Thomas Edge (1587/88 – 29 December 1624) was an English merchant, whaler, and sealer who worked for the
Muscovy Company
The Muscovy Company (also called the Russia Company or the Muscovy Trading Company russian: Московская компания, Moskovskaya kompaniya) was an English trading company chartered in 1555. It was the first major chartered joint s ...
in the first quarter of the 17th century. The son of Ellis Edge, Thomas Edge was born in the parish of
Blackburn
Blackburn () is an industrial town and the administrative centre of the Blackburn with Darwen borough in Lancashire, England. The town is north of the West Pennine Moors on the southern edge of the Ribble Valley, east of Preston and north-n ...
in Lancashire in 1587/88.
Edgeøya
Edgeøya (), occasionally anglicised as Edge Island, is a Norwegian island located in southeast of the Svalbard archipelago; with an area of , it is the third-largest island in this archipelago. An Arctic island, it forms part of the Søraust-S ...
(Edge Island in Svalbard, an island which English whalers rediscovered in 1616) takes its name from him. Edge's Point, the eastern point of Recherche Fjord (off Bellsund in Svalbard), also commemorated his name, but is now known as Lægerneset (the Camp Point).
Working life, 1609–1622
Sealing, 1609–1610
In 1609 Edge served as supercargo of the ''Paul'' on a sealing voyage to Bear Island. In 1610 he again sailed to the island for sealing, this time as commander of the ''Lioness''.
Whaling, 1611–1619
In 1611, Edge was given command of two ships, the 150-ton ship ''Mary Margaret'' (which he sailed on as factor), and the 60-ton bark ''Elizabeth'', Jonas Poole, master and pilot, on a whaling voyage to Spitsbergen. Edge, in his ''A Brief Discovery of the Northern Discoveries'', which appeared in ''Purchas His Pilgrimes'' (1625), says the ships left Blackwall for Spitsbergen on 20 April (Poole says 11 April)Purchas (1625). Edge and Poole's narratives often disagree on the dates of certain events. Given the fact Edge is often inaccurate, Poole is most likely right in these instances. and arrived there on 20 May.
On 12 June, he says one of the six
Basque
Basque may refer to:
* Basques, an ethnic group of Spain and France
* Basque language, their language
Places
* Basque Country (greater region), the homeland of the Basque people with parts in both Spain and France
* Basque Country (autonomous co ...
whalemen recruited from the French town of
Saint-Jean-de-Luz
Saint-Jean-de-Luz (; eu, Donibane Lohitzune,Donibane Lohitzune Bowhead whale, "which yielded twelve Tuns of oil, being the first Oil that ever was made in Greenland." While hunting
Walrus
The walrus (''Odobenus rosmarus'') is a large flippered marine mammal with a discontinuous distribution about the North Pole in the Arctic Ocean and subarctic seas of the Northern Hemisphere. The walrus is the only living species in the fami ...
in or near English Bay ( Engelskbukta) on 28 or 29 June, a "small quantity of Ice" came out of Foul Sound ( Forlandsundet) and "put the Ship from her Mooring." Steven Bennet, master of the ''Mary Margaret'', along with ten other men, were aboard the ship at the time. They lowered the sheet anchor to save the ship from being driven ashore, but "the Ice coming upon her again, brought her Anchor home and ran the Ship ashore." With the ship lost, Edge ordered the ship's boat and their four shallops made ready for sea. The boats were loaded with what provisions they could carry, and the men (totalling nearly fifty) left Forlandsundet on 15 July and sailed south.
One of the shallops and the ship's boat "lost company" with the other three boats while off Horn Sound. Here they met the ''Hopewell'', of Hull, under Thomas Marmaduke, who, after hearing £1,500 worth of goods had been put ashore where the ''Mary Margaret'' had been lost, allowed the men to lead him to the place to retrieve said goods, as well as to hunt Walrus.
On 29 July, after having rowed and sailed for two weeks, the three boats landed on the south side of Bear Island. Edge sent three men to see if Poole and the ''Elizabeth'' where on the north side of the island. Here they found him. Poole sailed to the south side of the island, picked up the rest of the men, and sailed for Forlandsundet. Edge says they arrived at Forlandsundet on 14 August, where they found the other two boats' crews as well as Marmaduke. In attempting to transfer the goods of the'' Mary Margaret'' unto the ''Elizabeth'', Poole allowed his ship to capsize, forcing them to freight themselves and what goods survived on the ''Hopewell''. They arrived at Hull on 6 September, where Edge shipped their goods to London.
In 1612, Edge sailed to Spitsbergen as master of the ''Sea Horse''. From 1613 to 1619 Edge served either as commander or co-commander of the English whaling fleet. He appears to have spent several of these seasons aboard ships that anchored in Bell Sound ( Bellsund), the principal area for English whaling. He often had to deal with foreign interlopers intent on whaling in Spitsbergen. For example, in 1615 several Danish men-of-war, led by Gabriel Kruse, tried to force him to pay a fine to whale in what was claimed by the Danish to be part of
Christian IV
Christian IV (12 April 1577 – 28 February 1648) was King of Denmark and Norway and Duke of Holstein and Schleswig from 1588 until his death in 1648. His reign of 59 years, 330 days is the longest of Danish monarchs and Scandinavian monar ...
's territory, but he refused. In 1617 he ordered away a whaleship from
Vlissingen
Vlissingen (; zea, label= Zeelandic, Vlissienge), historically known in English as Flushing, is a municipality and a city in the southwestern Netherlands on the former island of Walcheren. With its strategic location between the Scheldt river ...
but also allowed two Danish whaleships to hunt whales in Horn Sound, while in the following year he had to deal with several more vessels from the Dutch provinces. In 1620, to cover debts, the Muscovy Company handed over the whaling side to four members of the company, one being Edge. In 1621 and 1622 Edge and his partners again sent ships to Spitsbergen.
Social life
On 31 January 1614, Edge married Bridget Poyntell, spinster and daughter of Richard Poyntell, of the parish of St. Botolph,
Billingsgate
Billingsgate is one of the 25 Wards of the City of London. This small City Ward is situated on the north bank of the River Thames between London Bridge and Tower Bridge in the south-east of the Square Mile.
The modern Ward extends south to the ...
, at the church of St. Martin-in-the-Fields. In November 1623 Edge, now of London, purchased the Manor of Bulsnape, in the parish of Kirkham, Lancashire. In August 1624 he purchased the manor of Little Hoole, Lancaster.
Edge died on 29 December 1624. He was survived by his wife Bridget, who had a child at the time, his two sons, Richard and George, and two daughters, Bridget and Ellen.