Bradford on Avon: Yerbury Family

This is the only family, with a pedigree recorded in the Herald's Visitation of 1623, whose direct male descendants still continue resident in Bradford-on-Avon. The sudden decease of its gallant and worthy representative almost whilst these sheets are passing through the press, gives an additional interest to the account we are about to lay before our readers, a portion of the materials having been kindly furnished by himself to the writer of this sketch.
The earliest member of the Yerbury family mentioned in the Visitations is ' LAUEENCE YERBBIE,' described as of Batcombe, Somerset, who was settled there, about the middle of the fifteenth century. Connexions by marriage with some of the leading families of Wiltshire brought them soon afterwards into this county, where they applied their energies to the wool-trade, from which at that time the greater part of the wealth of the country was derived. Either as ' Wool Staplers' or ' Clothiers/ (dealers, that is, in wool, either in the raw or the manufactured state,) they traded and prospered in our neighbourhood from the commencement of the sixteenth century.
The first member of the family known to have settled in our vicinity was ' THOMAS YERBERIE ' described as of Trowbridge, who married Alice, daughter of Thomas Horton, of Westwood. The last is a name frequently mentioned in our pages, and one which our readers will almost have learnt to regard as a synonymous for worldly wealth. Connections also, as the pedigree shows, were formed about the same time with the ' Longs ' of Trowbridge, and of Whaddon, a family that every year was increasing in property and station. With such advantages, it is not wonderful that ' Thomas Yerberie' of Trowbridge prospered, and was able, at his decease, to bequeath a goodly portion to each of his children.
He left behind him three sons,-JOHN, according to the best authorities, the eldest, and the first that settled at Bradford-on-Avon ;-WILLIAM, who remained at Trowbridge :-and THOMAS, described as of Frome, and several of whose descendants are buried in Laverton Church, near Frome, where there are monumental tablets to their memory.
The two first-named-John and William, belong more immediately to this memoir. The family spread itself in course of years into other parts of Wilts,-to Conock,1 to Lavington, to Coulston, &c., but our present enquiry extends only to those who came here or into our immediate neighbourhood. And as we are able to bring down a direct descent in the Bradford-on-Avon line to the present time, it will be more convenient to dispose first, of the second or Trowbridge branch.
WILLIAM YERBURY of Trowbridge married his first cousin Anne, daughter of Henry Long of Whaddon. They became the ancestors of several men of mark. The characteristic of this family seems to have been, a steady and unswerving fidelity to their King. Amidst all the troubles of his troubled reign they were true to the fortunes of Charles I. They were

1 There is some difficulty in reconciling the various authorities in their statements concerning the pedigree of Rogers. Aubrey gives, under 1 Headington,' a pedigree, in which is included a memorandum, said to be from the Herald's college, from which it would appear that ' George Rogers, of Luppit' was a brother instead of a son of Thomas, the Serjeant-at-Law. I have tried to reconcile the various statements, but have been unable. The pedigree I have compiled is that which certainly has the greater weight of authorities in its favour, and I have added the sources of information, in doubtful cases, on which I have relied. Canon Jackson tells me, that the pedigree in Aubrey's MS., is on a separate leaf and not in Aubrey's own hand-writing. He says, moreover,-" Three of the Rogers family were successively Rectors of Headington (Wilts Inst. 1605, -1670-and 1724) and it is most likely that Aubrey received the pedigree from ' Henry Rogers,' Rector from 1670-1721, who also held the livings of Leigh Delamere, and Yatesbury."

1 The estate of ' Gifford Yerbury' at Conock came to the ' Warriner' family. At a sale of the effects of the last owner no very long time ago Mr. Ellen, of Devizes, bought an oak chair having the cypher G. Y. and a Merchant's mark carved on the back, with the date 1621.
staunch, uncompromising Royalists; no peril deterred them from avowing, no hope of gain induced them to renounce the principles.
Amongst those who ' lent money to the King's Majesty (James I.) in the year 1611, is the name of EDWARD YERBURY (the son of William and Anne,) though the Commission appointed to ' note the names of such persons as were thought fit to lend such money' had not included his in their lists The same Edward acted afterwards as Commissioner for King Charles I. For this, when the Parliament triumphed, he had to compound for his estates and to pay a fine of £160. (See p. 53).a From an inscription on a monument in Trowbridge Church,3 erected to his memory by Edward Yerbury, his grandson, we learn that he was obliged afterwards to flee from Trowbridge. The reason of his compulsory retirement may be understood from the following extract;-"4 May 1647. "An order arises from Goldsmiths' Hall directing the renewed sequestration of Edward Yerbury, Esq., by the Wilts Committee, unless within ten days he produced a certificate from London explanatory of his conduct: his offence being, that, after the settlement of his fine, he neglected to sue out his pardon under the Great Seal." He retired to Plymouth as a hiding-place, and there, as an exile, he died, and found his last earthly home, a few months only before his royal master suffered at Whitehall.
Eleven children, five daughters and six sons, were born to him, most of whom survived him. From one of the former, Eleanor, married to Dr. Alworth, Chancellor to the Bishop of Oxford, descends, materially, the family, of Merewether, well known and highly esteemed in Wiltshire. Several of the former, loyal sons of a loyal father, shewed like him their devotion to their King. More than one of them rose to positions of influence and dignity. EDWARD YERBURY, the eldest son, was Secretary to Lord Seymour, brother of the Marquis of Hertford, and acted in this capacity, it is believed, during the sittings at the treaty at Uxbridge. A few years afterwards, together with his brother William, and others, whose names, - Wallis, - Lovell, - Long, - Sydenham, - indicate a family connection, he joined in the attempt commonly known as the ' Penruddock rising ' the object of which waa the overthrow of Cromwell's government. Its result, as is well known, was most disastrous to many concerned in it, though the Yerbury`s, somehow or other, contrived to escape. The ring-leaders were taken prisoners ; Penruddock and Grove were beheaded at Exeter; several others suffered at Salisbury; some were sold for slaves in Barbados.
We find another of the sons of Edward Yerbury the elder, JOHN, by name, in the list of Royalists, on whom, in 1643, the Commissioners appointed by the Parliament, levied fines for the privilege of holding their estates, It was his son EDWARD, a Fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford, (successor in that position to an uncle of whom we must speak more fully,) that erected the monument in Trowbridge Church to which we have alluded. No doubt to his pen we owe the correct and elegant Latin Inscription, which records the decease of his grandfather, - his father, - and his uncle Edward Yerbury.
The most distinguished, however, of the sons of Edward Yerbury the elder, (at least for his attainments,} was HENRY, who was for many years a Fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford.1 Like his father and brothers, he too, was a staunch Royalist, and, in due time, reaped the consequences of his principles. When the Parliamentary Commissioners visited Oxford, he was ejected by them from his Fellowship. After his expulsion he traveled to the South of Europe, and settling at Padua took the degree of Doctor of Physic at the University there established. Whilst there he seems to have acted as tutor to Thomas and Henry Howard, successively Dukes of Norfolk,1 the former of whom died unmarried at Padua in 1677. On the Restoration in 1660, Dr. Henry Yerburv recovered his Fellowship, and followed up at Oxford those tastes for natural science which he had cultivated in Italy He became a pupil of the noted Peter Sthael, a chemist and Rosicrusian of Strasburg, who had settled in Oxford in the year 1659, brought thither by the Hon. Robert Boyle. Amongst those, besides Dr. Henry Yerbury, who attended the classes of this foreign, and, at the tune, highly-esteemed lecturer, were several whose names are very familiar to us . They were,-Sir Christopher Wren,-Nathaniel Crew, afterwards Bishop of Durham,-Dr. Ralph Bathurst, afterwards President of Trinity and Dean of Wells'-and Sir Thomas Millington, of All-Souls' College.3
Shortly after this time, Dr. Henry Yerbury became involved in disputes with the President of his College, in consequence of which he seems once more to have been removed from his Fellowship. Dr. Pierce, (a son of John Pierce,8 a wealthy alderman and draper of Devizes,) who, with Henry Yerbury, had been ejected from a Fellowship at Magdalen College by the Parliamentary Commissioners, was, on the Restoration, raised to the high and coveted post of President. His domineering spirit caused much dissatisfaction in the College, and this at last led to an open rupture between himself and the other members of the Society. The President resolved at length on the extreme step of declaring Dr. Henry Yerbury expelled from his Fellowship. The circumstances were gingularly unlike those under which he waa before ejected; for now a determined Koyalist was expelled by one who was the stout and uncompromising a Royalist as himself. A paper which speedily followed this act of the President. One pamphlet, especially caustic in its tone, entitled, "Dr. Pierce, his preaching confuted by his practice," led to the expulsion of its author, 'John Dobson,' from the University. Peace was not restored till the resignation, in 1672, of the litigious President. Three years after his retirement from Magdalen, Dr. Pierce was appointed Dean of Sarum, where his contentions temper again displayed itself in a smart controversy with the Bishop, Dr. Beth Ward, on the right of bestowing the Prebends of the Cathedral; a controversy, which, though it was determined in the Bishop's favour, is said nevertheless to have embittered the closing days of his life. Dr. Henry Yerbury, we presume, regained his Fellowship on the retirement of Dr. Pierce, for he died at Oxford in the year 1686, and was buried in the chapel of Magdalen College. He must have been highly esteemed in the University, for in the year 1679 he was one of the candidates proposed for its representation in Parliament. He voluntarily retired, before the contest, began, in favor of Heneage Finch, then Solicitor General, afterwards created Earl of Aylesford, who was especially recommended by the then Chancellor of the University.
Before we leave the Trowbridge branch of the Yerbury family, we must make a passing mention of their generous benefactions to the poor of that, as well as of several of the neighbouring parishes. The new Alms-house at Trowbridge was erected by the three brothers, William, John and Richard Yerbury. It was subsequently endowed by bequests under the wills of two of them. Dr. Henry Yerbury, and his nephew Edward, of both of whom mention has been already , augmented its income with their respective donations. Yerbury, of Hempstead, who was, we presume a, son
of Richard Yerbury, towards the middle of the last century conveyed to Trustees a certain portion of land for its endowment. At the time of the visit of the Charity Commissioners! to Trowbridge, about twenty-five years ago, they reported the income of this Charity as amounting to £129 18s. per annum - (representing a principal sum of at least £4000,) - the whole of it the produce 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 kinsmen of Trowbridge. ' JOHN 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 Belcombe, an estate that now for some generations has belonged to them, descends from ' WALTER,' another of the sons of 'John Yerhury.' Each of the brothers married and left several children. Few names are more frequently met with in early Parochial Registers or Rate-Books. Prom the beginning of the seventeenth century they began to spread themselves 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 agricultural, or some kindred, occupation, we know but little. Generation 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 JOHN YEBBURY seems to have by 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 commander, killed at the siege of Lyme in 1644, whilst serving under Prince Maurice.
It was, however, the son of the last named John Yerbury, who bore the name,-so frequent in this branch of their family, - of FRANCIS, that struck out a new path for himself, and reaped fully the reward of his ingenuity. He was educated at first for the bar. Having a taste for all kinds of mechanical contrivances, he was accustomed, whilst a resident in London, to visit the silk manufactories of Spital Fields. The 'mystery' of cloth-making was not unknown to him, from his connection with Brad ford-on-Avon. He conceived the idea, that, by introducing into its manufacture some of the plans and contrivances adopted in the weaving of silk, cloth might be materially improved in quality. What was made here, before his time, was thick and coarse in its texture, and had, technically speaking, little or no 'face' on it. He matured his plans, and, when ready to carry them into effect, obtained far his invention, or, at least, improvement, the protection of a Patent.1 The document is still in the possession of the family. His enterprise and talent met with an ample reward in a huge accession to his fortune. The improvements introduced by Francis Yerbury, were, in due time, adopted by other manufacturers, and led ultimately to results, so far as the cloth-trade was concerned, at the first but little expected.Of his son, JOHN WILLIAM YERBURY, who, on the death of the father in 1778, became the representative of the family here, we have a circumstance recorded that shows he had inherited no little portion of the brave spirit of his kinsmen In a Journal published at the time, (1787), we have the following account. " Some 1500 or more weavers from Bradford and Trowbridge having compelled their masters to acquiesce in certain new regulations [not stated] were so flushed with success that they marched in triumph from Trowbridge to Bradford, but were repelled at the entrance of the latter place by the principal inhabitants. At Belcomb Brook they also met with a stout resistance, for Mr. Yerbury had planted two patereros at his windows, which swept the lawn. Supported by many armed friends, he addressed the rioters in so able a manner as to induce them to retire without causing any disturbance. The military arrived the next day and the combination was at an end."
The son of the last-named John William Yerbury,-who bore the same name as his father,-will be very well remembered by many who read these pages. A few short months only have passed since he was busy amongst as, discharging diligently his duties as a magistrate and enjoying the well-earned respect of all his fellow townsmen. He too, like his grandfather, Francis Yerbury, was, in early life, destined for the Bar. He entered Trinity College, Cambridge, and in due time took big degree, in preparation for what was then his destined profession. His inclination, however, lay towards a military life; and, after a time, he obtained a commission in the 66th Regiment of Foot. Very shortly afterwards he joined the 3rd Light Dragoons, and in that regiment he remained until his retirement from the army, with the rank of Lieu tenant-Colon el, a little more than four years ago.
His period of active service extended over no less than thirty years. Some friend, evidently well acquainted with his military career, thus summed up his services in a well known periodical published shortly after his decease.--"Colonel Yerbury had seen much active service in India: he was
throughout the campaign of 1642 in Afghanistan; was present at the forcing of the Khyber Pass, at the storming of the heights, Jugduluck, the actions of Tezeen, and Hafkoatul, (where his horse was wounded) the occupation of Cabul, and tbe capture of Istalif. He commanded his regiment in the Punjaub campaign of 1848 and 1849; was present at Rumnagger, at the action of Sadoclapore, and the battles of Chillianwallah and Goojerat. He received a medal for Afghanistan, and a medal and two clasps for the latter campaign. At Chillianwallah the fate of the battle hung upon the charge of the 3rd Light Dragoons, and the honor of his country and the safety of the army were ably sustained by as brave and gallant a soldier as ever drew the sword. General Gough watched them with intense anxiety, and at last seeing them emerge on the other side of the enemy,-having ridden right through that wing of the Sikh army,-be declared that the day was his own."1
After he quitted the army Colonel Yerbury settled at Belcomb Brook, and looked forward to the probable enjoyment of some years of quiet retirement. And few, judging from outward appearances, had a greater right to indulge such hopes. But it was not so to be;-' I'homme propose, Dieu dispose' When in the midst of extensive alterations in his house, with but one room in which, whilst watching day by day the progress of the work, he had been living; he was seized with that illness which within a week proved fatal to him. It was almost a soldier's death: he breathed his last rather in a tent, than in a fixed abode; he fell in the full vigor of his strength, before man discerned a single trace of the decrepitude of advancing years.
He left behind him several children. May those who inherit his name, exhibit also his acknowledged Excellencies. They will find that, for their father's sake, as well as for their own, they will readily secure no scanty measure of respect and attachment from their fellow-townsmen and neighbours in Bradford-on-Avon. -extract from Rev. Jones History of Bradford on Avon