The Pease family was a prominent English and mostly Quaker family associated with Darlington and County Durham and descended from Joseph Pease of Darlington, elder son of Edward Pease (1711–1785). They were 'one of the great Quaker industrialist families of the nineteenth century, who played a leading role in philanthropic and humanitarian interests'. The family earlier came from Fishlake, Yorkshire. They were heavily involved during the 19th century in woollen manufacturing, railways, coal mines, and politics. Notable events in their history include the establishment of the Stockton and Darlington Railway in the 1820s and the failure of the family bank in 1902. The latter forced several of them close to bankruptcy. Nine members of the family were Members of Parliament, including the first Quaker Member of Parliament.
Joseph Pease (1737–1808) founded Pease Partners Bank (1761). His children included
Edward Pease (1767–1858), railway promoter and woollen manufacturer.
Joseph Pease (1772–1846), a founder of the Peace Society in 1817 and abolitionist.
Edward Pease had five sons and three daughters, including:
John Pease (1797–1868), eldest son
Sophia Fry née Pease (1837–1897), philanthropist and political activist, married Theodore Fry
Joseph Pease (railway pioneer) (1799–1872), second son. Railway owner, industrialist and first Quaker Member of Parliament. He had eight sons and four daughters by his wife Emma Gurney, a first cousin of Joseph John Gurney, including:
Joseph Whitwell Pease (1828–1903) - eldest son. 1st Baronet of Hutton Lowcross and Pinchinthorpe. Businessman and Liberal Member of Parliament (1865–1903). His two sons and six daughters by his wife, Mary Fox (daughter of Alfred Fox who created Glendurgan Garden), include
Alfred Edward Pease (1857–1939) - second baronet. Businessman and Liberal Member of Parliament (1885–1903). Settler and big game hunter in British East Africa. Married three times.
Edward Pease (1880–1963) - 3rd Baronet
Christopher York Pease (1886–1918) - killed during World War I
Alfred Vincent Pease (1926–2008) - 4th Baronet
Joseph Gurney Pease (born 1927) - 5th Baronet
Joseph Albert "Jack" Pease, 1st Baron Gainford (1860-1943). Member of Parliament (1892–1917). Married Ethel, daughter of Sir Henry Marshman Havelock-Allan.
Miriam Blanche Pease (1887–1965), HM Inspector of Factories
Joseph Pease, 2nd Baron Gainford (1889–1971) Major, Lovat Scouts WW1, served Gallipoli, Bulgaria, France. Businessman. Married 1921 Veronica Margaret (1900–1995), daughter of Sir George John William Noble, 2nd Baronet (1859–1937), son of Sir Andrew Noble, 1st Baronet
Joseph Edward Pease, 3rd Baron Gainford (1921–2013)
George Pease, 4th Baron Gainford (born 1926)
John Michael Pease (1930–2007)
Faith Muriel Pease (1902–1935), married 1924 Major Michael Wentworth Beaumont (1903–1958)
Timothy Beaumont, Baron Beaumont of Whitley (1928–2008)
Lucy Ethel Buxton née Pease (1868–1940) OBE, married Gerald Buxton
Rebekah Mary Buxton, who married Ralph Clarke (British politician) (1892–1970)
Elizabeth Lucy Pease (1833–1881), married John Fowler, an engineer who invented a steam plough.
Edward Pease (1834–1880) - founded Darlington library, and started the Society for the Suppression of the Opium Trade.
Beatrice Mary Pease (1866–1935) - married in 1885 the 6th Earl of Portsmouth, without issue. After her marriage, she lodged a lawsuit against her uncle Joseph Whitwell Pease alleging that his bank had mismanaged her inheritance. He lost the suit and had to pay 500,000 pounds which caused the bank to be effectively bankrupt.
Arthur Pease (1837-1898) - third son, Member of Parliament for Whitby (1880–1885) and Darlington (1895–1898)
Arthur Francis Pease (1866–1927) - first baronet. Coal owner. He was not involved in the collapse of the family bank, J. and J. W. Pease, in 1902 and was later a director of Lloyds Bank and the London and North Eastern Railway. Created baronet in 1920. He had a son and three daughters.
Richard Arthur Pease (1890–1969), second baronet
Richard Thorn Pease (born 1922), third baronet, director and vice-chairman of Barclays Bank
Carolyn Thorn Pease (b. 1957), married to John Silvester Varley, former Chief Executive of Barclays Bank
Richard Peter Pease (b. 1959), a funds manager
Nichola Pease (b. 1961), funds manager, married to Crispin Odey, City funds manager
Herbert Pike Pease, 1st Baron Daryngton (1867–1949). MP for Darlington 1898-1910, 1910–1923)
Jocelyn Arthur Pease, 2nd Baron Daryngton (1908–1994) (Peerage extinct upon his death)
Gurney Pease (1839–1872) - fourth son of Joseph Pease. His children include
Wilson Pease (1867–1923) - ironfounder
Katherine Maria Routledge née Pease (1866–1935) - archaeologist associated with Easter Island
Isaac Pease (1805–1825)
Henry Pease (1807–1881) - Fifth son. Railway owner. Founded the seaside resort of Saltburn-by-the-Sea. Member of Parliament for South Durham (1857–1865), President of the Peace Society. He had one son by his first wife, Anna Fell, and three sons and two daughters by his second, Mary Lloyd.
Henry Fell Pease (1838–1896) - eldest son. Member of Parliament for Cleveland, Yorkshire
The second Joseph Pease married Elizabeth Beaumont of Feethams and had two children:
John Beaumount Pease (1803–1873) - married Sarah Fossick and had four sons and two daughters.
John William Pease (1836–1901) married Helen Mary Fox (1838–1928) (daughter of Alfred Fox of the Fox family of Falmouth who created Glendurgan Garden). With his brother-in-law Thomas Hodgkin founded the Newcastle bank of Hodgkin, Barnett, Pease, Spence & Co that became part of Lloyds Bank in 1902.
John William Beaumont Pease (1869–1950) - first Baron Wardington. Chairman of Lloyds Bank (1922–1945). Amateur golfer. He married Dorothy Charlotte Forster and had two sons
Christopher Henry Beaumont Pease (1924–2005) - second Baron Wardington. A noted bibliophile; he was succeeded by his brother
William Simon Pease (born 1925), third Baron Wardington; he is married but has no issue, so this title is doomed to extinction.
Edwin Lucas Pease (c. 1838 - 24 January 1889) - [2] Mayor of Darlington, killed while hunting at age 50.
William Edwin Pease (3 June 1865 – 23 January 1926) - MP for Darlington and chairman of Cleveland Bridge and Engineering Company
Elizabeth Pease Nichol [née Pease] (1807–1897) - abolitionist, anti-segregationist, woman suffragist, and anti-vivisectionist In 1853 she married Dr. John Pringle Nichol (1804–1859), Regius Professor of Astronomy at the University of Glasgow, much against her family's wishes.
Related Peases, but not considered Darlington Peases, were descendants of the first Joseph Pease's brother, Thomas Pease (1743–1811). His granddaughter, Hannah Ford née Pease was mother of Isabella Ford, the reformer, and Emily Susan Ford, the painter. His grandson Thomas Pease (1816–1884) married thrice and had many children, with his third wife, Susanna Ann Fry, sister of the judge Edward Fry and aunt of Roger Fry. These children included
Edward Reynolds Pease (1857–1955), a founder and longtime secretary of the Fabian Society. He in turn is father of
Michael Stewart Pease (1890–1966), geneticist at Cambridge University and member of the Cambridge County Council. He was also interned at Ruhleben during the First World War. After the war he married Helen Bowen Wedgwood (1895-1981), daughter of Josiah Wedgwood (later the first Lord Wedgwood). They were parents of, among others
Rendel Sebastian (Bas) Pease, nuclear physicist, FRS (1922–2004, died aged 81).
Jocelyn Richenda (Chenda) Pease (died 2005 as Lady Huxley), wife of the biologist Andrew Huxley.
Nicolas Arthington Pease (1896–1983), received a Military Cross (with a bar) during WWI.
Marian (May) Fry Pease (1859–1954), educator.
Joseph Pease's sister Ann (died 1826) married Jonathan Backhouse (1747–1826) founder of Backhouse's Bank in 1774 and was mother of
Jonathan Backhouse (1779–1842) - banker who in turn is father of
Edmund Backhouse (1824–1906), English banker, J.P., and MP for Darlington. Father of
Jonathan Backhouse (1849–1918), British baronet and banker. Father of
Sir Edmund Backhouse, 2nd Baronet (1873–1944), British would-be oriental scholar and literary forger.
Roger Backhouse (1878–1939), British admiral of the Royal Navy, First Sea Lord 1939.
She was also great-grandmother of
Robert Backhouse (1854–1940), well-known horticulturist and British archer in the 1908 Olympics. Through his mother, Katherine Aldam, he was also a great-grandson of Thomas Pease (1743–1811).
William Ormston Backhouse (1885–1962), English agriculturalist and geneticist. Son of Robert Backhouse (1854–1940).
and ancestor of, among others,
Ernest Pease Hodgkin (1906–1997) Husband of Mary Constance Hodgkin née McKerrow (1909–1985) a well-known anthropologist and Girl Guide. He was nearly disowned for doing so. Ernest became an expert on mosquito breeding habits and moved to Malaya to further his studies. He was interned in a civilian POW camp from 1942 to the end of the war and he and his family moved to Australia. He became a very well known marine biologist in Western Australia.
