By the Rev. W. H. Jones. 3875 
to Trowbridge, about twenty-five years ago, they reported the income 
of this Charity as amounting to £129 18s. per annum,—(repre- 
senting a principal sum of at least £4000,)—the whole of it the pro- 
duce of successive offerings from members of the Yerbury family. 
William Yerbury, one of the builders of the new Alms-house, at 
Trowbridge, also made provision for the poor of Bradford-on-Avon, of 
Road, and of Beckington. In a previous page we have spoken of the 
first of these gifts; it is now unhappily a thing of the past, many 
years having gone by since it was diverted from its original purpose, 
or distributed in bread, in accordance with the founder’s will, 
amongst the poor of Bradford-on-Avon. 
The branch of the Yerbury family that settled in our town, if not 
so famous, were perhaps as useful in their generation as their kins- 
men of Trowbridge. ‘Joun YERBury,’ the first who seems to have 
lived in Bradford-on-Avon, had four sons, all of whom were engaged 
in commercial or agricultural pursuits. ‘THomas,’ one of these sons, 
is the first that is described as a ‘Clothier.’ The family which 
still remains to us and resides at Belcomb, an estate that now for 
some generations has belonged to them, descends from ‘ Watrer,’ 
another of the sons of ‘John Yerbury.’ Each of the brothers 
married and left several children. Few namesare more frequently 
met with in early Parochial Registers or Rate-Books. From the 
beginning of the seventeenth century they began to spread them- 
selves in our immediate neighbourhood, and are known not only 
as occupiers, but as owners of land. 
As might naturally be supposed, with respect to such members 
of the family as devoted themselves to the quiet pursuits of agri- 
cultural, or some kindred, occupation, we know but little. Gene- 
ration by generation they seem to have increased their store of 
worldly means and extended their possessions. Family tradition 
speaks of one as the ‘golden Farmer,’ in consequence of his reputed 
wealth. The great grandson of Walter, by name Joun YERBURY, 
seems to have added to his means and position by a marriage, in 
1703, with Frances, daughter of Joseph Davisson of Freshford, 
whose mother was Joanna Bluet, of Holcombe Court, in Devon. 
Of the same family was Colonel Francis Bluet, the Royalist 
