Education
At age of 14 Edmondson left. He wished to be a teacher, and was apprenticed to William Singleton, the reading master of Acworth School, who had set up a boarding-school in a large house at Broomhall, near Sheffield.
At age of 14 Edmondson left. He wished to be a teacher, and was apprenticed to William Singleton, the reading master of Acworth School, who had set up a boarding-school in a large house at Broomhall, near Sheffield.
They were both educated at Acworth School, Yorkshire, of which John Fothergill was the principal supporter. There Edmondson learned bookbinding, and Daniel Wheeler taught him agriculture. In 1814 Alexander I of Russia visited England.
Edmondson, on the suggestion of Singleton, joined the party as tutor to Wheeler"s children and assistant in the work.
He lived in Russia until 1820, when he returned to England to marry Anne Singleton, daughter of the schoolmaster. In the course of the following year the whole of the bog land around the capital was brought into cultivation.
After seven years" residence in Russia, Edmondson returned to England, although the emperor made him handsome offers to remain. He returned to England less rich than he might have been but for his scruples against accepting bribes.
The tsar offered Edmondson a thousand acres of unreclaimed land at Shushary, which Edmondson declined.
In England Edmondson opened a school at Blackburn in 1830, and a little later on one at Tulketh Hall, near Preston. In 1847 he set up a science and technical school teaching agriculture. He was one of the early promoters of the College of Preceptors, and vocational training, with a carpenter"s and a blacksmith"s shop.
There was a printing-office, in which a monthly periodical was issued, edited, and at one time set up by the boys.
He had several Bradshaws among his school books, in which the boys were examined in finding routes. One of the first pupils at Queenwood was Henry Fawcett.
Edmondson died, after one day"s illness, 15 May 1863, and was buried in the burial-ground of the Society of Friends at Southampton.