17 Facts About Morton Peto

Sir Samuel Morton Peto, 1st Baronet was an English entrepreneur, civil engineer and railway developer, and, for more than 20 years, a Member of Parliament.

Samuel Morton Peto, normally called Morton Peto, was born on 4 August 1809, in Woking, Surrey.

In 1834 Morton Peto saw the potential of the newly developing railways and dissolved the connection with his uncle's building firm.

Morton Peto rebuilt the hall with contemporary amenities, as well as constructing a school and more houses in the village.

In 1846, Morton Peto became co-treasurer of the Baptist Missionary Society.

Morton Peto served for two decades as a Member of Parliament.

Morton Peto was elected a Liberal Member for Norwich in 1847 to 1854, for Finsbury from 1859 to 1865, and for Bristol from 1865 to 1868.

Morton Peto helped to make a guarantee towards the financing of The Great Exhibition of 1851, backing Joseph Paxton's Crystal Palace.

In 1855 Morton Peto was made a baronet; but in the 1860s his businesses ran into trouble, so that in 1863 he sold Somerlyton Hall and in 1866 became bankrupt.

Morton Peto exiled himself to Budapest and tried to promote railways in Russia and Hungary.

An extremely unfavourable portrait of Morton Peto is included in the appendix to George Borrow's Romany Rye, where he is described as "Mr Flamson".

When Morton Peto promoted the Lowestoft Railway and Harbour Company in the 1840s, the railway split Borrow's estate at Oulton Broad, just outside Lowestoft.

Morton Peto is commemorated by a portrait bust at Norwich railway station by John Pooler.

Kent, Samuel Morton Peto Way is a residential road built upon the old Newtown Railway Works site and was named in his honour.

In Bishop's Stortford, Hertfordshire, Morton Peto Road is located close to the town's railway station.

In May 1831 Morton Peto married Mary Grissell, one of the sisters of his later partner, Thomas Grissell.

Morton Peto then married Sarah Ainsworth Kelsall, the daughter of Henry Kelsall of Rochdale.