Leonard Raisbeck was a promoter and pioneer of the Stockton and Darlington Railway in North East England, the world’s first public railway. Born on 14 April 1773 and baptised at St Thomas' Parish Church in Stockton-on-Tees on 11 May 1773, Leonard Raisbeck, one of three siblings, came from a prominent family in Stockton-on-Tees. The Raisbeck family had become local landowners and civic dignitaries over the course of the 18th century. His grandfather, Thomas Raisbeck, and father, John Stapylton Raisbeck, were both legal professionals and both of whom served as mayor of Stockton-on-Tees; they were both members of the Merchant Adventurers Company and the Freelage of Newcastle, however, it not known if Raisbeck assumed his rights to membership of these bodies. Leonard followed in his forebears’ footsteps into the law, being apprenticed to his father's firm in 1789 and took it over in 1793. On Leonard’s retirement in 1840 it was renamed Newby's and still exists to date under that name across County Durham. John Staplyton Raisbeck also partly owned the Sugar House, a sugar refinery in Stockton-on-Tees, set up in 1780; although the business was sold in 1790, the family continued to have some involvement in its affairs beyond this date. Leonard Raisbeck married Mary (nee Robinson, his cousin) on 2 May 1807. The couple did not have any children, but they took on parental responsibility for Mary's orphaned nieces and nephews.
Raisbeck was the first figure to suggest that any link between Stockton-on-Tees, Darlington and the South Durham coalfields could take the form of a railway, making the proposal at a dinner celebrating the opening of the Mandale cut of the River Tees on 18 September 1810. He often championed the cause of a railway against prevailing sentiment, since, during the initial stages of the Stockton & Darlington’s Railway (S&DR)’s development, there was debate over whether to build a railway or canal. Raisbeck and Francis Mewburn, who was based in Darlington, were appointed as joint solicitors and secretaries to the S&DR. Their relationship was a strained one as Mewburn appears to have felt he was the Stockton man’s professional superior.
In addition to his role as solicitor of the S&DR, Raisbeck also served as solicitor of the Tees Navigation Company (TNC), which on occasion presented him with a difficult balance to strike between the interests of the two companies. He was also closely acquainted with Edward Pease, a notable local Quaker businessperson and leading figure in the development of the S&DR. Whilst their relationship was cordial, there was a painful rupture over the plan to extend the railway to Middlesbrough. The Pease family and other S&DR proprietors enthusiastically pursued the extension plan, however, Raisbeck was in strong opposition as it presented a threat to the interests of the town of Stockton and those of the TNC. This incident led to Raisbeck’s resignation from S&DR in 1828, however, despite his resignation, Raisbeck seems to have remained involved with the S&DR’s administration thereafter.
Outside of his railway legal work, Raisbeck served as Recorder of Stockton, after which his civic responsibilities expanded to encompass the County of Durham when he was appointed a Deputy Lieutenant of the county on 11 April 1831. Early in the 19th century, he served as colonel in the Stockton Loyal Volunteers, a local military unit raised to counter the threat of French invasion, he served as Chairman of the Stockton-on-Tees Conservative Association. He died on 26 July 1845, survived by his wife, Mary, with whom he shares a memorial plaque inside Stockton Parish Anglican Church. His funeral was well-attended, and as marks of respect the mayor ordered that all shops in Stockton cease trading during the ceremonies and the church was hung with ceremonial cloths.
Date
29 November 1676 - mid 19th century
Scope and ContentLeonard Raisbeck was a key figure in lobbying for a link (originally proposed as a canal or railway) from the South Durham coalfields to Darlington and Stockton-on-Tees. As a local landowner and lawyer he was hugely influential in helping bring about the Stockton & Darlington Railway.
His archive of letters, memos, legal documents and accounts sheds light on the difficulties of bringing the line to fruition and provides an illuminating insight into the dawn of the railway age. The archive also documents Raisbeck's family background as it came into local prominence through the 17th and 18th centuries, alongside their legal and commercial activities.
Extent3 boxes and 1 drawer
LanguageEnglish, Latin
Archival historyThe archive was purchased by the National Railway Museum from Jarndyce Antiquarian Booksellers, who had purchased it at auction. The Raisbeck family sold the archive to the auction house in 2008.
The Stockton & Darlington Railway (S&DR) was the first steam operated public railway in the world when it opened in 27 September 1825. The object of the railway was to reduce the cost of carriage of coal sent from the small coal mine in the Shildon area to Darlington & Stockton and at first it was not thought that there would be any need to provide facilities for passengers. For the first eight years the few passengers were carried in horse-drawn coaches operated by the contractors, it was not until 1833 that the company started to operate passenger trains hauled by locomotives.
Synonymous with the S&DR are the names Pease and Stephenson. The Pease family, led by Edward Pease strongly supported the railway and Edward's son, Joseph, prepared the original prospectus and became the company's first treasurer. George Stephenson was appointed engineer in January 1822 to see to the survey and the building of the line, he also supplied the first locomotives which were built be his son, Robert Stephenson.
In May 1825 Timothy Hackworth was appointed locomotive foreman and worked with the company for eight years and designed a type of locomotive more suitable for coal traffic, with six-coupled wheels.
Most of the branches and extensions to the Stockton and Darlington Railway were built by separate companies, although worked by the S&DR, however most of these companies were taken over by S&DR in 1858.
In 1863 the Stockton & Darlington Railway ceased to exist as a separate concern, but until 1876 it was run as the Darlington section of the North Eastern Railway.
John Rennie was born in Phantassie, Haddingtonshire, the son of a farmer. In 1779 set up on his own as a millwright under the guidance of Andrew Meikle (1719–1811), inventor of the threshing machine. He studied at Edinburgh University between 1780 and 1783.
In 1783 he undertook a study tour into England where he met James Watt and was employed by Boulton and Watt to work on the machinery for Watts' techincally renowned flour mill, the Albion Mill, in London, completing this work in 1786 and then continued to produce machinery for factories and other industrial concerns.
He married Martha Ann Mackintosh in 1790, who bore him children including George Rennie and Sir John Rennie, who could carry on Rennie senior's work and become eminent engineers in their own right.
In 1790 he begun civil engineering work, acting as the surveyor for the Kennet & Avon Canal. Other civil engineering projects he worked on were the London docks between 1800-1805, the mile-long protective breakwater at Plymouth Sound, started in 1811 and completed in 1848 and the original Waterloo, Southwark and London Bridges. Between 1807 and 1810 he collaborated with Robert Stevenson on the Bell Rock lighthouse off Arbroath. Between 1812 and 1815 he conducted a survey for a canal or railway to link the Durham coalfields with Stockton-on-Tees and Darlington. Rennie was elected fellow of the Royal Society in 1798.
Rennie passed away in 1821 and was buried in St. Paul's Catherdral, he is commemorated by a plaque under Waterloo Bridge in London and a memorial stands to him stands in the vicnity of his birthplace near East Linton in East Lothian.
The Stockton & Auckland Canal was a putative scheme to connect the Auckland coalfields to the River Tees in Stockton which provided a navigable link to markets over the sea. The project was instigated by a group of Darlington coal merchants in October 1767, including the Pease and Backhouse families. In 1769 the engineers, James Brindley and Robert Whitworth, were engaged to survey the proposed route, their report and map concluded that the canal would be 33.5 miles long and cost £64,000 to build. Geoge Dixon suggested a further branch. Despite the survey being completed, the scheme failed due to a lack of subscriptions. Further attempts over the following decades to bring it into reality all proved unsuccessful.
Whilst the railways were beginning to come of age in the 19th century and consequently supplanted canals as the most efficient form of inland transport, many putative railways used prior canal surveys as basis to ascertain their intended route. Therefore, Brindley and Whitworth’s Report on the Stockton & Auckland Canal was considered by the group promoting a link from the South Durham coalfield to Stockton and Darlington, the project that became the Stockton & Darlington Railway after substantial debate over whether it should be a railway or canal. The canal scheme seems to stalled after August 1772.
Edward Pease was a woollen manufacturer and railway promoter, born at Darlington on 31 May 1767, was the eldest son of Joseph Pease, woollen manufacturer, and his wife, Mary Richardson. Edward was educated at Leeds under Joseph Tatham the elder, and at the age of fifteen was placed in the woollen manufacturing business carried on by his father at Darlington. Pease married, on 30 November 1796, a fellow Quaker, Rachel, daughter of John Whitwell, of Kendal. They had five sons and three daughters. Rachel Pease died at Manchester on 18 October 1833.
In 1809 Pease became interested in a scheme for improving navigation on the lower reaches of the River Tees, a project which eventually bore fruit as the Stockton and Darlington Railway, linking collieries in south-west Durham with the London coastal trade in competition with established interests on the Tyne and the Wear.
Pease's role as the driving force behind the Stockton and Darlington Railway project was facilitated by his status as a Quaker entrepreneur with extensive familial contacts within the Quaker banking community in Norwich and London. Following the opening of the railway in September 1825, intermarriage within the Quaker ‘cousinhood’, reinforced by intra-family share transfers, resulted in the Pease family's emergence as the leading stockholders in the railway. Thus, despite its status as a publicly quoted company the Stockton and Darlington Railway soon aspired to the standing of a family-run firm.
Pease's role as provider of capital is well illustrated in his contribution to the founding of Robert Stephenson & Co. of Newcastle upon Tyne in 1823 as a purpose-built locomotive building establishment. Of the modest initial capital of £4000, £1600 was advanced by Pease, but he also loaned Robert Stephenson £500 towards his own subscription.
Pease retired from active business life in 1833. He spent the remaining years of his life, as a notably ‘plain’ Quaker, consumed with guilt about his worldly riches and worrying incessantly about his sons' business speculations. He died of heart failure at his residence, Northgate, Darlington, on 31 July 1858. His relations with George Stephenson and his son Robert remained cordial to the end of his life.
Francis Mewburn was born in Newcastle-upon-Tyne in 1785 and went on to set up his legal practice in Darlington in 1809. In 1831 he bought a house near Coniscliffe Road and re-named it Larchfield.
As a prominent Darlington lawyer, Mewburn was appointed alongside Leonard Raisbeck of Stockton as joint solicitor of the Stockton & Darlington Railway Company (S&DR). He spent time in London during 1819 and 1821 lobbying for support to pass the various legislation for the railway. The relationship between the two men was strained, Mewburn felt he was the superior legal professional and that his contribution to the railway's success was solely a result of his work. Historical opinion regarding the respective contributions of the two lawyers to the opening of the S&DR appears to be polarised. Upon Raisbeck’s resignation in 1828, Mewburn became the S&DR’s sole solicitor. When Mewburn retired some years later in 1860 he had rendered a total of 42 years of legal assistance to the company.
Mewburn authored at least one pamphlet, in 1830 he published ‘Observations on the Second Report of the Commissioner’s appointed to Enquire into the Law of Real Property’ which opposed the proposal that title deeds be stored in a central repository in London. Mewburn served as the Chief Bailiff of Darlington from 1842 to 1860. Like many of the S&DR promotors, Mewburn was a Quaker. On his death in 1867 he was afforded a public funeral by the town of Darlington.
George Stephenson (1781–1848), colliery and railway engineer, was born at Wylam, Northumberland, on 9 June 1781. He is often credited as being the ‘Father of Railways.’ He was the second son of Robert Stephenson, foreman at the Wylam colliery pumping engine. At fourteen he was appointed an assistant fireman to his father and when he was seventeen Robert Hawthorne employed him in the position of ‘plugman’, or engineman. Robert worked on engines at Willington Quay, Killingworth and Montrose, Scotland, before returning to Killingworth, where in 1812 he was appointed engineman and given responsibility for all the machinery at a number of collieries in the Newcastle area.
Stephenson built his first locomotive, Blucher, in 1814 for Killingworth colliery, and in 1816, he patented the ‘steam spring’ with William Losh, of Walker Ironworks, Newcastle. Losh had previously supported Stephenson’s claim that he invented the first safety lamp for underground mineworkers in 1815. In early 1822, George was appointed engineer to the Stockton and Darlington Railway, after submitting survey plans and cost estimates for the proposed line and in
May 1823, the company was given permission to use steam locomotives on the line.
On 23 June 1823, George Stephenson established the engine manufacturing company Robert Stephenson & Co. with Edward Pease, Thomas Richardson and Michael Longridge, which was to be managed by George’s son, Robert. Work commenced in August 1823 and by the time the Stockton and Darlington line opened for traffic on 27 September 1825, four winding engines had been delivered together with a operational steam locomotive: Locomotion No.1.
In 1824, George was employed to undertake surveys and prepare plans for the proposed Liverpool and Manchester Railway, but the bill was rejected in parliament. A new bill was passed in 1826, and Stephenson was appointed engineer. Stephenson fought strenuously for using locomotive power on the line, and his locomotive Rocket, built under the direction of his son Robert, won the Rainhill locomotive trials, held in October 1829, to determine the best means of propulsion on the Liverpool and Manchester line.
Stephenson was chief engineer to the Grand Junction line connecting Birmingham with Liverpool and Manchester, begun in 1833 and he was also chief engineer to the following railways: Manchester to Leeds, Birmingham to Derby, Normanton to York, and Sheffield to Rotherham, and others, all begun in 1836. The Derby to Leeds Railway (afterwards called the North Midland line) was commenced under his supervision in 1837.
In 1838 Stephenson was elected vice-president of the mechanical science section of the British Association at its Newcastle meeting.
In 1845, Stephenson’s party won a parliamentary battle as supporters of the locomotive against the upholders of the atmospheric railway system, led by I.K. Brunel. In 1847 Stephenson became president of the Institution of Mechanical
Engineers, which was founded by him that year in Birmingham. He received in 1835 the honour of knighthood from Leopold I of Belgium and in 1845 he also visited northern Spain in connection with a proposed railway. Stephenson consistently refused all proffered honours in England, however, declining a knighthood on two occasions.
He died of pleurisy at Tapton House, Tapton, near Chesterfield, on 12 August 1848. He was buried on 17 August at Holy Trinity Church, Chesterfield.
Thomas Meynell was born in Crathorne, North Yorkshire on 11 April 1763. He was an eminent local landowner with seats at the Friarage, Yarm and Kilvington near Thirsk. Unlike many landowners who viewed the plan to link Stockton and Darlington with the South Durham coalfields in a negative light, Meynell was enthusiastic about the scheme. His zeal translated into a subscription of £3000 to support the putative railway. In recognition of his status as a major landowner and his support of the railway, he was appointed the Chairman of the Stockton & Darlington Railway on 12 May 1821, although he served in this capacity for earlier formations of the committee before the company was founded.
An early committee meeting resolved that Meynell and Edward Pease should approach suitable candidates to build the railway, who appointed George Stephenson as the line’s engineer. Meynell had the honour laying the S&DR’s first rail on 23 May 1822 in Stockton and played a central role on the S&DR’s Opening Day on 27 September 1815.
He served the company for 7 years until 1828 when it the extension to Middlesbrough was proposed. The proposal by other members of the Committee, particularly the Pease family. He was of the opposite opinion and sided with one of the S&DR’s solicitors, Leonard Raisbeck of Stockton, and another committee member, Benjamin Flounders of Yarm, in this matter, as a result Meynell resigned along with the others who opposed the extension. Meynell was concerned about the harm that the extension would do to the economic prospects of Yarm and Stockton, he also decried what he felt was the disproportionate influence of Quakers in the company.
Outside of his service to the S&DR, he was a Deputy Lieutenant of Durham and a Justice of the Peace. He married Theresa Mary Wright in 1804, with whom he had a son and daughter. His son, also named Thomas Meynell, went to on serve as S&DR chairman. Mewburn passed away a widower in 1854.
The Clarence Railway was initially known as the Tees & Weardale Railway and changed its name to the Clarence Railway in 1828. It was projected to be a direct line to the Auckland coalfield and potential branches to the West Durham collieries, eventually running from Coxhoe to Port Clarence. The railway was championed by Christopher Tennant, who felt that the Stockton & Darlington Railway (S&DR)’s extension to Middlesbrough would be to Stockton’s disadvantage. The Clarence Railway’s Directors included Henry Vansittart, Robert Appleby, Henry Blanchard, W. Skinner and W.H. Skinner amongst others.
Despite a precarious progress through Parliament, the Clarence Railway gained Royal Assent in 1828 and the line opened in stages between 1833 and 1835. Steam traction was first put into operation in 1838 and in 1844 the local engineering firm of Hackworth & Fossick was engaged to provide haulage. Despite being a more direct route than the S&DR, the Clarence Railway was undermined by the levy that the S&DR placed on coal traffic on the joint sections of line that the Clarence shared with the S&DR for part of its length. The Clarence Railway managed to extend beyond its original route to open branch lines, eventually linking up with the West Durham Railway in Byers Hill, but this move further bolstered the opposition from the S&DR.
In 1844, the Clarence Railway was leased to the Stockton & Hartlepool Railway. It was then absorbed by the West Hartlepool Harbour Railway, which was subsequently merged into the North Eastern Railway in 1865.
Conditions governing accessAccess is given in accordance with the NRM access policy. Material from this collection is available to researchers through Search Engine.
Conditions governing ReproductionCopies may be supplied of items in the collection, provided that the copying process used does not damage the item or is not detrimental to its preservation. Copies will be supplied in accordance with the NRM’s terms and conditions for the supply and reproduction of copies, and the provisions of any relevant copyright legislation.
AppraisalNo appraisal or destruction has been carried out.
System of arrangementThe papers were kept in bundles as created by Leonard Raisbeck, the original order has therefore been retained, where possible, throughout the collection. There are several notes in the collection that have been attributed to 'M.R.' and suggest that Raisbeck's wife, Mary Raisbeck (nee Robinson), may have arranged her husband's papers after his death.
The series have been grouped by subject thus:
RAIS/1 Papers relating to the Raisbeck family background
RAIS/2 Papers relating to The Sugar House
RAIS/3 Papers relating to the conception of the Stockton & Darlington Railway
RAIS/4 Papers from the early years of the Stockton & Darlington Railway’s operation
RAIS/5 Loose manuscript notes
RAIS/2 has been split up during cataloguing by document type. The other series were broadly divided into physically seperate bundles by document type, the bundles have been made into sub-series. The items are mostly arranged chronologically within the bundles/sub-series, where possible their original arrangement has been retained. In some cases, Mary Raisbeck's notes have been retained in the series to which they refer, loose notes were it has not been possible to work out which bundle they refer to have been placed in the RAIS/5 series.
