Clipper Ship 'City of Adelaide'

At the age of 23 Janet Davidson travelled out to Adelaide on the 1871 voyage of the City of Adelaide. Janet’s reason for the journey became apparent just 17 days after arriving, on Wednesday 6th September 1871, she married Edward Neale Wigg, 23, son of Edgar Smith Wigg, at the residence of I M Andrews in North Adelaide. Their son Frank Morewood Wigg was born in July 1872 at North Adelaide.

Edward Neale Wigg ca1895 Source SLSA: B26125, Photograph courtesy of the State Library of South Australia

Edgar Smith Wigg ca1885 Source SLSA: B26124, Photograph courtesy of the State Library of South Australia

Janet's voyage out in 1871 was in the company of her uncle and aunt Mr & Mrs Miller. (In Melville Miller's diary of the trip he consistently refers to his niece as “Jessie”.) The ship arrived in Adelaide on Sunday 20th August 1871, and among those who met them on the dock was Janet’s fiancé Edward Wigg.

Edgar Smith Wigg (1818-1899) had arrived in Adelaide from England in May 1849, bringing with him his wife Fanny, his infant son Edward and fifty pounds sterling. On June 22nd of the same year, he leased premises at 4 Rundle Street, adjacent to the Beehive Corner at King William Street, and commenced business as a bookseller.

In 1850, recognising a need for account books, he purchased paper from George Elder, and later that year employed a paper ruler and a book binder to commence the manufacturing section of the business. As sales increased, the business moved to 12 Rundle Street.

E S Wigg lived in North Adelaide. His first wife, the former Fanny Neale Morewood, died in April 1853 aged 29, having given birth to two daughters in Adelaide but both died in infancy. Edgar remarried in November 1853 to Alice Lane, but she died 14 months later at the age of 35. His third wife was Jane Eccles 35 whom he married in November 1855. She lived to be 77 and bore him two more sons, followed by four daughters.

Edward Neale Wigg, Janet’s future husband, joined his father’s business in 1867, and it has been known as E S Wigg & Son ever since. In that year they purchased the business of Charles Platt, thus becoming the Colony’s largest bookseller.

Janet’s brother William Laidlaw Davidson (1853-1924) was 20 when he migrated to Adelaide on the Orient to join the company in 1873, having been persuaded to do so by his brother-in-law Edward Wigg.

Manufacturing was increased, with premises being opened in Apollo Place, Adelaide. Artist supplies, educational and stationery supplies, printing and homeopathic medicines were added to the range of products sold.

In September 1885, William Davidson, who had taken over the day to day running of the business, married Edward’s half-sister Mary Jane Wigg 25 in the North Adelaide home of her father E S Wigg, now retired from active participation in the firm.

Branches were opened in Broken Hill NSW, and at Perth, Fremantle and Kalgoorlie in Western Australia. The first envelope machine was installed in 1901, and in the year following land was purchased at Thebarton. By 1904 all manufacturing was located there in a new factory which boasted South Australia’s first saw-tooth roof.

The partnership between Edward N Wigg and William Davidson was dissolved in 1910, and the Wigg interest was sold to the Davidson family. Head Office was moved from Rundle Street to 65 Grenfell Street in 1921, where the retail shop is still located today.

William Davidson also invested in a pastoralist property on SA’s Yorke Peninsula. When he died in 1924, his son Hugh Davidson became managing director of E S Wigg & Son, a position he held until his death in 1964, when his son David assumed the role.

Under the management of David Davidson, the company grew to become one of Australia’s leading manufacturers of envelopes, photographic packaging, direct mail and fundraising products. During the 1970’s and 1980’s sales offices were opened in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, giving E S Wigg & Son a presence in five Australian states.

After 39 years in the position, David retired in 2003, and his eldest son Tom took over as the company’s managing director. Tom Davidson is the fifth generation of the Davidson-Wigg family to manage South Australia’s oldest printing company.

Wigg family group in the garden of 'Wockwalla', their summer residence at Bridgewater, 1887.
Standing (from left): William Davidson, Nellie Wigg, Annie Wigg, E.S.Wigg. Seated (from left): Edith Wigg (nee Parham), (probably) Olive Wigg, Mrs E.S.Wigg (nee Jane Eccles), Alfred Wigg, Mary Wigg, and Florence Wigg
Source SLSA: B59540, Photograph courtesy of the State Library of South Australia

 1818 - 1899