the number of Eardleys who have 'late onset' Type II diabetes. This is a hereditary disease (now effectively treatable!) and from which we seem to have a large number of Eardleys successfully getting on with their lives in spite of it. I previously mentioned Syndactly (a partial joining of the skin between the second and third toes) which a number of Eardleys display - usually on the beach! Red hair or auburn hair was apparently a common Eardley trait. A Birmingham, England Eardley - Charles Wilmot Eardley - has portraits of his Audley ancestors displaying this characteristic.

Of course, I am generalizing - but we often receive letters indicating that Eardleys tend to be of average height or slightly less and that there is a tendency toward keeping family 'secrets.' Parents are reported to withhold information on certain family matters from their children. There may be very little of significance in this, but we confess that many of your letters indicate that Eardley families run a very 'tight ship' when it comes to the free flow of communication to family members. Whether or not this constitutes a family 'trait' is open to question - since our findings are anecdotal and not in any way statistically significant.

In the United States Eardleys stem from four main groups. The Michigan Eardleys report themselves to be of Irish descent and mainly Roman Catholic. Some originally may have been called Earley and had their names changed by Immigration when they came here. Or - as we prefer to believe, they were descended from the original Eardleys from Audley who went over to Ireland with Lord Audley in the early 1600's.

The second group is the Texas Eardleys who are all descended from Albert Eardley - an adventurer who landed in Galveston with his family in the 1860's and went on to leave numerous descendants who made good in cattle ranching, banking and public services.

The third group are the Mormon group who stem from four Eardley brothers from Burslem who led adventurous and courageous lives helping establish the Mormon Church in Utah.

The fourth group is the Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Jersey group. They were mainly potters and miners who came in the 1880's or thereabouts and settled in Trenton, New Jersey, East Liverpool, Ohio and various parts of Pennsylvania. Of course all of these groups have followed the American trend of being extremely mobile and they now reside in almost every state in the Union.

In Australia we are aware of 61 families. Some are descended from Eardleys who left in the second half of the last century, but the majority moved to their new homes after 1945 and I suspect some of the lucky ones may have taken advantage of the £ 10 one way voyage to Australia, which more than one million Britons availed themselves of when Australia was hungry for migrants. South Africa has a mere 17 families. In Canada we know of 41 Eardley families. A few - including Larry Barker's family - settled in the mid Nineteenth Century and they are by no means unique - but like Australia, a large number have moved to Canada since World War II. Canada is a vast and well ordered country of great natural beauty and enormous economic potential. Robert Francis Eardley lived in Toronto for a number of years and his father and grandfather settled in a wonderfully beautiful and remote community in Northern British Columbia called Prince Rupert. Anyone who gets the opportunity to go 'up North' should grasp the opportunity with both hands. Once seen - never forgotten! We visited two years ago and were totally captivated by our Northern exposure.

I know that some of you will be sure to find what you are looking for in this list. For example I know an Eardley who will be delighted to find their Bangor ancestors whilst John, married in Ashby-de-la-Zouch, will certainly be one of the Mormon ancestors. Again, I feel fairly sure that Edward Sampson will be a descendant of Lord Eardley from the Sampson Gideon line. Albert from Congleton 1864 is the ancestor of all the Texas Eardleys. They in turn may be related to George Eardley V.C. as there are very few Eardleys in the Congleton area. I have a 'hunch' that Edwin from Radford in Nottingham may be the brother of my great grandfather. I believe there is something here for all of us. There are some London Eardleys who later moved to South Wales. I know Mrs. Griffiths will wish to pursue these.

Whilst researching the Washington Archives I discovered that my own grandfather traveled to America at least twice. To my great surprise I found him on the 'Lord Gough' in 1884 traveling to Philadelphia with his brother, John Henry, who also may have crossed the Atlantic more than once. Some of you may remember we featured him in an earlier letter due to his adventurous life as a boxing promoter and racehorse owner. At that time I had no idea he was my grandfather's brother. Yesterday, Robert Francis and I visited the town of Terre Haute, Indiana to visit his grandson, John Henry III and his charming artist wife, Hope. A six hundred mile trip in one day was quite demanding, but it was worth it. They had photographs of my great grandparents, Henry and Elizabeth. I had seen their graves in East Liverpool, but to see their faces was a particular thrill. He was born in 1831 and came to America in his old age.

In speaking to John Henry III he was able to confirm the adventurous nature of his grandfather showing us a photograph of his grandfather posing with his string of bareknuckle fighters. Also confirmed was his career as a racehorse owner and John Henry III recalls riding one of them and being thrown off. He ended his working life as the owner of the town store in the coal mining village of Perth, Indiana, which boasted thirteen saloon, but alas, no churches. It must have been quite a life for this man from Burslem, England.

If you live in North Staffordshire or South Cheshire, England you are only a few minutes drive from Audley Church. It would interest those of you who have not yet visited it to go along and sample the atmosphere. There are references to Eardley both inside the church and outside in the cemetery. On the wall on the upper right hand side you will find a reference to Edward Eardley and his wife Anne underneath which is a Family Shield. There are also references to Eardleys on the wall of the porch. Also, well worth seeing on the floor of the chancel (top right hand corner) is the prize possession of the church - a brass of Thomas de' Audley (Lord Audley) which dates from 1385. Eardleys can be found in most North Staffordshire village church yards.

As previously mentioned, contact has been made with one of Lord Audley's descendants, Mrs. Anne Mason of Stoke-on-Trent. She was able to confirm the relationship between the Audleys and the Eardleys. She has researched her family for many years and is an expert on this subject. The Eardleys are proud to have been connected to this great medieval titled family which predates most of the 'newer' families in the House of Lords by a large margin. It is interesting to note that the last Lord Audley married Sarah Churchill, daughter of Sir Winston Churchill.

Another interesting Audley connection is the famous handwritten book by John Parrott which can be seen at Stafford Record Office on request. It is a genealogical treasure trove and 'gossip shop.' Parrott tells us who lived where and who married whom. It paints character portraits of all the important people who lived there - some of whom he actually knew. Skeletons rattle (including a few Eardley ones) and some fall out of the cupboard. If ever you are in Stafford take a look at it.

Another piece of evidence which confirms Eardley power are the documented Hearth Tax records which state that the Eardleys had nine hearths at the Hall and therefore paid the highest taxes.

On July 4th 1998 Robert Francis and I were in East Liverpool, Ohio together with a number of Stoke-on-Trent dignitaries and personalities including former Lord Mayors Doug Brown and Alan Edwards - media personalities Sam Plank of Radio Stoke and John Abberley, the 'Sentinel' journalist. Nine adults from City Music School had accompanied forty-two young musicians and actors who made a wonderful contribution to this unique Anglo-American celebration which saw the Stars and Stripes and Union Jack flying side by side. We thought you would like to know that this great event came about through the work we have all done in putting together the Eardley Family Tree.

Mary Eardley Howell of Simi Valley, California has offered to help us with our letters. We wish to thank her for this kind gesture. We would also welcome help or advice from any other Eardleys who would wish to be more closely connected with the project. Robert Francis may be telephoned/faxed on U.K. 01782-844253. Delete the '0' if you are calling from outside Great Britain. We had a wonderful response to our 'green' Christmas letter and we now have well in excess of 4000 pages of information from Eardleys worldwide. This has to be the most extensive 'Single Name Study' ever undertaken. If you are aware of a larger one, let us know.

If you phone me briefly in America, I will call you back. I am always delighted to contact any Eardley who has information to share. Please pass on this letter to any Eardley who is not on our mailing list of 2000 families. In 1585 we were three families. In 1800 we were about thirty. Today we are 2000 and all related somewhere down the line. We can only speculate as to how many we shall be in 2100.

This is our 'very early' Christmas letter so we wish you and your family every good wish for the joyous season well in advance. Keep the reunion date, Saturday 15 July 2000 at the forefront of your Millennium plans. Remember - Saturday, July 15 in 2000 at St. James Church, Audley - at noon.

I will write to you again in due course.

God bless you -

Robert Jack Eardley, M.D.

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