Memoir and Diary of John Yeardley, Minister of the Gospel | Page 6

applied themselves to the linen manufacture, and
were taken into the warehouse of Thomas Dixon Walton, a Friend, who
afterwards married a daughter of Thomas Shillitoe.
In the First Month, 1806, Joseph Wood records another interesting
interview with his young friend:--
1 mo. 7.--I called on Thomas Dixon Walton and John Yeardley, with
whom I had a religious opportunity in which the language of
encouragement flowed freely; I being opened unto them from Luke xii.
32; "Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give
you the kingdom."
In the Third Month of this year John Yeardley made application for
membership in the Society of Friends, and was admitted in the Fifth
Month following, being then twenty years of age. His brother Thomas
had joined the Society some time before. The brothers are thus
described by one who knew them intimately:--Thomas, as a man of
homely manners, of hearty and genial character, and greatly beloved;
John, as possessing a native refinement which made it easy for him in
after-life to rise in social position, but whose reserved habits caused
him to be less generally appreciated.
The call which John Yeardley received, and which he so happily
obeyed, to leave the world and enter by the strait gate into the kingdom
of heaven, was accompanied, as we shall afterwards see more fully, by
a secret conviction that he would one day have publicly to preach to

others the Gospel of salvation. A sense that such was the case seems to
have taken hold of Joseph Wood's mind, in a visit which he made him
some time after his admission into the Society.
1 mo. 29, 1808.--Sat with T.D. Walton and his wife, and his man John
Yeardley. I had two pretty long testimonies to bear from Colossians iv.
17. I had to show the necessity there was for those who had received a
gift in the ministry to be faithful, and, as Satan was as busy about these
as any others, to be careful to withstand his temptations, that nothing
might hinder our fulfilment of this gift, nor anything be suffered to
prevail over us that might hinder its proper effect upon others.
After Thomas was gone to breakfast, my mind was unexpectedly
opened in a pretty long encouraging testimony to John, from John xxi.
22--"What is that to thee? follow thou me;" having gently to caution
him not to look at others to his hurt, but faithfully follow his Master,
Jesus Christ, in the way of his leadings.
In 1809 John Yeardley married Elizabeth Dunn. She was much older
than himself, "plain in person," but "full of simplicity and goodness,"
and of a "most lovable" character. Like her husband she had come into
the Society by convincement; and like him she had partaken in a large
degree of the paternal sympathy and oversight of Joseph Wood. She
had been a Methodist, and was one of the first who joined with Friends
at Barnsley in the awakening which took place there in the beginning of
the century.
John Yeardley and his wife inhabited, on their marriage, a small house
at the southern extremity of the town, whither very soon afterwards was
transferred the afternoon meeting which it was customary to hold at
some Friend's house in Barnsley. The morning meeting continued to be
held at. Burton until 1816, when a new meeting-house was built in the
town.
They had only one child, a son, who died in infancy.
John Yeardley commenced his Diary in 1811; and this valuable record
of his religious experience, and of his travels in the service of the

Gospel, was maintained with more or less regularity to the end of his
life. The motive which induced him to adopt this practice is given in
the following lines, with which the manuscript commences:--
It may seem a little strange that I should, in my present situation,
attempt to keep any memorandums of the following kind; but feeling
desirous simply to pen down a few broken remarks as they may at
times occur to my mind, I apprehend no great harm can arise; and if, by
causing a closer scrutiny into my future stepping along, they should in
any degree exercise my mind to spiritual improvement, the intended
purpose will be fully answered.
The first entry is dated the 6th of the Tenth Month, 1811:--
First-day.--Have been sweetly refreshed at our little meeting this
morning. I have long felt assured that Time calls for greater diligence in
me than has hitherto been rendered. And when I consider the
innumerable favors and privileges which I enjoy at the hands of Divine
Providence, beyond many of my fellow-creatures, and the few returns
of gratitude I am making, it raises in me an inexpressible desire that my
few remaining days