Richard Peacock
Richard Peacock ( born April 9, 1820 Swaledale (Yorkshire ); † March 3, 1889 in Manchester ) was an English engineer and member of Parliament and one of the founders of the locomotive manufacturer Beyer- Peacock.
Life
Richard Peacock went to Leeds Grammar School in Leeds to school, but at age 14 he left her to do an apprenticeship at Fenton, Murray and Jackson in Leeds.
Profession
Even at the young age of eighteen Peacock was locomotives operating chief at the Leeds and Selby Railway. When the line was taken over in 1840 by the York and North Midland Railway, he worked under Daniel Gooch in Swindon, but allegedly fled before Gooch's wrath. In 1841, he was chief operating locomotives of Sheffield, Ashton -under- Lyne and Manchester Railway, which later became the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway was. In this role, he was responsible for the Gorton Locomotive Works for this railway, although he left the company just before it was completed in 1848.
1847 Peacock was with Charles Beyer at a meeting in Lickey Incline doing, which is generally regarded as the birth of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers. George Stephenson was elected the first president and Charles Beyer Vice President. Peacock in 1849 a member of the Institution of Civil Engineers.
In 1853 he founded with Charles Beyer the celebrated locomotive factory Beyer- Peacock. Peacock Beyer met originally in the acquisition of locomotives of Sharp, Roberts and Company.
Politics and Religion
Since the general election of 1885 until his death in 1889 Peacock was a member of the Liberal Party Member of Parliament ( MP) for Gorton ( Lancashire ). Peacock was a Unitarian, and one of his services to the community in Gorton was the construction of Brookfield Church; a place of worship to this day, the bells were named after his children. Emily Faithfull, a Victorian writer and women's rights activist, was dedicated in 1882 her book "Three Visits To America " their " friend Richard Peacock of Gorton Hall, Esq ." During his time in Parliament Peacock advocated the "Home Rule", the reform of the House of Lords, the separation and disenfranchisement of the Church and the establishment of local self-government.
Family
Peacock was the son of Ralph Peacock, a mine inspector from Swaledale and his wife Dorothy Robinson. He was married twice, first to Hannah Crowther, and then with Francis Littlewood. When he died, his eldest son, Colonel Ralph Peacock VD (1838-1928) of the volunteer artillery Manchester, his successor in the Gortoner foundry. His eldest daughter Jane Peacoc (1855-1928) married William Taylor Birchenough JP, a silk manufacturer, who was the elder brother of Sir Henry Birchenough. Peacocks grandson Richard Peacock Birchenough married Dorothy Grace Godsal, daughter of Philip Thomas Godsal, the inventor of Godsal anti-tank weapon. Peacocks youngest daughter Eugenie married George P. Dawson, Colonel Peacock followed in 1902 as General Manager of the new Beyer, Peacock and Company Limited. Colonel Ralph Peacock died without issue, as well as Richard Peacock's only other surviving son of Frederick William Peacock ( 1858-1924 ).
He died in Manchester and is buried in the Brookfield Unitarian Church cemetery at Hyde Road in Gorton, which he had built, and where the remains of his father Ralph Peacock and the previously deceased son Joseph Peacock lie.