On this page we will feature some of our most useful and interesting items of stock.

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Mary Pease; a memoir.

Journals and letters, compiled by her daughter,

Marion E. Fox. 1911

 

 Mary Pease was born in 1826 and died in 1909; her lifespan thus more or less covers the period when the Quakers were at their most influential in the town.

Mary herself was one of nine children. Her mother was a travelling minister, a campaigner on many fronts, favourite causes being temperance, anti-slavery and the Deaf and Dumb Society.  Mary remembered how there was ‘often a bandage of vinegar and water across her forehead to mitigate the headache which was making the labour such a toil.’

 Unsurprisingly one of the effects of being brought up in such an atmosphere was a certain seriousness of character. The children were taught to pray in the dark as it was thought that a candle would offer too many distractions.  At aged 8 she was conscious of the difficulty of remaining focussed in Quaker services, confessing, ‘My thoughts wander much in Meeting’. When recording a game of charades played with her cousins she describes having to enact the words ‘Manufactory’ and ‘Fellowship’!

Nineteenth century Quakers were always travelling the country to meet up with each other, and so it was that Mary (in Wednesbury, Birmingham) first encountered the Pease family by way of visits to the Lloyd household from the nieces of her future husband, Henry. He was in fact twenty years her senior and a widower with a son. After a cautious and lengthy courtship they were blessed with a very happy marriage of twenty two years, producing five children of their own.  Henry was the son of Edward (railway) Pease, and the man who made the heroic but ultimately unsuccessful journey with two friends to Russia, a journey made mostly by sledge, in 1854, to try to avert the Crimean War. He lived at Pierremont and  had the vision to more or less build Saltburn, including planting the Valley Gardens, from scratch. He could also claim to be the first passenger to travel by steam train, as he had been on the maiden voyage, the trial run that took place the day before the official opening of the line on the 27^th September 1895.

Married life was very busy. Henry was an MP, and eventually Darlington’s Mayor. As well as Pierremont, the family had homes in London, in Saltburn, and at Stanhope Castle in Weardale. In addition to holidays with family and friends in Cornwall, the Lakes, Scotland, there were also many foreign trips, including through France, Spain, Switzerland and Norway. Marion writes that she is astonished to realise how much ‘constant travelling’ her parents were doing, even as her father was nearing the end of his life.

Mary’s journals show how consumed she was with her own duties, what we would now call her ‘good works’ – and yet always castigating herself for not working harder. She was in fact immensely industrious, right into her advanced old age. To give just a flavour, she did secretarial work for thirty years for The Convalescent Home in Saltburn. (This was built in 1871 by the Peases, to give free care to the sick and poor of Darlington, Middlesbrough and Stockton.) She started ‘Mother’s Meetings’ in Darlington and Cockerton, providing a mixture of education, and both spiritual and material support. She opened an Orphan Home for twelve girls. She was on the Committee of Management of Darlington Training College and of the Homes for Waifs and Strays. She was on the Board of Guardians and President of the YWCA. Marion has a daughter’s eye to the practical work involved in all this – it was not just a matter of attending meetings, but of writing endless letters, visiting the sick, keeping accounts, covering books, even making clothes for the orphans. She was also behind the invention of first Coffee-House that opened in Cockerton in 1879, aiming to offer a counter-attraction to the Public House. This was a project that apparently did some useful work for some years, but due to the difficulty of finding suitable staff and because of ‘the insubordination of the young men’ had regretfully to be given up. One more lasting by-product of that initiative was the formation of the Cockerton Brass band. Somehow she also found time, for what she called the ‘pleasant employment’ of writing contributions for the Friends’ Essay Society– a Darlington Quaker tradition that persisted for decades.

 ‘Our mother was a praying not a preaching mother.’  There is always the danger that a book like this comes across as something of a hagiography, especially when put together by a close relative. It bears some of the hallmarks of its time, Victorian in tone and possible a little cloying in its religiosity, for example in the preoccupation with good deaths as proof of Faith. There are so many and mysterious deaths. Babies born and rejoiced over – but ‘taken home’, ie to Heaven, within hours. Just by the way, we come across a description of the sad and untimely end of Edward (the Library benefactor) Pease. The families had set off together on one of their journeys abroad in 1880. She writes how ‘he had charmed us all in those first days in Paris by his brightness of mind and unselfishness in the midst of suffering and weakness – we felt he was in a critical state but did not realise we would never see him again. At Lucerne he passed quietly away. So ended one of the most beautiful lives it has been our privilege to know.’

If nothing else, the human trajectory here – journals which began when she was 14 and continued into her 80s – is compelling. Serious and sensitive, Mary was driven and held herself to very high standards; but the impression she gave to those around her was of unusual gentleness and inner calm. The diaries show equal parts faith and self-doubt. Her intense grief at the loss of Henry is very touching: ‘The fruits upon the trees he knew so well are ripening under the warm sunshine as they have not done for years. Where is he? What is he doing?’ They are reunited in burial in Skinnergate, both names on the same gravestone.

 

You might enjoy exploring previous books of the month. You can do this below. Just select a title you would like to find out more about and click on the link.

Remember you can come in to the Centre for Local Studies anytime to see the original book. Just call in and ask the staff. They will find the book for you.

If you have used a book in Local Studies which you have found useful or interesting and you think should be featured here, do let us know.

Enjoy finding out more!

                                               Darlington Official Handbooks  Find out more  

 

Muckraker. The Scandalous Life & Times of W.T. Stead, Britian's First Investigative Journalist by W. Sydney Robinson   Find out more

 

 

 

British Bookplates by Brian North Lee  Find out more

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Quintessential Cornish. The Life & Work of Norman Cornish by Robert McManners & Gillian Wales Find our more

                                                                       

Alan Kitching, A Life in Letterpress by John L Walters Find out more 

 

 

 

Memorial & Record, European War 1914-1918. Pease & Partners, Limited, Darlington  and War Memorials in Britain by Jim Corke    Find out more

 

 

The Brewers and Breweries of North-Eastern England, A Historical Guide by Brian Bennison  Find out more

Life and work of the Northern Lead Miner by Arthur Raistrick & Arthur Roberts  Find out more

The Discovery of Teesdale by Michael D.C. Rudd   Find out more

 

Lost Houses of County Durham    and also Lost Houses of York and the North Riding  both by Peter Meadows and Edward Waterson    Find out more

 

                                                                                A History of British Birds by Thomas Bewick    Find out more

 

The Artists of Northumbria by Marshall Hall  Find out more

Men That Are Gone from the Households of Darlington by Henry Spencer Find out more

Dreaming of Babylon, The Life and Times of Ralph Hodgson by John Harding  Find out more

 

Sleigh Ride to Russia by Griselda Fox Mason

  Find out more

Ghosts of the North by Melanie Warren & Tony Wells

Find out more

 

Eric's War, Experiences of a Far Eastern Prisoner of War 1941-1945 by Eric Walter Markham Find out more

 

The Friends in Council by Samuel Tuke Richardson     Find out more

 

Lady Fry of Darlington by Eliza Orme Explore here

 

Darlington Half-Holiday Guide by Mr. J.W. Cudworth Explore here

The History of Whessoe Explore here

 

Up There, The North East Football Boom & Bust by Michael Walker  Explore here

 

From Thornfield to Thornfield Road by Patricia Dean  Explore here

 

 

 

 

 

Annual Reports on the Health of the County Borough of Darlington  Explore here

 

 The Mystery of Easter Island by Katherine Routledge  Explore here

 

 

Inventry of Nonconformist Chapels and Meeting-houses in the North of England by Christopher Stell Explore here

 

 

 

 

 

The World War One Memorial of Eastbourne, Darlington by A. Magrys  Explore here

 

At the House of Edward Pease, Northgate, Darlington

 by Charles McNab Explore here

 

Cleveland Bridge & Engineering Company Ltd Explore here

 

Charter of Incorporation of the Borough of Darlington & The County Borough of Darlington Official Handbook

Explore here

 

 

 

 

 

 

Darlington Illustrated Year Book for the Municipal Year, 1903 Explore here

 

Public Catalogue Foundation, Oil Paintings in Public Ownership in County Durham Explore here

 

 

 

A History of The Denes, Darlington by Chris Lloyd and Memories of The Denes Explore here

 

 

A rhinoceros bone from Brierton, nr. West Hartlepool & a skeleton of elk (Cervus alces) from Neasham, near Darlington by C.T. Trechmann Explore here

 

 England's Vast Industries & Mercantile Marine Explore here

 

Henry Pease - A Short Story of His Life by Mary Pease Explore here

 

Memories of North Road Locomotive Works   Explore here 

 

 

Biographical and historical notes on bygone Darlington by W.J. Mountford  Explore here

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The History of the Polam Christmas Tree  Explore here

 

 

 

 

 

Durham at the Opening of the Twentieth Century and Durham Contemporary Biographies  Explore here

 

A North Country Album by George A. Fothergill  Explore here

Kelly's Directories Explore here             

Religion, Business and Society by Anne Orde     Explore here                               

Dodds' Darlington Annual for 1917     Explore here