A Skinner
In August 1871, Shadrach Edge was charged by John Greenhill with assault at their place of work, W J Turney & Co in Stourbridge.
Shadrach (later Shadrack or Shadrick) (17) and John (14) were both employed as skinners, a job that involved skinning animals and preparing their hides for tanning. Working under Shadrach, John didn’t clean a knife when Shadrach asked him to do so. Shadrach then kicked and hit him, knocking him against a machine. The local court decided that both boys were fighting and equally to blame.
Three people were connected by this event.
The boys’ employer, William Jonab Turney, a parchment manufacturer and leather dresser from Nottingham had leased and purchased various properties from Joseph Pitman on Mill Street in Stourbridge four years previously in 1867. Joseph Pitman had run a skinnery that processed animal skin into leather and parchment. William Turney successfully developed this business and also expanded its manufacture to glue making.
A notable figure in Stourbridge, William was Chairman of the Town Commissioners for a number of years and donated a large sum of money for the building of Stourbridge Town Hall.
He died in March 1895 at the age of 53 but the firm of W J Turney & Co remained in business until 1957.
John Greenhill remained at W J Turney & Co for the whole of his working life.
Shadrach Edge went on to have an eventful life that took him far from his home town of Stourbridge.
A Gold Miner
In later life Shadrach reminisced that he left Stourbridge for Australia as a young boy using the name of Brown for ‘private reasons’. This must have occurred at some point in the years immediately following the fight with John Greenhill when Shadrach was aged between 17 and 19.
He left behind his parents, Joseph and Elizabeth, and five younger siblings – Henry, Alfred, Hannah, George and Amelia.
On arrival in Australia he worked ‘in a humble capacity’ for a settler and saved money to buy a cart. Telling his employer he was going to look for gold, he headed for the Charters Towers gold fields, inland of the coastal town of Townsville in Queensland, where he was issued with miner’s right no. 68166 in May 1874.
Gold had been discovered at Charters Towers in 1871 attracting a rush of miners and investors. Shadrick though did not have great luck and ‘disheartened turned back and commenced the long tramp through the dry regions of Western Queensland’.
A Grazier
One evening, after not seeing another human being for some weeks, Shadrick came across a hut where he found a sick Chinese man lying on a bed. The Chinese man did not speak English but pointed to an earthenware bowl on a nearby packing case. Shadrick gave the man water from the bowl. The man then ‘weakly motioned him close and then with considerable effort gave him a Chinese blessing’ conveying that Shadrick’s lucky number would be 13.
Shadrick claimed this chance meeting was the turning point in his life and that the Chinese blessing always followed him.
He began to buy and sell sheep and eventually became a very wealthy land owner and grazier. By 1896, he held the sheep and cattle brand licence for Dookey Farm and owned the Longland and St. Brigid’s Park selections (= plots of land) at Camoola, Longreach.
Shadrick’s brother, Alfred Edge, followed him to Australia. He and his wife arrived in Queensland in 1890 when Alfred was granted a licence as a victualler at Camoola. He was recorded as an opal miner on living in a cottage behind Buffhani’s soap factory in 1895.
A violent storm hit Longreach on 12 February 1906 causing considerable damage to property. During the storm, Shadrick sheltered in a tent together with Alfred, his wife and son at Shadrick’s property at St. Brigid’s Park. As Alfred was holding the tent ridge pole, lightning struck him on the head and instantly killed him.
Shadrick purchased Alderley Station at Bulio for £3300 in 1912 when he was 59 years old.
Three Wives
Shadrick married three times.
His first marriage was to Mary Ann Hagney in 1891. Mary died in August 1911 at the age of 40.
Shadrick subsequently married a widow who had emigrated from Wales, Mary Morrisey (maiden name Pearce), in 1914. Mary died six years later in 1920.
The third marriage was to his housekeeper, Caroline Tyrell (maiden name Baker), in 1921. Caroline died in 1928.
Shadrick had four children from his first marriage to Mary Ann Hagney:
Mary Amelia born in 1891
Clarence James in 1892
Martha in 1896
William in 1898.
William died as an infant in 1899 and Martha died at the age of 4 in 1900.
Clarence James, a private in the 9th Battalion Australian Infantry, was killed in action in France in May 1917.
An Invalid
In the early 1920s, Shadrick suffered a stroke which left him paralysed him on his right side.
In 1929, he purchased a house for his only surviving child, Mary Amelia, on Park Avenue in Rockhampton where he lived for his last 18 months of his life. He was looked after by his daughter and step-daughter, Annie Teresa Hart (maiden name Morrisey), the daughter of his second wife. Much of his time was spent sitting in an invalid’s chair on the veranda. Witnesses at the later trial concerning his estate recalled Shadrick retained a good ability for calculations and remained a good judge of prices.
He died at the age of 78 on 8 October 1930 leaving an estate with a value of around £30,000, the equivalent of roughly £2 million today.
Three Wills
Shadrick had made three Wills.
The first made in hospital and dated 8 August 1928 bequeathed considerable sums of money to Shadrick’s siblings, Amelia and George, and his niece, Martha, in England.
Two further Wills dated 23 April 1929 and 16 September 1929 made his daughter, Amelia Harridge, the sole executor and trustee of his estate.
A dispute about these Wills led to a lengthy trial that was widely reported in the Australian press. Amelia contested that she was the sole heir of Shadrick’s estate. A first trial though concluded with a decision that the Will of 16 September 1929 was not made according to the law and that Shadrick had not been of sound mind, memory and understanding and did not approve of the contents. During the trial, his step-daughter, Annie Teresa Hart, stated her step-father had declared he was leaving his relatives in England nothing as they had done nothing for him. He had left them when he was only a boy, had sent for them to come to Australia and they had gone back without thanking him.
An appeal followed when the Will dated 16 September 1929 was accepted as made according to the law. It was finally agreed in September 1932 that Shadrick’s siblings, Amelia (Lowe) and George in Stourbridge, and his niece, Martha Hill in London, be awarded a total of £4000 from the estate, Amelia receiving £2000 and George and Martha £1000 each. Annie Teresa Hart was awarded £100 + interest. The court costs and estate duties were paid from the Shadrick Edge estate and the remainder was left to Amelia Harridge with a trust drawn up for her four children.
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Shadrach Edge was born in Stourbridge and baptised at St Mary’s Church in Oldswinford on 2 January 1854.
He was the cousin of my 3x great grandfather, John Skidmore.
His parents were Joseph Edge and Elizabeth Webb. Joseph Edge was the son of John Edge, my 5x great grandfather, and brother of Susannah Edge (Skidmore), my 4x great grandmother.
Shadrach’s great grandfather was my 6x great grandfather Ralph Edge.
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