Samuel Rathbone Edge was born in Tunstall on 22 May 1848, son of a corn merchant. Educated at Wesley College, Sheffield, and The Queen's College, Oxford, he took the BA and BCL degrees in 1871 and the MA in 1875, before qualifying as a barrister. He successfully contested the constituency of Newcastle-under-Lyme for the Liberals in a by-election in 1878, but lost the seat in 1880. He remained active in politics, being mentioned as a likely candidate for Stafford in 1881. After the 1902 Education Act he supported passive resistance to the education rate and was President of the North Staffordshire Federation of Citizens' Leagues, the body co-ordinating opposition to state funding for denominational schools.

The Edge family were committed Wesleyan Methodists. Samuel was a local preacher and served as President of the LPMAA in 1889-90. He was a governor of the Leys School, 1874-76, and an early supporter and long-serving Vice-President of the Wesley Bible Union.

By his marriage in 1888 to Eliza Marion Holden (1864-1936) Samuel was connected to an extensive cousinhood of Holdens and Woods. In addition, the family's Wesleyan and civic ties were strengthened by the marriage of his sister Ann (1847-1924) to their first cousin John Wilcox Edge (1844-1923), local preacher, earthenware manufacturer, Mayor of Burslem 1888-90, and borough and county alderman.

Samuel and Eliza Edge raised seven children to adulthood. One, Stephen Rathbone Holden Edge (1892-1955) was a research chemist; another, Elizabeth Annie Wood Edge (1894-1973), served as a Methodist missionary in South India; both studied at Cambridge University and both were local preachers.

Samuel died on 27 September 1936.

Entry written by: DCD
Category: Person
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