Hi Linell
Just wrote a long message, but it's disappeared, which is so annoying! To summarise:
I believe the Yardley Family were not necessarily paupers but a family of tenement farmers who were resettled between Cradley and Old Swinford. The Act of Settlement and Removal established the need to prove entitlement to poor relief and which Parish was to provide such poor relief. Settlement certificates were not only issued to paupers. Once settled you could become subject to a Settlement Examination and if you failed the test you were Removed from the Parish. The Parish of settlement was not always the parish of birth. You could be entitled to a right of settlement if you were a tenant farmer paying rates and rental of £10 a year (a lot!!).
And in the 18th century the Enclosure Act took place (1780s). Land holders enclosed their land with hedges and ditches and used the land for their own purposes. Ownership of the land passed from the Lord of the Manor, and those who had been tenants now became freeholders.
My suspicion is that John Yardley born 1737 would have benefitted, particularly being the only surviving son. Living in Cradley he may have become a freeholder of land there in the 1880s (he is listed in both the field survey and under the Polls as owning a property in Cradley/Land), but living in Old Swinford.
He would have probably taken on more land in Old Swinford, together with his sons (John, Thomas and Joseph were all farmers there). He may have had brick kilns on the land for glass making, nail industry etc, and meadows to grow grass, rising up in the world to become Yeoman of his parish.
The 1816 Court Rolls & Auctions probably refer to his son John Yardley (born 1766) and his grandson Joseph (b. 1801, also a farmer). The main issue are the dates...John Yardley (b. 1766) died in 1815 (?) so this would have happened after his death. Or maybe his date of death is in fact later. The Auction of the farm and land may have been in connection with his death, and the Yardley referred to in the solicitors letters may be one of his sons.
You can then see a next generation of farmers & millers in the mid 1880s. Some had quite large farms.
John Yardley's (b. 1737) son William Yardley (b. 1763) was a minor when he married, and unfortunately I do not know his trade. His son John Yardley and his wife Lydia Spittle were all nailers, and perhaps William was one too. I always thought they were probably very poor living in Lye Wasteland and descended from a family of nailers, but the information you have found suggests they were from a farming family. John and Lydia had many children but many died in infancy. This line of Yardleys eventually became anvil makers and moved to Sheffield, and it is here that the first (of William's family line) successful white collar worker was born in the late 19th century.
Obviously I can only hypothesise. And if we can unearth more documents it may confirm the above.
Jules
