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Richard Peacock (9 April 1820 – 3 March 1889) was anEnglishengineer, one of the founders oflocomotivemanufacturerBeyer, Peacock and Company. He was later a Member of Parliament.
Born inSwaledale,Yorkshire, Richard Peacock was educated atLeeds Grammar School. At 14 he left to beapprenticed atFenton, Murray and Jackson inLeeds.
Reflecting a burgeoning industry that had barely started a decade beforehand, theLeeds and Selby Railway Company appointed Peacock in 1838, aged 18, as a locomotive superintendent. When the firm wasacquired by theYork and North Midland Railway in 1840, he worked underDaniel Gooch atSwindon, but left reputedly to escape Gooch's wrath. In 1841 he became thelocomotive superintendent of theSheffield, Ashton-under-Lyne and Manchester Railway, which became theManchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway Company from 1847. In this role he was responsible for founding theGorton locomotive works for the company. He left shortly before they were completed in 1848.
In 1847, Peacock was present withCharles Beyer at a meeting atLickey Incline which it is generally acknowledged gave birth to theInstitution of Mechanical Engineers.George Stephenson was elected as first president and Charles Beyer as a vice president. Peacock became a member of theInstitution of Civil Engineers in 1849.[1]
Having also had dealings with Charles Beyer through acquiring locomotives fromSharp Brothers, he joined Beyer in 1853 to establishBeyer, Peacock and Company to manufacture steam locomotives.[2]
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From the1885 general election until his death in 1889, Peacock wasLiberal PartyMember of Parliament (MP) forGorton division ofLancashire. He was aUnitarian, and one of his contributions to the community inGorton was the construction ofBrookfield Unitarian Church, which stands today. Its bells are named after his children.
Emily Faithfull, the Victorian printer and women's rights activist, dedicated the English edition of her bookThree Visits To America to her "Friend Richard Peacock Esq of Gorton Hall" in 1884.[3]During his period in parliament Peacock was in favour of Home Rule, of the reform of the House of Lords, thedisestablishment and disendowment of theChurch of England, and the establishment of local self-government.
Peacock was the son of Ralph Peacock, a mines supervisor from Swaledale, Yorkshire, and Dorothy Robinson. He was married twice, firstly to Hannah Crowther, and secondly to Frances Littlewood. At the time of his death his eldest son, Colonel Ralph PeacockVD (1838–1928) of the part-timeManchester Artillery Volunteers, succeeded him at Gorton Foundry. Of his daughters the eldest, Jane Peacock (1855–1928), married William Taylor Birchenough JP, a silk manufacturer who was elder brother of SirHenry Birchenough and son ofJohn Birchenough. Peacock's grandson, Richard Peacock Birchenough, married Dorothy Grace Godsal, daughter ofPhilip Thomas Godsal, the inventor of the Godsal anti tank rifle. Peacock's youngest daughter, Eugenie, married George P. Dawson, who succeeded Colonel Peacock as managing director on the formation of theincorporatedBeyer, Peacock and Company Limited in 1902. Colonel Ralph Peacock died without issue, as did Richard Peacock's only other surviving son, Frederick William Peacock (1858–1924).
Richard Peacock died in Manchester at the age of 68. He is buried in thePeacock Mausoleum in the graveyard of hisBrookfield Unitarian Church. The graveyard also holds the remains of Ralph Peacock and an earlier deceased son, Joseph Peacock.
| Business positions | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by No predecessor | Locomotive Superintendent of the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway 1847–1854 | Succeeded by |
| Parliament of the United Kingdom | ||
| New constituency | Member of Parliament forGorton 1885 –1889 | Succeeded by |