Edward Pease (railway Pioneer) - 'Perseverance'

'Perseverance'

In 1829 Pease retired from the railway, whose running was taken over by his second son Joseph Pease. Joseph, like his uncle and namesake, was prominent in the Anti-Slavery movement and also in prison reform.

Pease had extensive connections among the Quaker banking community, which helped considerably in promoting the railway. He also invested strongly in 1823 in Stephenson's new company for building locomotives in Newcastle upon Tyne. He retired from business in 1833, but not from religious life as a Quaker. In 1832, his son Joseph became the first Quaker to sit in Parliament.

Edward kept up cordial relations with Stephenson and his son Robert for the rest of his life. He died of heart failure in Darlington on 31 July 1858, and was buried in the Quaker burial-ground in Skinnergate. Samuel Smiles described Pease as "a thoughtful and sagacious man, ready in resources, possessed of indomitable energy and perseverance." An edition of his diaries appeared in 1907.