I came into this research from the four Benjamin Yardleys of Norton in the moors, and Horton parishes, but especially because of a brief reference found about an admirable Quaker leader, William Yardley (1632 – 1693), of Horton and Pennsylvania. All spellings used are those in the old records, when there were no rules, dialect was a problem, and some writers didn’t write well. The link to Eardley End becomes clear as I progress. I was also intrigued as to whether I could find many of the unknown persons referred to in Yeardley stories, and then correctly place them in history. I find that the 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. Also mixed in are details from the Heraldic Visitations of Cheshire of 1613. There are some key parts missing, but Pennsylvania Quaker records apparently have otherwise unknown but accurate details.
The area of Y(e)ardleyend in Audley parish is the known origin of the Eardley family, but there are other villages in England called Yardley, with a number of Yardley families from Essex, Warwickshire, Stratford on Avon, Wiltshire and Northamptonshire (Yardley Hastings and Yardley Gobion). Far from being isolated, Audley was next to a national road junction of the main route to the North and Scotland, and the 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 his translation of the original Saxon word “Gyrd – leahe (yer – lee)” is “a clearing in the woods”, which is 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. The first reference I find is c.1200 per Erdeley owned by the Stafford family, later in the possession of 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 between Audley and Talke in the east of the parish. Local dialect obviously had something to do with it, as 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. 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.
Looking for the first Eardleys I referred to the several Lord Audley family Inquests up to 1308 which list their possessions and tenants. Many 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, or the 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 were of a Flemish merchant/artisan
The next reference found is to an 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 I think he would be one of the Audley family. 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 (militia) give five Yerdleys with equipment, including Richard and John of Miles Green.
Names connected to the early Eardleys: Henry de Audithley, who died 1246, was on the side of his king, John, in 1215 against a major rebellion of nobles involving 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. The Thicknesses of Betley and Balterley (2 miles from Audley) are a recognised heraldic family, but the Birkes and Childs appear to be yeomen of Audley. The Parkers of Talke seem to have been there at least 600 years, their name implying being the keepers of the park for the Lord Audleys.
Some 24 months ago I came across Abbot Thomas Yardley of Chester Abbey (Benedictine monks) – 1413 to 1434, after earlier records of him in church disputes. Coincidentally, the abbey 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 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.
The Heraldic visitation of 1583 names Eardley Hall’s William Yardley's 5 sons and wife Elizabeth Moreton (married c.1551). William took over the Hall in 1548 after his father John’s death. 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 his first son John was born c.1580, in London. Fourth son George was born c.1561, & apprenticed by bond to William Carter of London, of the Society of Merchant Adventurers, on Feb.8th 1575. 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).
As Governor George Yeardley of Virginia was known to have been awarded a medal for war service to the Dutch, 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, which guarded the Zuyder Zee. This was why the Spanish Armada invasion force of 1588 couldn’t find a safe harbour, and fell victim to severe storms. In 1600 government records show 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.
Perhaps someone can trace the chance of 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 .Most of the key future governors and administrators of Virginia were involved, with Thomas Smyth, Gates and Thomas West (future Lord de la Warr), 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 Flowerdieu.
There are no known details of William of Eardley Hall’s youngest son Randall’s death, but Biddulph parish records show the burial of Randolph (Randall) Yeardley, gentleman, in April 1615. No other entries for Eardleys or Yardleys for seventy years. The Royal College of Heralds advise me that as William Yerdeley was certified by the king’s Herald as a gentleman with a coat of arms in 1583, his five sons could also, as long as they had the financial means to live as one. And I note that the Yeardleys 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 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.
We know that second son Ralph (living at Talke), died aged 33 in 1587, and therefore is NOT the brother Ralph handling the will of Sir George Yeardley after 1627. The purported father of Governor Yeardley, Ralph, lists four sons, Raphe, George, John and Thomas, all under 21, in his Aug. 1603 will, and a brother Thomas, with a cousin Richard Yearwood. 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, 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 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 1613 shows him 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 shows the Farndon family line back to Thomas, brother of Oliver Yardley of Yardley (obviously 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. I believe some answers to Sir George questions could be found in another 1656 Will of Ralph Yardley, Apothecary, of Saint Alban Wood Street, City of London.
William the younger of Eardley Hall died 1624, aged about 72, about 12 years after his wife, with no mention of second wife in will, although one of his grand-daughters was a Dorothy. But the records of the Drake family of Devon 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, and was the mother of the military genius, the Duke of Marlborough (of Blenheim palace).
I have driven often in a straight line from this Farndon/Holt on the Welsh frontier and come through to a place called AUDLEY! The strategic Roman bridge over the Dee was rebuilt by Edward 1 (King 1272 – 1307) for his conquest of north Wales. I know that many stonemasons from Biddulph Moor were involved in building the string of fortress castles across Wales for Edward. Presumably there were supplies from the metalworkers of Audley, and possibly soldiers under Lord Audley. James Audley, Lord from 1246, 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. A charter of 1465 also refers to the Audleys owning much land in this area, and they could have brought Audley settlers to it earlier. Possibly this may be the link to the Yardley names on this key frontier crossing into Wales. A John Erdeley was sheriff of Chester in 1449, to be later followed by the Sneyds of Keele parish next to Audley.
William Yeardley the younger’s heir John, married Alice Sutton of Rushton, in 1601, per deeds in the Reverend Hadfield’s huge historical studies of the area, and per Sleigh's History of Leek. The latter gives as his source the Harleian manuscripts, document 1415. Dowry included the large Ravensclough estate in Rushton Spencer, where the 6 sons & 5/6 daughters of John and Alice were born. Only the Bucks county (Pennsylvania) records seem to have these correct The lovely small manor house John built in 1612 stands as it was built, in a superb location below the Cloud hill, and is a small guesthouse, and should be visited. John’s son Edward (1602-1656, from raised tomb) named after his maternal grandfather of Rushton Hall (opposite Rushton church), was local Justice of the Peace. There is apparently a portrait of this last direct male heir of Eardley Hall in the area. Edward married late c1642 to Anne Moncks of Radwood Hall, near Whitmore. Remember that the country drifted into a long Civil war early in 1642. Edward’s colleague, John Bradshaw, Recorder for Newcastle under Lyme, Attorney General for Cheshire and North Wales, and living at Greenway Hall, Biddulph, had been chairman of the Parliamentary committee that signed the death warrant of King Charles I in 1649. His body was dug up for his sins in 1660 and impaled on pikes in different areas. His colleague Major general Harrison of Newcastle Under Lyme was also slowly butchered alive.
The Hall at Eardley end was quite extensive, as the 1666 national Hearth Tax lists it as having nine hearths, with one being the norm. Edward’s daughter Elizabeth took all the Eardley lands to her 1667 husband, Robert Wilmot of Derbyshire .But he seems to have had cash problems, because on 17thApril 1684, he mortgaged Eardley Hall to 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.
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. However, Anne Stanley’s family (and army) of Lancashire had been crucial in bringing the Tudors to the 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. 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 (coincidence?). Perhaps the town’s name origin is in the Berringtons of Sandbach, some 5 miles north of Eardleyend, who were a recognised heraldic family.
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. He was given the former Tintern Abbey as a home. I note that he had kin in Audley parish at this time, and as it was custom 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. 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. 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 it. 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). Later Newcastle and Wolstanton registers are full of Eardley entries. There is an unknown to me William Yardley in 1666 tax returns for the impressive Horsley Hall near Eccleshall. The first years for Stoke parish register – 1634 – 5, show two Yardley women marrying.
The Thomas Yardley (junior), who went to Bucks county in 1704, from whom many
US Yardleys descend, was baptised on December 19th 1675 at Horton, outside Leek
He had inherited the American property of his famous uncle William Yardley and
his adult children, formerly of Dairyhouse (still standing) in Horton parish.
The grave of his elder brother Samuel (c. 1670 –1756), with wife Sarah, nee
Deville, is still in front of Horton church.
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