His large
means were left chiefly to various charitable and other useful
institutions in the colony. Besides larger legacies to his relations,
twenty-six of his oldest colonial friends enjoy for life a bequest of
100 pounds each per annum, and as these were the friends of the early
and small times of Port Phillip, few of whom had prospered at all like
himself, the help is not unneeded in most cases. That all of these
legatees were of the other sex is explained by the fact that, having
been always a bachelor, he had an intense, although only a general
admiration for the sex. Very many others will, over an indefinite
future, have reason to bless the name of Edward Wilson.
EARLY SOCIETY: WAYS, MEANS, AND MANNERS.
"When rather from our acts we them derive
Than our fore-goers."
--All's Well that Ends Well.
The salient defect, for more or less interval at first, in all
commencing colonial societies, is the disproportion of the female
element; and thus, in the sparseness of homes and families, we have that
hardness of social feature, which illustrates how much better is the one
sex with the "helpmeet" provided in the other. Early Port Phillip was no
exception to this rule.
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