The following letter is a direct transcript of a letter written by a Miss Anna Yarnall of Philadelphia, concerning some of the history of the Yarnalls in England. The person to whom the letter was sent is unknown. Research in the last several decades has proceeded further than Miss Yarnall indicated was possible in her letter.
Also, she refers to a window in a church being dedicated to a Richard Yarnall and his wife Joanna. Thanks to Mike Yarnold, who lives in Worcestershire, who writes that the window's script actually says, "ORATE PRO ANIMA JOHANNES ET JOHANA YARNOLD UXOR EIUS" Pray for the soul of John and Joan Yarnold his wife". This window is in the parish church in Oddingley, Worcestershire.
Yarnall
Copied from a letter written by
Miss Anna Yarnall of 1227 Spruce St.
a descendant of Philip and Dorothy Yarnall.
" I am sorry I cannot give
you any furthur information regarding
our common ancestry before 1684.
The little village ____?____ to near
Worcester Eng. was Claines. There
was a very old and beautiful little
Church there - and as I told you-
the Church registers and the
Church yard contained many
references to the presence of
generations of Yarnalls - and
Yarnolds there - the latter is
probably the older form of the
name.
page 2
But it is not possible to
trace our line of ancestry
farther back than 1684 -
because the Church registers
for the previous twenty - or
thirty - years in England had
been destroyed or lost during
the Rebellion. From the
tombstones and registers
earlier than 1640 the Yarnalls
would seem to have been
substantial farmers and
landowners, small squires also
of some position and property
at a village whose name I
cannot remember several
miles off Yarnalls also
founded. A cousin of
page 3
mine went there once, and he
heard that a stained glass window
once existed in the Church, put
up to the memory of some of our
name, inquired about it and
was shown a beautiful window
which had been removed by
the Lord of the Manor to his own
house near by. It must have
dated back to Pre-Reformation
days, for it asked the
spectators to pray for the
souls of Richard Yarnall
of Netherwood House and
Pine-apple Farm and of
Joanna his wife.
Have you the Yarnall
page 4
Coat of Arms? It is without
crest or motto which my cousin
was told at the heraldry office
in London was a sign of age.
The letter is not dated nor addressed. We do know that Miss Anna Yarnall was living at 1227 Spruce St, Philadelphia, in 1900. This letter, then, was written late 19th or early 20th century.
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