User:Count de wilson
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Edward Pellew Wilson was born in Portsoy, north of Scotland, on 23rd August, 1803, died in the city of Salvador, Bahia, Brazil, on 11th November, 1887, where he lies at the British Cemetery of Salvador.
The eldest son of Alexander Wilson (1774-1817), 1st Lieutenant Royal Marines and secretary to Lord Exmouth, and wife, Jean Gray, married on 10-03-1799 at Portsoy Episcopal Church, whose stained glass window and the church chime were gifts of this Wilson family.
Mr Wilson studied at Edinburgh College, together with his maternal cousin, the right hon. Sir James Milne Wilson(1812-1880), president of the Legistalive Council of Tasmania. After leaving college, he and his younger brother, Fleetwood Pellew Wilson (1809-1888) decided to go into the import/export business, protected by their political godfather, Sir Edward Pellew, Lord Exmouth, a friend of the Wilson's who, with his influence and generosity, helped the young and already fatherless Wilsons to develop their business, which, in 1837, turned into a shipping company that played a significant role in nineteenth-century Brazilian economy. It should be recalled that both Edward and Fleetwood had been named after Lord Exmouth and his son, Captain Fleetwood Pellew, who took part in the Battle of Trafalgar together with Lord Nelson.
Mr Wilson settled in Salvador city in the year 1819 never to leave, but always to visit Britain and his mother, who died in 1847. He married in 1830 Maria Constança da Silva Freire (1815-1877), born in Salvador and of Portuguese descent from the OPorto city, where her ancestors had been in the shipping business since the 16th century, as documents will attest it. The couple left issue, having been the eldest son and child Edward Pellew Wilson Junior (1832-1899), created Count de Wilson in the Portuguese nobility on 08-10-1891 by decree from H.R.M. Dom Carlos I of Portugal.
Edward Pellew Wilson developed and expanded his shipping business considerably, by exporting coal to Brazil from the Welsh mines owned by the Davies family and by having Fleetwood Pellew Wilson - widowed in 1855 and father to Frances Fleetwood Wilson (1850-1919), known as H.H. Princess Alexis Dolgorouki, who married in 1898 His Highness Prince Alexis Dolgorouki (1846-1915), Chamberlain to the Tsar Nicolas II of Russia -, working in his Lombard street office, besides being a director of the former Oriental Bank in London. The line of ships to South America was so successful, that the shipping company began to open offices in several parts of the globe, especially after the War against Paraguay, which the Empire of Brazil had both faced and won. The Wilsons were the suppliers of coal to the Brazilian Imperial Government in a contract that made the 1st Count de Wilson be known as "the king of coal". The Second Reich and the British Admiralty were other clients of great importance when their ships came to South America.
After having built docks at the Port of Salvador and helped in the acquisition of the warship Liverpool, Mr Wilson received the honour of knighthood from the Emperor of Brazil, Dom Pedro II, by decree dated from 1866, as knight of the Imperial Order of the Rose, with honours of captain.
Edward became the owner of the gazometer of Salvador city, co-introduced gas lightning in that city, together with the Viscount de Mauá, with whom he was also a partner in the Mauá Bank in Montevideo, Uruguay, as well as a shareholder in the San Francisco Railway. He co-founded the British Club at Salvador and offered a house of his, so that the Club could be created. He was considered to be the most important member of the British community in Salvador city, always doing his best to help British subjects in need there. From 1869, the Imperial Government of Brazil granted him concessions to exploit fuel minerals and so he did, being, today, considered to be one of the precurssors of oil prospection in Brazil.
His mansion house in Salvador was kown as Wilson Manor, sold by his grandson, commander Edward Pellew Wilson (1858-1934) in 1927 to the Catholic Church to become the Archiepiscopal Palace of the Cardinals of Brazil. Edward died as a respected shipowner, much cherished by his large family and friends and rests in peace at the British Cemetery in Salvador.
