ROBERT
JACK EARDLEY, M.D.
3366 Commodore Drive
Lexington, Kentucky 40502-3602
(859) 269-3686
Fax #: (859) 266-7317
E MAIL: robertjack@eardley.org
Web Site: http://www.eardley.org
December 2001
Dear Eardley Family Member,
May I take this opportunity to wish each one of you a Merry Christmas and a
Prosperous New Year. The year 2000 was indeed a momentous one for our
worldwide family. Saturday, 15th July 2000 witnessed the largest family get-together ever
staged in Europe, with an estimated 1500 Eardleys packing the town of Audley,
Staffordshire England. The thousand year old Norman Church of St. James
had certainly not seen its like and may well never house such an overflowing
congregation again, especially one all proudly bearing the one surname - Eardley.
Each one of your letters finds 'new' Eardley family members, so if you are a seasoned Eardley a little patience is requested if some of the information set out here is already known to you. You are invited to visit our family website at www.Eardley.org. It is absolutely free and provides every Eardley family with more than enough information to trace your family tree and discover how you connect with every other Eardley in the entire world. It contains numerous letters written to every Eardley family thus far known to me which stretches back over the past six years. These letters chart the history of our family for the last 900 years and recount how our family, which started in Audley, Staffordshire, England, gradually spread to all five continents.
There is also a message board where Eardleys can meet and exchange information. Please feel free to use it at your leisure. You can find records of Eardley births, marriages and deaths from 1837 to year 2000, so that with a little research you can see where your Eardley family fits into the 'big picture'. If you are 'e-mail literate', there are many Eardley families from many corners of the globe with whom you can make friends, or just chat. Check it out, there is something for everyone.
Our post 2000 project is the restoration of the 'East Window' of St. James Church. Work has now begun and is scheduled to be completed for Dedication Day, 14th July 2002 which is on a Sunday. We are anticipating a substantial turnout for what promises to be a significant event in the History of North Staffordshire. Make your plans early so that this date becomes a 'must' for next year. Should you live in the North Staffordshire/ South Cheshire area you are personally invited to help organize this event. There is already a committee working on this which usually meets at the Boughey Arms, Audley on the first Wednesday of every month at 7:45 P.M. You are assured of a warm welcome and your enthusiasm and expertise will be highly valued. Should you want an update of the current 'state of play', feel free to contact David Eardley (01782-72 10 60) who will be delighted to hear from you. Incidentally, David can also provide information on audio cassettes and videos of the Saturday, 15th of July 2000 family get-together. These provide a unique record of the event and can be handed down to your children and grandchildren Updated information on the progress of the Window Restoration can be found on our website. We are scheduled to complete by Easter, 2002 and as mentioned before, work is now under way, scaffolding is erected and the craftsmen are busy. One can visit the Birmingham work place and actually watch the window work progress. Contact David Eardley for the location.
On Saturday the 8th of December, 2001 the Audley Male Voice Choir (they are fantastic) was in full song in St. James Church, Audley, England in a special concert to raise funding for our 'Window Restoration Project'. Denise Leigh, a soprano, gave a brilliant performance. Also the long awaited draw for two silver hallmarked pendants with a unique Eardley motif was claimed by Patricia Zernhelt of New York and also a local Audley resident. These have been specially commissioned by the family and we are fortunate to have in Cyril Eardley a craftsman of rare talent. Regular updates for all these activities can be found on our website. Twenty-five hundred pounds was raised by this event for the window. We still need to raise about fifteen thousand pounds for the completion of the project. Does anyone have any suggestions for projects to raise the remaining money?
For those of you not already familiar with our illustrious ancestor, Sir George Yeardley, three times governor of Virginia in the early 1600's, again, there are a number of articles on the website. Frank Eardley from Walsall has researched this topic most thoroughly and is comfortable with the connection. George was the grandson of the Eardleys of Eardley Hall. He moved to London after his marriage to one of the Mortons of Morton Hall near Audley. After service in the army of Prince Maurice of Orange he sailed for the infant colony of Jamestown, Virginia and after a hazardous voyage which involved a shipwreck off Bermuda, eventually arrived in Jamestown just in time to save the 60 remaining gaunt and demoralized English settlers from extermination. Knighted by James I at Newmarket he went on to become Governor and established the first independent legislature in North America. His descendants include the step-children of George Washington and the wife of Confederate General Robert E. Lee. Following Sir George's death his widow Temperance married into the West family which was related to Anne Boleyn, ill fated wife of Henry VIII and mother of Elizabeth I of England.
One of the most intriguing Eardley mysteries is the presence of the Eardley surname in Ireland. We are quite confident that the name was introduced there in the early 1600's when the family of Lord Audley moved across the Irish Sea. Eardleys doubtless moved with them to acquire land and to practice their protestant faith. Some changed their name to Earley / Early as to not be identified as English and spread to various parts of Ireland. In the nineteenth century many were to return to England. Some appeared to have changed their name back to Eardley and had become Roman Catholic. They settled predominantly in Lancashire and Yorkshire. County Mayo and County Galway figure largely as the homes of these returning Eardleys. Ironically, those two Irish counties were the mother counties of the vast majority of the thousands of Irish immigrants who came to work in the coal mines and pottery factories of Stoke on Trent near Audley.
Incidentally, one of my ancestors Joseph Eardley had a pottery factory near Alsager, Cheshire. One of his sons Joseph Elijah Eardley made his way to Yorkshire. The present Doncaster Eardleys are his descendants. One of my grandparents daughters, Elizabeth, was born in Wakefield, Yorkshire. It is probable that they traveled north to seek work in the Yorkshire coal fields before some years later taking the huge step of sailing to East Liverpool, Ohio, U.S.A. There were other Eardleys in the area named John, from Ireland, nicknamed Jack who eventually moved to the London area. His family tree is available.
Recently I made a written contribution to the Journal of the Audley Historical Society. It concerns my own personal view on the Eardley get together in July 2000. Professor David Hey of Sheffield University also gives us a significant 'mention' in his latest book entitled "Family Names and Family History", published in 2000.
Barrie Eardley, a distant cousin of mine who lives near Orillia, Ontario, Canada somehow came upon an historical novel written by Sheila E. Braine called "The Luck of the Eardleys". There is no date of publication, but it appears to carry the 'footprint' of the late nineteenth century. It is fascinating in that it describes the rise and fall and final 'reinvention' of the fortunes of the Eardley family. It mirrors what we have successfully achieved in placing the almost forgotten Eardleys on the genealogical map. Remember our get-together was the largest and certainly the most widely publicized event of its kind, ever to take place in Europe. The credit belongs to each and every one of you who made it happen. Thank you one and all.
Finally, allow me to mention once again Sgt. George Eardley V.C. who hailed from Congleton, Cheshire. At long last his home town is working on a suitable memorial to the 'bravest Eardley of them all'. His son Roy, has doggedly pursued his dream of having his father's military achievements recognized in a permanent manner and not before time.
This letter will be mailed by internet website to reach you by Christmas 2001. David Eardley of Audley will make copies available through the monthly meeting for distribution. Please feel free to copy the letter to make it available to anyone not having computer access. There is still time to make your own contribution to the window fund, if you so wish. Details of how to make your family a part of the East Window can be found on our website or one can mail it to Vicar Peter Davies of St. James Church, Parish Office, 14 Church Street, Audley, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, ST 7 8 DE, England.
Again, I wish to thank each one of you for your unswerving support over the past six years. As the years pass by, it sometimes occurs to me that we are all growing older and time is seeming to speed on at an increasing rate. We can all take comfort in what together we have achieved. The amazing get-together of July 2000 and the prospect of the restored East Window in which the Eardley family adopted the 'enabling' role are testament to our successful endeavors over the past six years. To make a lasting comment I would hope that maybe one of you might consider to continue the project of the website after July 2002 for as the years go quickly by, if no one does this, then the website will no longer be. The website will be captured on CD ROM at this time and will be available from David Eardley.
Have a Merry Christmas and a
Happy New Year,
God Bless You All
Robert Jack Eardley
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