Yeamans is said to have come from the south of England,* supposed some time between 1683 and 1690. He bought one hundred acres of land in Oxford township, and what is now the center of Frankford, Philadelphia, bounded by Frankford Creek, Church street, Frankford road to the Arsenal or River road on the east. The deed from William Penn's commissioner, Thomas Fairman, to Yeamans Gillingham, dated August 31, 1691, is recorded in Book I, 5, page 228, October 7, 1699. In 1712 he purchased another lot of ground in the same locality from John Worrell (Deed Book I, 3, page 527, Philadelphia).

Yeamans Gillingham is mentioned on the tax list for Oxford township as having paid six shillings tax in 1693. He was one of the overseers of Abington Meeting, 8th mo. 31, I720.f He died in May or June, 1722, his will being signed May 9, 1722, and probated in Philadelphia July 21, 1722 (Book D, No. 252, page 324).

*He came, doubtless, from Kent or Dorset. If from the latter county, he may have been the son of one James Gillingham, who seems to have had some connection with the Yeamans and Taylor families, of Dorset and Kent, and whose will was proved 1676.2009