| Husband: | James Dredge (1796-1846) | |
| Wife: | Sarah Truckle ( - ) | |
| Children: | William Gilpin Dredge (c. 1826-1865) | |
| Name: | James Dredge | |
| Sex: | Male | |
| Father: | - | |
| Mother: | - | |
| Birth | 1796 | Britford, Wiltshire |
| Death | 1846 (age 49-50) | At sea |
| Name: | Sarah Truckle | |
| Sex: | Female | |
| Father: | - | |
| Mother: | - | |
| Name: | William Gilpin Dredge | |
| Sex: | Male | |
| Spouse 1: | Eleanor Edwards ( - ) | |
| Spouse 2: | Sarah Jane Edwards ( - ) | |
| Birth | c. 1826 | |
| Death | 1865 (age 38-39) | Victoria, Australia |
Rev James Dredge was baptised in 1796 in the village of Britford, near Salisbury Cathedral. His wife Sarah and four surviving children left England on board the barque Elizabeth, bound for Australia. After three months in Sydney, they travelled by boat to Port Phillip, arriving on 3 Jan 1839 on the coastal ship Hope. He was one of four Assistant Protectors who were assigned districts where they were given the powers of a magistrate to protect the native people from ‘any encroachment on their property and from acts of cruelty, oppression or injustice’. James Dredge's district covered more than a quarter of the present state of Victoria, stretching an unspecified distance to the north-east of Mount Macedon. If he had time, he was also to induce the Aboriginal people to assume more settled habits; to teach them how to cultivate the ground and build habitations; to educate the children and to instruct them in the Christian religion.
On 22 May he set off for Goulburn, where he built a hut, and grew peas, beans, cabbages, carrots and potatoes in his own garden. Though he quickly succeeded with his garden, standing up for the Aborigines resulted in James Dredge being regarded as a failed colonist, a lonely figure who attracted derision as he stood against the weight of colonial opinion on Aboriginal rights. After seven months he tendered his resignation under controversial circumstances which highlight the rift between his humanitarian views and the Port Phillip of 1840.
In June 1840 James Dredge returned to Melbourne to settle back into his beloved Methodist community. He returned to preaching but maintained a strong desire to help the Aboriginal people. He kept close contact with the Wesley Mission and by 1842 had begun to appreciate the importance of the land not just as a source of food for Aboriginal people but as a place of immense cultural significance.
Dredge was appointed head teacher of a new Methodist school and opened a small chinaware shop in the front room of his Collins Street house in August 1840. Financial problems still plagued him, however, and he was advised to declare himself bankrupt in October 1841. He died in 1846 on board the Arab, two days before reaching Land's End.