Ashley, near Bewdley, in Worcestershire. "In the year 1652", says he,
"I entered upon iron-works, and plied them for several years." [4] He
made it a subject of his diligent study how to provide employment for
the poor, then much distressed by the late wars. With the help of his
wife, he established a manufacture of linen, which was attended with
good results. Observing how the difficulties of communication, by
reason of the badness of the roads, hindered the development of the
rich natural resources of the western counties,[5] he applied himself
to the improvement of the navigation of the larger rivers, making
surveys of them at his own cost, and endeavouring to stimulate local
enterprise so as to enable him to carry his plans into effect.

While thus occupied, the restoration of Charles II. took place, and
whether through envy or enmity Yarranton's activity excited the
suspicion of the authorities. His journeys from place to place seemed
to them to point to some Presbyterian plot on foot. On the 13th of
November, 1660, Lord Windsor, Lord-Lieutenant of the county, wrote to
the Secretary of State--"There is a quaker in prison for speaking
treason against his Majesty, and a countryman also, and Captain
Yarrington for refusing to obey my authority." [6] It would appear
from subsequent letters that Yarranton must have lain in prison for
nearly two years, charged with conspiring against the king's authority,
the only evidence against him consisting of some anonymous letter's.
At the end of May, 1662, he succeeded in making his escape from the
custody of the Provost Marshal. The High Sheriff scoured the country
after him at the head of a party of horse, and then he communicated to
the Secretary of State, Sir Edward Nicholas, that the suspected
conspirator could not be found, and was supposed to have made his way
to London. Before the end of a month Yarranton was again in custody,
as appears from the communication of certain justices of Surrey to Sir
Edward Nicholas.[7] As no further notice of Yarranton occurs in the
State Papers, and as we shortly after find him publicly occupied in
carrying out his plans for improving the navigation of the western
rivers, it is probable that his innocence of any plot was established
after a legal investigation. A few years later he published in London
a 4to. tract entitled 'A Full Discovery of the First Presbyterian Sham
Plot,' which most probably contained a vindication of his