The Hamersleys were a well connected family, and he was related by blood or marriage to a number of prominent Western Australian farmers and politicians.

His father Edward was one of the leading Western Australian landholders of his day; his brother Samuel and nephew Vernon both became Members of the Legislative Council; William Locke Brockman was his uncle; his sister Margaret married Sir John Forrest; and his wife Jane was sister to Andrew and Charles Dempster.

In 1857, the governor agreed to allow settlers to elect men whom he would then nominate to the Western Australian Legislative Council.

Edwards stood for election, but was defeated by his father's former partner and later enemy Samuel Pole Phillips.

Their eldest son Edward Tours Hamersley (born 1869) married Margaret "Madge" du Boulay at Nice, France on 27 May 1930.