into prison by the lord lieutenant of Worcestershire ‘for refusing his lordship's authority.’ He was free in November 1661, when he was compromised by the discovery of some letters relating to an intended presbyterian rising. On 16 Nov. a message was sent from London ordering his arrest, and in May 1662 ‘the escape of Andrew Yarranton, a person dangerous to the government, from the custody of the provost marshal,’ was reported from Worcester [cf. art. Pakington, Sir John, (1620–1680)]. After ‘meetings with several disaffected persons,’ he went up to London, where a warrant was issued for his re-apprehension. He is subsequently described as being ‘as violent a villain against the king as any in those parts.’
In a full account of the affair published by Yarranton in 1681, he declares that the compromising letters were forged; that after he had been imprisoned some five months an account of the fraud was made known to his wife, and by her communicated to himself; that he then publicly denounced the imposture and was released, went up to London ‘to acquaint the king with the great wrong he had received,’ was arrested, but immediately released; returned to Worcester, and within six months was a third time arrested on a new charge of ‘having spoken treasonable words against the king.’ ‘The witnesses were one Dainty (a mountebank, formerly an apothecary of Derby), who afterwards acknowledged that he had 5l. for his pains; the other witness lived in Wales, and went by two names. This was done at the assizes of Worcester; the bill being found by the grand jury, Mr. Yarranton put himself upon his trial, and tho' he did not except against any one of his jury, yet upon a full hearing of his case they presently acquitted him’ (Yarranton, Full Discovery of the First Presbyterian Sham Plot, 1681).
About 1667 Yarranton was despatched by a number of English gentlemen to Saxony, so that, as an expert in the iron manufacture, he might investigate and, if possible, learn the secret of the tinplate industry. ‘Coming to the works,’ he says, ‘we were very civilly treated; and, contrary to our expectation, we had much liberty to view and see the works go, with the way and manner of their working, and extending the plates; as also the perfect view of such materials as they used in clearing the plates to make them fit to take tinn, with the way they use in tinning them over, when clear'd from their rust and blackness; and having (as we judged) sufficiently obtained the whole art of making and tinning the plates, we then came for England, where the several persons concerned in the affair thought fit to make some trial in making some small quantities of plates, and tinning them, which was done … all workmen that wrought upon them agreeing that the plates and the mettal they were made of was much better than those plates which were made in Germany; and would work more pliable, and serve for many more profitable uses, than the German plates would do.’ The secret of the manufacture, however, leaked out, and a rival, being ‘countenanced by some persons of quality,’ succeeded in procuring a ‘trumpt up’ patent. ‘What with the patent being in our way,’ says Yarranton, ‘and the richest of our partners being not willing, or at least afraid, to offend great men then in power, who had their eye upon it, caused the thing to cool, and neither the making thereof proceeded by us, nor possibly could be done by him that had the patent, with such as countenanced it … because neither he that hath the patent, nor those that have countenanced him, can make one plate fit for use’ (England's Improvement, 2nd pt. 1681, pp. 151, 152).
On his return home Yarranton seems to have settled down as a kind of consulting engineer, and to have visited the whole country, giving advice as to ironworks, canals, and improvements of all sorts. In July 1674 he was ‘prevailed with by a person of honour to survey the river Dee, running by the city of Chester into the Irish Sea, and finding the river choked with the sands that a vessel of twenty tons could not come to that noble city,’ he drew ‘a map of the new river to be made to bring up the ships to the city side.’ In November of the same year he crossed over to Ireland ‘to survey some ironworks, woods, and lands.’ Immediately after returning from Ireland he ‘was taken down by the Lord Clarendon to Salisbury to survey the river of Avon, to find whether that river might be made navigable, as also whether a safe harbour could be made at Christ Church for ships to come in and out and lye safe’ (ib. i. 39, 41, 151, 191). It was probably about this time that Lord Windsor employed him to survey several rivers, especially the Avon, ‘in the counties of Worcester, Gloucester, and Warwick’ (i. 189). In addition to these schemes ‘I made it my business,’ he says, ‘to survey the three great rivers of England (i.e. the Thames, Humber, and Severn) and some small ones; and made two navigable and a third almost compleated’ (ib. i. 194).
Yarranton is believed to have died about 1684. He was married, and the Mrs. Yarran-
