Miscellaneous documents - Darlington
Reference: D/XD 64 Catalogue Title: Miscellaneous documents - Darlington Area: Catalogue Category: Other Records Description: Pease family papers, the bequest of J.C. Gurney Pease of Holdip Hill, Newbury, Berks.
Covering Dates: mid 18th century-1966
Catalogue Index
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- Miscellaneous documents - Darlington
- Gurney Pease: correspondence (Ref: D/XD 64/1/1-17)
- Wilson Pease: correspondence (Ref: D/XD 64/2/)
- General correspondence (Ref: D/XD 64/2/1-37)
- Correspondence re tour of Egypt, India and the Near East (Ref: D/XD 64/2/38-61)
- John Henry Pease: correspondence, university notes and miscellaneous papers (Ref: D/XD 64/3/1-37)
- Gwendolen Margaret Pease: papers (Ref: D/XD 64/4/1-134)
- Miscellaneous Correspondence (Ref: D/XD 64/5/1-38)
- Genealogical Papers (Ref: D/XD 64/6/1-20)
- Journals and Diaries (Ref: D/XD 64/7/1-4)
- Illustrations (Ref: D/XD 64/8/1-15)
- Miscellaneous (Ref: D/XD 64/9/1-33)
- Miscellaneous Printed (Ref: D/XD 64/10/1-14)
Catalogue Description
The documents which comprise D/XD 64 were the property of J.C. Gurney Pease of Holdip Hill, Headley, Newbury, Berkshire. They were bequeathed to Darlington Library in his will, and came into the hands of the County Librarian via Dreweatt, Watson & Barton, solicitors for the late J.C. Gurney Pease. On 28 November 1980, they were deposited by the County Librarian on long-term loan at the Darlington branch of Durham Record Office.The members of the Pease family who appear in the papers are the children, or grandchildren, of Joseph Pease and Emma Gurney. Joseph Pease (1799 - 1872) was a prominent citizen of Darlington, being the first 'Friend' to be sent to Parliament, and a pioneer of the Stockton and Darlington railway. He married Emma Gurney in 1826, and they had 12 children. Two of their sons are mentioned in the papers. The death of the tenth child, Alfred, is touchingly described in D/XD/64/5/4-8. The ninth child, Gurney, figures more prominently. Gurney was born in 1839, and in 1863, he married Katherine Wilson, daughter of John Jowitt Wilson and Hannah Maria Whitwell of Kendal. (See D/XD/64/1). Gurney and Katherine, (or Kate as she usually seems to have been called), had three sons and two daughters, and their marriage seems to have been a happy one. Sadly, Gurney died at Malvern in 1872, aged only 33; his death is described by Kate in a book of family memories (D/XD/64/7/3). Their eldest son, Harold, married Gwendolen Margaret Butler in 1896. Before his marriage, he appears to have suffered from some illness, as he and his brother Wilson went on a tour of Egypt, India and the Near East in 1891 -92, in order to improve Harold's health (see D/XD/64/2/38-61). Wilson married Caroline Joanna Fowler in 1894, and their engagement is described in D/XD/64/2/17-22. The youngest son, John Henry married Louisa Lambert in 1905, and he was the only one of Gurney and Kate's sons to have children.
Gurney and Kate's two daughters are only mentioned in passing in the papers. Katherine Maria went to Somerville College, Oxford, and later married William Scoresby Routledge in 1906. She accompanied him on anthropological expeditions, most notably to East Africa, and to Easter Island in 1912. Lilian, the younger daughter, married Charles Leslie Fox, and they had two daughters.