Pease, Edward ___ 1767-1858 ___ British ___ n/a

BIOGRAPHICAL SUMMARY
Pease was born in Darlington, Yorkshire. At the age of 14, he began working with his father, a wool merchant, eventually becoming a successful merchant in his own right. At the age of 50, he retired from the wool business and became excited by the prospect of railways. In 1821 he joined a group of businessmen who formed the Stockton & Darlington Railway company, which aimed to build a horse railway to link a colliery to the River Tees. However, George Stephenson, then working for the colliery, persuaded Pease and his group to go for the locomotive option. Subsequently, Pease joined with Michael Longdridge, George Stephenson and his son Robert Stephenson, to form a company to make the trains. This was the world's first locomotive builder. The Stockton & Darlington Railroad opened in 1825. When Pease retired he was replaced by his son Joseph, who went on to become Britain's first Quaker MP. Another son, Henry, also became an MP. Pease's diaries were edited by his great grandson, Sir Alfred Pease.
A biography link
Wikipedia bio
The Diary Review - Father of the Railways

DIARY DATES, CONTENT DESCRIPTORS
1838-1857 ___ domestic religious social commerce transport nature

WEB TEXT LINKS
one quote
etext
a few pages

ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPT LINKS
Durham County Record Office

SOME PUBLISHED TITLES
The Diaries of Edward Pease
 

May 2005, April 2008, July 2008
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IMPORTANT NOTES AND CAUTIONS: 1) The first line of basic information may be incomplete in several ways: some historical figures have different names (titles, pen-names); their birth and death dates may be unknown or uncertain (g - guess, c - circa); similarly, their occupations may be unknown, or they may have had other jobs; and, for early diarists, I've used 'British' a bit too freely. 2) The biographical summary may not be accurate. It was compiled quickly from various sources, mostly on the internet, and the facts were not checked anywhere near as rigorously as they would have been if they'd been intended for publication in a printed form. 3) The journal dates and descriptors (which are in no particular order) must be treated with caution: since I have not examined the diaries myself, the descriptors are only guesses based on bibliographies, anthologies and internet biographies. 4) For the biography and etext links, I have ignored any sites with charges, and I have avoided, wherever possible, those with pop-ups or too much advertising. I have limited myself to providing three etext links where there is some variety between them. 5) For the original manuscript links, I have limited myself to providing a maximum of two (although, for a few diarists, their original diaries are held in more than two places). 6) I have provided the titles - chosen randomly - for up to three printed editions of the diaries.