Edward William Binney 'of Manchester' went into partnership in 1848 with James 'Paraffin' Young and Edward Meldrum. Their Bathgate Chemical Works, in West Lothian, Scotland, was the first to extract and refine oil on a commercial scale. The partnership was dissolved in 1864.
I have plenty of information about James 'Paraffin' Young and about Edward Meldrum, but Edward William Binney is proving rather elusive.
An Edwd Wm Binney, aged 38, solicitor, unmarried, born Gainsborough, Lincolnshire, is listed in Crumpsall, Manchester in the 1851 census, and in 1881 Edward Wm Binney, 68, married, Solicitor and Gas.... (part of the page is missing) is head of a household in Douglas, Isle of Man. The other occupants are Margaret I Binney, visitor, unmarried, 34, spinster and Martha Parks, servant, widow, 69, housekeeper domestic servant (again, the places of birth were on the part of the page which was torn off). Also in 1881, Mary E Binney, wife, married, 54, born Salop and Maude E Binny, daughter, 17 born Crumpsall, are in Crumpsall with three servants, all born in the Isle of Man.
An Edward William Binney was born in Gainsborough, Lincolnshire, on 7 December 1812 and baptised on 1 March 1813, parents Thomas and Elizabeth Binney. He was one of at least five sons, the others being Mordecai, baptised 18 October 1805; James Cross, baptised 11 February 1808; and twins Henry Casson and Thomas, baptised 2 April 1811. There may have been an older son, Thomas Casson, baptised 6 May 1795; if so there may be some more children missing from the Family Search web site.
Edward William and Mary Christiana Binney had five children, all baptised in Hope Bagot, Shropshire: Thomas Godfrey and Edward William, 15 September 1861; Maud Elizabeth, 11 May 1864; Alice Hannah, 18 June 1865; Joan Cross, 15 April 1866. There are births in FreeBMD for Thomas, Maud, and Alice in Manchester, but no mention of Edward William, and the original index reads Ivan Cross, not Joan Cross.
Edward William Binney, 69, died in Prestwich in the December quarter of 1881, and there is a very brief obituary in the Manchester Times of 24 December 1881: On Tuesday Mr Edward William Binney FGS, of Cheetham Hill, died of paralysis aged 69. He was an ardent geologist and an enterprising student of nature in many departments
There are several newspaper references to Edward William Binney FRS FGS Hon Mem Geol Socs Edin and Liverpool, and Geol and Polytech Soc West Riding of Yorkshire, who was for a time President of the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society.
In 1842 Edward William Binney, of Manchester, was active in campaigning for action against the employment of women and children in coal mines.
In 1861 Edward William Binney, solicitor, was involved in a court case in Scotland headlined as 'The Yelverton Marriage Case', both as agent for the defender and as a witness in the case. (Why would, and how could, an English solicitor become an agent in a court case in Scotland?)
I have yet to find Edward William Binney in the 1841, 1861 or 1871 census, or any of the family of Edward William and Mary Christiana Binney in the 1871.
Can anyone suggest where I might find any evidence to tie together all these references to Edward William Binney?