Eddison Family & Company History

The Eddison family were Quakers from the foundation of the movement in the C17th. They had been in the cloth trade in the Leeds area in Yorkshire but some members of the family were also quite successful and innovative farmers. The famous American inventor, Thomas Alva Edison is thought to be a distant relative. 

John Eddison (1756-1812) had married Ann Booth and they had eight children. John died young and his two brothers helped his widow bring up the children.  The family had money and the children were well educated. 

One son, Edwin Eddison (1805-1867) had attended the strict Tatham's Quaker school in Leeds. At age 15, he had been articled to a lawyer Richard Ecroyd Payne of Leeds and later studied in London. In turn, he became a respected local solicitor in Leeds and the city's first Town Clerk. He had married Hannah Mary Baker in November 1830 and they had nine children, six being sons, three of whom were engineers. 

Left : Edwin Eddison (Frank Eddison's father);              Centre : John Fowler (1826-1864);                                 Right : Fowler's steam ploughs.

The oldest Eddison son, Robert had joined John Fowler & Company and became a director of the company. Fowlers had been established in Leeds in 1860 and soon became one of the main operators and manufacturers of steam ploughing equipment. John Fowler himself was killed whilst hunting in 1864. Fortunately, there were very competent staff in the company including an innovative German engineer Max Eyth to carry on the business.

In 1866, Frank (Francis) Eddison (1841-1888), one of Robert's younger brothers was living in Ollerton, Nottinghamshire where he purchased a pair of 10 HP single cylinder Fowler ploughing engines. He probably financed this with family money and in 1869 he purchased a further pair of Fowler 12HP double cylinder engines. He carried out ploughing for local farmers on a contract hire basis. 

Steam ploughing had grown greatly from its invention in the first half of the C19th. A steam plough set had two traction engines each with winding gear and crew at each end of the field being ploughed. The plough was hauled back and forth across the field between the two engines.

Below : Photo (unknown source / location) showing a typical ploughing arrangement with a "seesaw" type plough arrangement - the operators would swap ends when being pulled in the opposite direction. The steering system would allow a straight furrow to be created. 

Great interest was shown in Fowler's stand at the 1869 Bath & West Show in Shepton Mallet, Somerset and also when a representative of the company spoke to the Dorchester Farmers Club in 1870. It is thought that these two factors were instrumental in Frank Eddison moving to Martinstown, a village about 4 miles west of Dorchester in 1870. The first contract that he undertook, starting on 10th August of that year, was for Henry Mayo at Cokers Frome just to the north of the county town of Dorchester itself. 

In 1871, he purchased a further pair of engines, this time Fowler 14 HP double cylinder ones with valve gear invented by Max Eyth.  Frank Eddison realised that hiring was the way to operate as the outlay costs for single farmers were considerable. 

In Martinstown (below), Frank Eddison lived at the east end of Hope Terrace in the village (adjacent to the brewery) and the field (100) behind his house (now known as Cowleaze) was the yard for his steam ploughing engines and equipment. In January 1877, he is recorded as a registered voter in the village.

A couple years later, he married and moved to live in nearby Dorchester :  On 28th September 1872, Mr F Eddison of Fordington, Dorsetshire married Sarah (nee Ryalls) daughter of Mr J Ryalls of Eaking, Nottinghamshire at Eaking. (Source : The Pall Mall Gazette London Issue 2379). It seems likely that he had met his wife prior to his move to Dorset. The Eddison yard was not moved to Dorchester until 1877. The 1881 census records the family living in Middle Farm House (now Sunny Day Nursery - Poundbury). 

They had several children :  Frank was the eldest son (no baptism found as yet). Younger sons Hugh, Gerard & Robert Edwin all died as infants and are buried with their father in Martinstown (see below). Hugh was baptised at St Georges in Fordington on 19th September 1882. Francis & Sarah Eddison's abode is given as Syward Lodge with Francis (Frank's) occupation given as a steam plough proprietor. Their daughter Helen Bertha was baptised in the same church on 29th May 1885 with the same abode and father's occupation recorded.  (Source : Dorchester - St Georges Fordington Parish records via OPC). Nothing further is known of these children as yet. 

Syward Lodge (right side on map below) was not far to the east of Eddison's yard in east Fordington but no longer exists although the name (ie Syward Close) remains in the area. The Eddisons had not moved to Syward Lodge by the time of the 1881 Census and after Frank Eddison died in 1888 and there is no record of his family living  there during the 1891 Census.  His wife Sarah moved to Bedford after his death.

The Eddison business grew and larger premises on the Wareham Road, Fordington in Dorchester were established in 1877. Servicing and repair of equipment and engines was a major part of the business and a fully equipped machine shop was created on the site. Due to the lack of engineering skills locally, many managers and foreman were brought down from the midlands and the north. 

Wages earned by the steam ploughmen were twice or sometimes three times the wages earned by a farm labourer.  A typical crew consisted of a foreman, two drivers, a steersman on the plough itself, and a cook (often a lad hoping for promotion). Due to the amount of water and coal that the engines consumed, teams of carters were required to maintain the pace of ploughing. 

By 1882, Eddison was the first contractor in the country to offer a steam road roller for hire. He purchased an Aveling & Porter Roller and it is said that he drove it personally from their factory in Rochester, Kent back to Dorchester (a distance of about 160 miles).

In 1883, Frank Eddison's health was failing as he had developed diabetes. He engaged a manager John Allen (1857-1934) who had worked with his brother Robert Eddison at Fowlers in Leeds. In 1885, John Allen was made a partner in the business which became Eddison and Allen and by this time the company was employing some 70 men and had 12 steam ploughs for hire. 

John Allen left two years later in 1887 to join Frank's brother Walter Eddison's similar business in Cowley near Oxford. In 1888, Walter had sold his business to yet another brother Dr John Eddison who left John Allen in post to run the business. Walter Eddison moved to Dorchester to assist his ailing brother Frank.

Frank Eddison died on 8th May 1888 and was buried at Martinstown Church on 12th May. He left some £11,000.00 and created a trust with most of this sum in the hope that his son Frank would succeed him.  See his gravestone below.

However, as his son Frank was still a minor, there was no one to manage the company and the trustees therefore engaged Edward de Mattos as a partner. By 1891, Edward de Mattos and his son Joseph had acquired the whole business which then became Eddison and de Mattos.

Edward de Mattos and his son were shrewd businessmen with an eye to publicity and making good business connections. They were also very fortunate in being ideally set up for the start of the massive road building era and establishment of the county councils who contracted this work out.

The Eddison Steam Rolling Co Ltd had been formed in 1901 and the ploughing and traction engine side of the business decreased, finally being sold off in the early 1920's. Between 1920 and 1924, some 100 No new type three point Aveling & Porter rollers were purchased. All these were piston valved and the majority were single cylinder types. 

By the time of de Mattos "retiring" in 1926, Eddisons operated some 600 rollers throughout the country but were heavily in debt especially to Aveling & Porter who had operated a purchase / leasing arrangement with companies including Eddison.

The road rollers were hired out with a driver and a living van (see Mr A Ware's section) and by the 1940's the company expanded to some 20 depots throughout the country.  

The Dorchester works remained the head office of the company until 1947 when it was moved to Grantham in Lincolnshire. The depot had become far too small and with the lease having to be renewed, it was finally closed in 1965 but Eddison Plant Hire still operated from Dorchester on the then new Grove Industrial Estate.

Information from : 

Parish Registers / Census Returns in Leeds & Dorset 

Voices from a Trunk (pub 2014) by Sara Woodall  - the lost lives of the Quaker Eddisons

A Century of Service (pub 1969) by R A Whitehead (on Eddison Ltd's centenary)

Martinstown Parish Magazine (2013) - a short article by local historian Terry Hearing.

Ditto (May 2022) - article by Martin Reeves 

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