Richard Edwards - Part Three

I will probably never know why Richard Edwards made the decision to leave England and half of his children and his grandchildren and travel 0ver 10.000 miles to an unknown land, knowing he may never see them again.

As a Railway Steam Engine Driver with a large family I am certain he was considered "lower class."

From what I have read Victorian Society did not recognize that there was a lower class, "The Poor" were invisible.  The attitude was that the poor deserved the way they lived, if they would have made better choices they wouldn't be living the way they did.

Although "Poor Laws" were put in to place it wasn't until after the Victorian age that the "lower classes" was  able, through education,technology and reform, to raise itself in some cases literally, out of the gutter.  Victorian Society could be pleasant but only depending on your financial status.

Richard and his family settled in Picton in South Queensland about 60 miles from Sydney. I recently learned from a descendent of his daughter Harriet that he was the Sexton at St Marks Anglican church.