John Yeardley was born on the 3rd of the First Month, 1786, at a small farm-house beside Orgreave Hall, in the valley of the Rother, four miles south of Rotherham.  His parents, Joel and Frances Yeardley, farmed some land, chiefly pasture, and his mother is said to have been famous for her cream-cheeses, which she carried herself to Sheffield market.  She was a pious and industrious woman; but, through the misconduct of her husband, was sometimes reduced to such straits as scarcely to have enough food for her children.

Before they left Orgreave they were attracted towards the worship of Friends, and several of the family, including two of Joel Yeardley’s sisters, embraced the truth as held by the Society.  In the year 1802 they removed to a farm at Blacker, three miles south of Barnsley, and attended the meeting at Monk Bretton, or Burton, near that town, where the meeting-house then stood.  At Blacker it was John’s business to ride into Barnsley daily on a pony, with two barrels of milk to distribute to the customers of his mother’s dairy.  His elder brother Thomas worked on the farm.

Their attendance at Burton meeting brought the family under the notice of Joseph Wood, a minister of the Society, residing at Newhouse, near Highflatts, four miles from Penistone.  Joseph Wood had been a Yorkshire clothier, but relinquished business in the prime of life, and spent the rest of his days in assiduous pastoral labor of a kind of which we have few examples.  To attend a Monthly Meeting he would leave home on foot the Seventh-day before, with John Bottomley, also a Friend and preacher, and at one time his servant, for some neighboring meeting.  He would occupy the evening with social calls, dropping at every house the word of exhortation or comfort.  The meeting next day would witness his fervent ministry.  In the afternoon they would proceed to the place where the Monthly Meeting was to be held the following day, which they would attend, filling up the time before and after with social and religious visits.  In the intervals of the Monthly Meetings, when not engaged on more distant service, it was his practice to appoint meetings for worship in the villages around Highflatts, and very frequently to visit those places where individuals were “under convincement,” particularly Barnsley and Dewsbury, where at that time many were added to the Society.  On his return home from these services he would spend the day in an upper room, without a fire, even in the severest weather, writing a minute account of all that had happened.

It was in 1803 that Joseph Wood first had intercourse with Joel Yeardley’s family.  Under date of the 19th of the Fourth Month, he says, speaking of himself and some other concerned Friends:—­