The Davison Family The first reference to the Davisons is in 1588 when they are shown contributing £50 towards the financing of the Spanish Armada. This held them in good stead for in 1603 John Davison purchases the Manor from Queen Elizabeth 1 for £45. His son Henry in the same year gives to his son also called Henry his home referred to as Pittes Place. It is this Henry who with the marriages of his children into important families that establishes the Davisons as the premier family in the area. But this is to be eclipsed in 1621 when Elizabeth Davison marries John Ashe from Batcombe. This gentleman is to use Freshford as the power base to build up the largest Woolen business in the west of England and create a large fortune both for himself and his family. The Davisons fortunes are eroded by marriage settlements and they sell much of their property until Joseph Davison is shown as a tenant of the Ashes when in 1713 Anthony Methuen of Bradford purchases the Manor from the heiress Mary Ashe for £3,500. Joseph Lives to the great age of 88 leaving what is left of his property at Zeals to his daughter Frances who is married to John Yerbury of Belcombe, near Bradford-on- Avon.

A simplified family tree for the Davisons , with the owners of Freshford Manor in the first column