Australian Royalty: Genealogy of the colony of NSW

31 Aug 1854

V18541786 71/1854 TANKRID STEPHEN PETER MARY

St James Church

Stephen's father Peter and his brothers were apprenticed to their father, a butcher. In 1844 Peter was established by himself as a wholesale butcher in Kent Street Sydney.
Peter conducted operations at this address until 1849 when he shifted his slaughter yards to Black Wattle Swamp, which is approximately where Wentworth Park is now situated. At that period most of these areas were tidal swamps.
In 1851 Peter took his family to the Californian goldrush. They had little success and returned to Sydney. In 1860 most of the Sydney slaughter yards were transferred to Glebe Island. By this time Peter Tancred had a large family of seven sons and seven daughters. The sons names were: Jim, Stephen, Thomas, John, Henry, George and Mick.
In the year 1869 Thomas Tancred, son of Peter, branched out on his own account on Glebe Island where he conducted a wholesale and retail business, which as usual, in those days also included boiling down operations. None of the methods now used were available to the meat industry at that time.
Thomas Tancred operated continuously until 1903 when his three brothers, Stephen, George and Henry carried on the business.
In 1922, six of Thomas Tancred's sons formed their own Company and called it Tancred Brothers. The six boys were - Owen, George, William, Henry, James and Arnold.
As early as 1926 the Tancred brother conceived the idea of slaughtering their calves and pigs in the country and transporting them to Sydney in a chilled condition, instead of the previous custom of bringing them live and slaughtering at Homebush Abattoirs. A small slaughter yard, owned by the Grafton Dairy Company, was used for this purpose, and in the year 1929 Tancred Brothers constructed their own meat works at South Grafton.
In 1937 Tancred Brothers commenced the construction of a meat works at Bourke New South Wales, and started operations there late 1938. In 1941 another plant was constructed by them at Beaudesert in Queensland. Undoubtedly the Tancred organisation was among the first to realise the big advantages in slaughtering stock as close to home pastures as possible. They foresaw the great improvement in beef quality when transported in a chilled state instead of on the hoof.

Stephen became a butcher like his father but also had interests in horse racing. His businesses prospered and he invested in several rental properties in the Balmain/Leichhardt area. He was an alderman on the North Botany council 1888-1892.