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Edward Pease was a British railway owner. Pease was born in
Darlington, a member of the locally prominent Pease family, and was
educated locally and at a Quaker boarding school in Leeds. He was
active in his family's wool business, but turned his attention
to something new at the age of 50. He wanted to see a railway line
that would link the collieries in County Durham with the port at
Stockton-on-Tees and persuaded businessmen to back the plan, which
was approved by Parliament in 1821. Initially Pease planned a
horse-drawn railway until George Stephenson and Nicholas Wood, the
engineer and manager of Killingworth Colliery, persuaded him to use
steam locomotives instead and put Stephenson in charge of the
project. The Stockton and Darlington Railway was opened on 27
September 1825 although due to the death of his son, Isaac, the day
before, Edward Pease did not attend the ceremony.
