Obituary

1903, June 24th

Sir Joseph Whitwell Pease, M.P., died at Kerris Vean, his Falmouth residence, last night. He had been staying in Cornwall on his usual annual visit for about two months, and was taken seriously ill last Thursday. The cause of death was heart failure.

Sir Joseph Pease was the eldest son of the late Mr. Joseph Pease, of Darlington, a well-known coal and ironstone mine-owner, and the first member of the Society of Friends to sit in the House of Commons, by his marriage with Emma, daughter of the later Mr. Joseph Gurney, of Norwich. His grandfather was Mr. Edward Pease, the railway pioneer who was associated with Stephenson. Sir Joseph has died on the anniversary of his birth, for he was born on June 23, 1828. Educated privately, he entered upon a business career at an early age and became connected with the numerous commercial undertakings of his family in the North of England. When his financial difficulties began towards the end of last year Sir Joseph was the chairman of three great concerns doing business in the North of England. By far the most important of these was the North-Eastern Railway, of which he became chairman in 1894, in succession to Mr. John Dent Dent, after having been deputy-chairman for many years. The other two great companies of which he was the guiding spirit were Pease and Partners (Limited) and Robert Stephenson and Co. (Limited). He was also chairman of a concern called Owners of the Middlesbrough Estate (Limited). The confusion into which the affairs of the banking firm of Messrs. J. and J. W. Pease fell had unfortunate results for the companies which kept their accounts with that house. The North-Eastern Railway suffered severely ; the debt due to it by Messrs. J. & J. W. Pease was £230,000 ; but, owing to the voluntary arrangements made by the great Quaker connection for dealing with the affairs of the failed bank, the actual loss to the railway was estimated not to exceed £125,000. Some strong remarks were made at the North-Eastern meeting on February 13, 1903, on the failure, and the board was urged to get Messrs. J. & J. W. Pease made bankrupts, but this injudicious suggestion was not pressed. Several London banks lost money by the failure.

Sir Joseph's Parliamentary career began in 1865, when he was returned in the Liberal interest for South Durham, the constituency which his father had represented from 1832 to 1841, and he continued to sit for that division until 1885. In that year, the redistribution Act having divided the constituency, he stood for the new division of Barnard Castle, which formed part of South Durham, and retained the representation until his death, his Parliamentary connection with South Durham having thus extended over the long period of 38 years. In Parliament he obtained some prominence as the president of the Pence and Anti-Opium Societies, and he rendered valuable services in all questions connected with trade and commerce, and especially with the coal and iron industries of the north of England. When Mr. Gladstone introduced his first Home Rule Bill, Sir Joseph, who had obtained his baronetcy in 1882 on the recommendation of the Liberal leader, after some hesitation finally threw in his lot with the Gladstonian party, and remained to the last a supporter of Home Rule. Sir Joseph married in 1854 Mary, daughter of Mr. Alfred Fox, of Falmouth, by whom he had a family of two sons and six daughters. His eldest son, Mr. Alfred Edward Pease, who succeeds to the baronetcy, married the daughter of the late Sir Robert N. Fowler, M.P., and has represented York and the Cleveland Division in the House of Commons. The younger son is Mr. J. A. Pease, M.P.

Source: The Times