Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 63.djvu/308

 YALLOP, EDWARD (d. 1767), author and translator. [See ]  YANIEWICZ, FELIX (1762–1848), violinist and composer. [See ]  YARINGTON, ROBERT (fl. 1601), dramatist, was author of ‘Two Lamentable Tragedies. The one of the murther of Maister Beech, A Chaundler in Thames-streete, and his boye, done by Thomas Merry. The other of a young childe murthered in a Wood by two Ruffins, with the consent of his Unckle. By Rob. Yarington. London. Printed for Mathew Lawe, and are to be solde at his Shop in Paules Churchyarde neere unto S. Austines Gate at the signe of the Foxe,’ 1601, 4to. Nothing has been discovered concerning Robert Yarington. In Henslowe's ‘Diary’ (ed. Collier, pp. 92–3) we find that in 1599 Haughton and Day wrote a tragedy called ‘The Tragedy of Thomas Merrye.’ This was clearly on the first subject of Yarington's play. The next entry in the ‘Diary’ refers to ‘The Orphanes Tragedy’ by Chettle, which was apparently never finished. This would seem to be the second subject of Yarington's play. Mr. Fleay conjectures that Rob. Yarington is a fictitious name, and that his play is an amalgamation of the two plays by Haughton, Day, and Chettle. Mr. A. H. Bullen republished the play with an introduction in ‘A Collection of Old English Plays’ (1885, vol. iv.).

 YARMOUTH,. [See 1631–1683.]  YARMOUTH,. [See 1704–1765.]

 YARRANTON, ANDREW (1616–1684?), engineer and agriculturist, was born at Larford in the parish of Astley, Worcestershire, in 1616. About 1632 he was apprenticed to a linendraper of Worcester, but ran away (England's Improvement by Sea and Land, p. 193). He then ‘lived a countrey life for some years,’ but at the outbreak of the civil war he joined the parliamentary army. No details are known as to his military career, except that he held a captain's commission. In 1648 he was instrumental in discovering a royalist conspiracy to seize Doyley House in Herefordshire (Cal. State Papers, 21 July 1648). Before 1652 he appears to have retired from the army, although he was still styled Captain Yarranton in 1656, when he was engaged in disputes in regard to estates in his possession.

In 1652 Yarranton ‘entered upon ironworks’ (England's Improvement, 1677, p. 193), and also busied himself in schemes for cutting canals and rendering rivers navigable, similar to those which were at the same time being carried out in Surrey by Sir [q. v.] Most of Yarranton's projects seem to have been frustrated by lack of money. He attempted to connect Droitwich with Worcester by rendering the river Salwarp navigable, thus obviating the heavy expense of the carriage of salt to Worcester by land. ‘In 1655 Captain Yarranton and Captain Wall undertook for the sum of 750l. to make the river Salwarp navigable, and to procure letters patent for doing it from the Protector [cf. art. , seventh and first ]. The burgesses agreed to give them eight phats at Upwich valued at 80l. per annum, and three-fourths of a phat at Netherwich, where the value of phats was double that at Upwich, for 21 years, as an equivalent to their demands. But the times being unsettled, and Yarranton and Wall not rich, the scheme, whose authors were more disinterested than projectors generally are, was never carried into execution’ (, Worcestershire, 1782, i. 306). It had also been a favourite scheme of Yarranton's to render the river Stour navigable, and some small progress was made in the matter, but the attempt was soon allowed to drop. Thereupon, says Yarranton, ‘being a brat of my own, I was not willing it should be abortive; therefore I made offers to perfect it, having a third part of the inheritance to me and my heirs for ever, and we came to an agreement, upon which I fell on and made it completely navigable from Sturbridge to Kederminster, and carried down many hundred tuns of coales, and laid out near one thousand pounds; and there it was obstructed for want of money’ (England's Improvement, pp. 65–6).

Yarranton was (after Sir Richard Weston) one of the first to appreciate the agricultural value of clover. He wrote two small pamphlets recommending its use, and acted as an agent for the supply of seed, ‘and I hope, and partly know, that great part of Worcestershire, Gloucestershire, Herefordshire, Shropshire, and Staffordshire have doubled the value of the land by the husbandry discovered to them’ (ib. p. 194).

At the Restoration Yarranton was thrown