Everything about Samuel Morton Peto totally explained
Sir Samuel Morton Peto, 1st Baronet (
August 4,
1809 –
November 13,
1889) was an
English entrepreneur in the
19th century. Initially he constructed prestigious buildings in London before becoming one of the major contractors for the growing railways of the time.
Early life
He was born in
Woking,
Surrey, and was apprenticed as a brick-layer to his uncle who ran a building firm in
London. When the uncle died in
1830, Peto and his cousin
Thomas Grissell went into partnership. The firm of Peto & Grissell built many well-known London buildings, including the
Reform Club, the
Oxford &
Cambridge Club, the
Lyceum, and
St James's Theatre,
Hungerford Market, as well as
Nelson's column and the London brick sewer.
Railway works
In 1834 Peto saw the potential of the newly developing railways, dissolved the connection with his uncle's building firm and became a railway contractor. The first railway work was to build two stations in
Curzon Street,
Birmingham. The first line built was the
Hanwell and Langley section of the
Great Western Railway which included the
Wharncliffe Viaduct. Grissell became increasingly nervous of the risks taken by Peto and so dissolved the partnership in
1846. Peto then entered into partnership with
Edward Betts, who had married his sister, Ann.
Between 1846 and
1855, the firm carried out many large railway contracts both at home and abroad, among them the South-Eastern Line and the
London, Chatham & Dover lines, and in partnership with
Thomas Brassey the
London, Tilbury & Southend line and the
Grand Trunk Railway of
Canada. In the late 1850s he helped to build the first railway in
Algeria and accompanied
Napoleon III to the official opening of the line.
In
1854 during the
Crimean War Peto, Betts and Brassey constructed the
Grand Crimean Central Railway between
Balaklava and
Sevastopol to transport supplies to the troops at the front line. In February the following year he was made a
Baronet, of Somerleyton Hall in the County of Suffolk, for his services.
Other activities
Peto became co-treasurer of the
Baptist Missionary Society in 1846 and sole treasurer in 1855 until March 1867 when he resigned.
He was elected a
Liberal Member of Parliament for
Norwich in
1847 to
1854, for
Finsbury from
1859 to
1865, and for
Bristol from
1865 to
1868. During this time he was one of the most prominent figures in public life. He helped to make a guarantee towards the financing of the
Great Exhibition of
1851, backing
Joseph Paxton's
Crystal Palace.
However, he became involved in the financial crisis of
1866, was declared bankrupt and in
1868 he'd to give up his seat in
Parliament, despite having the support of both
Benjamin Disraeli and
William Gladstone. He exiled himself to
Budapest and tried to promote railways in
Russia and
Hungary. When he returned to England he tried to launch a small mineral railway in
Cornwall, which failed, and he died in obscurity in 1889.
Peto had bought
Somerleyton Hall in
Suffolk in
1843. He re-built the hall and constructed a school and more houses in the village, before turning his attention to
Lowestoft. He built a railway to connect the town to the rest of the rail network, as well as a harbour for 1,000 ships and some luxury hotels for the burgeoning holiday trade.
Family
Sir Samuel had several children, of whom:
- Sir Samuel's eldest son, Sir Michael Peto inherited his title as 2nd baronet.
- Another son Harold Ainsworth Peto (1854-1933), the celebrated Edwardian landscape gardener, renowned for turning Italian exotica into even more ornate Japanese gardens before the Great War. (Source: Mowl, T Historic Gardens of Wiltshire, Tempus publishing: London 2004.)
- His seventh son Basil (1862-1945) was created a Baronet in his own right in 1927. His grandson Sir Christopher Peto, 3rd Bt. was a Conservative politician. (Source: 107th edition of Burke's Peerage, Baronetage and Knightage, published: London 2004).
- Mary married Penruddocke Wyndham, a grandson of Colonel Wadham Wyndham, in 1852 and had two daughters.
- Helen Agnes married a Magistrate of Somerset, Lawrence Ingham Baker, son of the former Liberal MP for Frome. They lived at Wayford Manor, near Crewkerne, Somerset.
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