Edward Pease (1767-1858), English railway owner. Pease was a businessman who made his fortune in the wool industry. At the age of 50, he proposed a railway to link coalfields in County Durham, and his home town of Darlington with the sea port at Stockton-on-Tees. The plan was approved by the UK parliament in 1821. The railway became known as the Stockton and Darlington Railway. It was 40 kilometres long, and opened in 1925. The original plan had been to have horse-drawn carriages, but George Stephenson persuaded Pease to use steam locomotives instead. The Stockton and Darlington Railway was the world's first permanent steam railway. Pease retired from the railway company in 1829.