Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 supplement/Pease, Joseph Whitwell
PEASE, Sir JOSEPH WHITWELL, first baronet (1828–1903), director of mercantile enterprise, born at Darlington on 23 June 1828, was elder son of Joseph Pease (1799–1872), by his wife Emma, daughter of Joseph Gurney of Norwich. Edward Pease [q. v.] was his grandfather. In January 1839 he went to the Friends' school, York, under John Ford (in January 1900 he laid the foundation stone of extensive new buildings at Bootham). Entering the Pease banking firm at Darlington in 1845, he became largely engaged in the woollen manufactures, collieries, and iron trade with which the firm was associated. He was soon either director or chairman of the Owners of the Middlesbrough Estate, Ltd., Robert Stephenson & Co., Ltd., Pease & Partners, Ltd., and J. & J. W. Pease, bankers. In 1894 he was elected chairman of the North Eastern railway, having been deputy chairman for many years. He also farmed extensively, and read a paper on the 'Meat Supply of Great Britain' at the South Durham and North Yorks Chamber of Agriculture, 26 Jan. 1878.
In 1865 Pease was returned liberal M.P. for South Durham, which he represented for twenty years. After the Redistribution Act of 1885 he sat for the Barnard Castle division of Durham county until his death. He strongly supported Gladstone on all questions, including Irish home rule, and rendered useful service to the House of Commons in matters of trade, particularly in regard to the coal and iron industries of the North of England. He was president of the Peace Society and of the Society for the Suppression of the Opium Traffic, and a champion of both interests in parliament. On 22 June 1881 he moved the second reading of a bill to abolish capital punishment, and his speech was separately printed. In 1882 Gladstone created him a baronet (18 May). No quaker had previously accepted such a distinction, although Sir John Rodes (1693–1743) inherited one.
At the end of 1902 the concerns with which Pease and his family were identified became involved in financial difficulties. Liabilities to the North Eastern railway amounted to 230,000Z. Voluntary arrangements were made by various banking firms of quaker origin with whom the Peases had intimate connection, and the actual loss to the railway was reduced at least one-half. Heavy losses fell on the companies with which Pease was associated and on several London banks.
He died at Kerris Vean, his Falmouth residence, of heart failure, on 23 June 1903 and was buried at Darlington.
He married in 1854 Mary, daughter of Alfred Fox of Falmouth (she died on 3 Aug. 1892), and by her left two sons and six daughters. The elder son, Alfred Edward Pease, second baronet, M.P. for York (1885- 92), and for the Cleveland division of Yorkshire (1897–1902), was resident magistrate in the Transvaal in 1903. The second son, Joseph Albert Pease, who sat as a liberal in the House of Commons from 1892, became president of the board of education in 1911. A cartoon portrait by 'Spy' appeared in 'Vanity Fair' in 1887.
[The Times, 24 June 1903; Who's Who, 1902; Hansard; private information.]