Hi Daisy
You sure did the right thing asking here on Rootschat! As you can see there are many people willing and able to help, often, as in this case, finding pieces of information which help to build up a picture . Edward sounds as though he was a bit short on patience in his dealings with those who had crossed him. While I agree with Gerry that he had quite a few shipping interests I have the impression that it was all small ventures, although, as Gerry says he did have a Government contract. Many of his Court appearances seem to be him suing others for non-payments or them suing him so I feel it was a tenuous existence. The first application by Grace for assistance did mention that there was a house under mortgage but it seems she was still in need at least until 1860.
I am a bit surprised that there is no obituary for him which may have given a cause of death.
You say you have a subscription to Ancestry - if not you can probably access it at a local library. There are a number of Public Trees with this family, including Grace's second marriage to George BELL. One has a photo of the BELL family which includes Grace.
Care needs to be taken when looking at these trees as there are plenty of them which just copy each other's incorrect information. Your Grace, for example, is listed with different parents on different trees.
Judith
