Pease family

The Pease family are remarkable as an example of a nineteenth century success story-success that sprung largely from their pivotal role in the development of English railroads over the course of the century. In the Victorian era, they became well established and rose to prosperity and prominence, taking part in politics and enjoying a rather lavish lifestyle. What makes the Pease family even more unique is that they were Quakers. This aspect of their identity affected their business decisions, their marriages, and their lifestyles as their fortunes rose, and the Peases’ changing relationship with their faith is described in many histories and memoirs about them. The Victorian era was the peak in the Peases’ fortune; the last years of the 19th century, as well as the beginning of the 20th, brought change and financial trouble.

Edward Pease, born in 1767, was to become known as “the father of the English Railways" for his role in founding the Stockton and Darlington Railway in 1825. The S&D Railway, used primarily for the transportation of industrial cargo between various towns along the Tees river, was the first English steam railway. Edward's diaries, published by Alfred Edward Pease in 1907, offer an extensive personal and social history of the early to mid-nineteenth century. Some of the Pease diaries and other personal writings have been published, while others remain in the family, or are kept in local record offices in Durham County. The YCBA collection of Pease family material concerns the descendants of Edward Pease, including his son, Henry Pease (1807-1881), and his granddaughters, Emma and Jane Pease (who were the daughters of Joseph Pease, the first Quaker M.P.). The collection also contains material pertaining to the family of Edward's grandson, Sir Joseph Whitwell Pease, the first Quaker Baronet, and his great-great grandson, Christopher York Pease, who was killed in the First World War.

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