William Kidney was prominent in local business, politics, municipal and community affairs. He and his older brother Thomas ran a successful men’s clothing outfitters in Smith Street and both were honorary magistrates, William in Collingwood and Thomas in Fitzroy. William was a Collingwood councillor in the 1870s, while Thomas was active as a political agitator through his organisation known as  the Kidney Parliament. They provide an example of Britons who came to Victoria after hearing about the Gold Rush but made their money in the retail sector rather than digging for gold themselves.

The Scottish-born brothers had worked as drapers in England, then made up their minds to enter into partnership, but decided to leave England and try their luck in the colony. Thomas arrived with his wife and children July 1853. William deferred his departure owing to the ill health of his wife, but after her death he took ship from Liverpool in June 1854 and joined his brother in Melbourne, leaving his infant daughter with his parents-in-law.

Thomas brought with him a range of goods as well as a prefabricated iron house which was set up in Napier Street Fitzroy. He then sent for a prefabricated iron shop, 28 by 62 feet ,which was erected in Brunswick Street in 1854. Later the brothers bought a block of land in Smith Street Collingwood on which to relocate their outfitting establishment, and let their old premises, by then housed in the Prince’s Buildings, next door to the Rob Roy Hotel. At the Smith Street premises they would conduct the business for several decades before retiring around 1883, having made a very good living, and invested their profits in properties to provide them with retirement income. The photograph taken of the emporium in the 1860s surely includes, among the pleased-looking men standing in front of it, the two brothers. 

It seems that widower William always lived with Thomas and his family. Thomas ‘ first wife Emma died in 1859 and he married Annie James. In the late 1860s and 1870s the brothers  built, in stages, Cobden Terrace, a fine group of two storey brick houses which remains in Gore Street, Fitzroy. The Kidneys lived at number 1. Two of Thomas’ children died in 1871 and 1872, followed by their mother Annie in 1878.

During this period,  William was an auditor for council elections before being elected as a Collingwood Councillor from 1873 until 1876, including a term as mayor. Despite Collingwood being a hotbed of protectionism, he was a committee member of the Free Trade and Financial Reform League of Victoria, as could be expected of a man who relied on imported goods for his business. His relaxation pastimes included bowling; he was a member of the Fitzroy Bowling Club in Victoria Parade, where he was honorary secretary, and was also a vice-president of the Victorian Bowling Association. 

William owned a large site in the up-and-coming suburb of Clifton Hill, facing the Darling Gardens, and in the 1880s he built a substantial house, Marysville, set in its own grounds with a side driveway, bay window, and cast-iron fence. Thomas packed up his furniture from Cobden Terrace and the brothers moved in, but William died unexpectedly in mid 1886, having only a short time to enjoy his new residence. 

After deductions for various mortgages over his numerous properties, William’s probate was valued at just under £10,000. Thomas’s daughter from his first marriage, Mary, then in her 40s, inherited the whole of William’s estate for the term of her life. It seems probable that William had come to regard Mary as a surrogate daughter, his own having died at the age of eight in 1865. After her mother’s death Mary would have taken on the housekeeping role until Thomas re-married, would presumably have assisted her stepmother Annie during her eleven years of frequent childbearing, and again taken over running the household after her stepmother’s death. It seems a reasonable surmise that Marysville was named in her honour.

Thomas remained in the Gold Street house for a year or two then moved to North Fitzroy where he died in 1890. He left his estate to his other children but nothing to Mary.  She let the house to John Pritchard, one of a number of successful butchers who lived in Clifton Hill, and died in Surrey Hills in 1907, after which William’s estate reverted to his siblings and siblings’ children in Britain, and Thomas’ other children.

Both Kidney brothers have been written about in a variety of publications such as Victoria and its Metropolis, a series published in The Observer entitled ‘Men I have known’, and an article headed Prominent Citizens by ‘Mary Ann’ in the Fitzroy City Press in 1885, which ends with these words:

among those whom I have thought worthy of a place in [this newspaper] the brothers stand in the front rank. Those who know them best are loudest in bearing testimony to their frankness, geniality, and kindness of heart, and that they are incapable of deceit, while their political friends readily acknowledge their far-seeing sagacity in election matters.

Hagiography and the Kidney brothers go hand-in-hand! There does seem to be some factual variation between sources, particularly concerning their early lives, but probably enough overlap to provide a fair indication of events. The Kidney family have an impressively detailed gravestone in the Melbourne General Cemetery; it even includes their addresses. Marysville remains in Gold Street, although the number of people who realise its age and origins would be few, since it has been very much altered over the years, initially around the 1970s when a cream brick front was added. While the original cast-iron fence, gate, and carriage drive remain a notable element in the streetscape, the front entry and the remnants of a Victorian chimney can only just be seen. In the 21^st century new owners made further  alterations.

Prominent Citizens

‘Men I Have Known: Thomas and William Kidney’, Chapter III by Our Archivist, The Observer 5 Jan. 1905

Sutherland, Victoria and its metropolis: past and present , vol 2a

Trove list William Kidney: https://trove.nla.gov.au/list/181901

Kidney Brothers shop:

http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/279626

William Kidney?:

https://www.picturevictoria.vic.gov.au/site/yarra_melbourne/Fitzroy/10177.html

Thomas Kidney Fitzroy magistrates 1860s:

http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/248570