Joseph Pease

Joseph Pease (1772–1846) was an English Quaker activist. Among a number of reforming interests, he became best known in the context of the British India Society.

Life He was a son of Joseph Pease (1737–1808) and his wife Mary Richardson, and a younger brother of Edward Pease. His father was a woollen manufacturer of Darlington, as was his brother Edward Pease, and he went into the same business.

Sometimes referred to as Joseph Pease of Feethams, he is often confused with his nephew Joseph Pease, the first Quaker Member of Parliament. He made his name as an Indian reformer, and his branch of the family supported abolitionism in the form given to it by William Lloyd Garrison. ("Joseph Pease of Darlington" may also refer to his father or nephew.)

Pease opposed the Corn Laws from 1815. He was one of the founders of the Peace Society in 1817. A supporter of the Anti-Slavery Society, he wrote tracts for it, in 1841 and 1842. In 1843 British legislation made slavery illegal in India.

Pease and Thompson put emphasis on the BIS as an ally of the Anti-Cornlaw League, and free trade. Their slighting of the BFASS, however, undermined the international dimension of their efforts. A successful charm offensive by James Cosmo Melvill of the East India Company eventually caused Pease to soften his highly critical views of the Company.

Family Pease married Elizabeth Beaumont, who died in 1824. His second wife was Anne Bradshaw, whom he married in 1831.

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