Modern English biography
1855. _d._ Suffolk st. Pall Mall, London 8 Nov. 1858. _bur._ Ely
3026 words | Chapter 585
cemetery. _Proc. of Royal soc. ix_ 536–43 (1858); _G.M. April
1859 pp._ 426–8.
PEACOCK, GEORGE (son of Richard George Peacock, a master in
the navy). _b._ Starcross, near Exeter 1805; entered navy
1828; master of the Medea steamer in the Mediterranean 21
Sept. 1835; made a survey of the isthmus of Corinth, marking
line of a possible canal, presented with a gold snuff-box by
king Otho 1836, and received order of the Redeemer of Greece
1882; resigned the navy 1840; superintended the building of the
steamers of the Pacific steam navigation company, commanded the
first steamer which he took through the Strait of Magellan,
acted as the company’s marine superintendent 1841–6; started a
company under style of Peacock and Buchan for manufacture of an
anti-fouling composition for the bottoms of iron ships 1848;
dockmaster at Southampton 1848–58; a shipowner at Starcross
from 1858; commanded an unsuccessful expedition to the Sahara
for the discovery of nitrates 1860; took out a patent for chain
cables 1873; edited Handbook of Abyssinia 1867; author of A
treatise on ships’ cables, with the history of chains, their
use and abuse 1873; The resources of Peru 1874, 4 ed. 1874; On
the supply of nitrate of soda and guano from Peru 1878. _d._ at
house of his son-in-law Henry Cookson, 16 Holly road, Fairfield,
Liverpool 6 June 1883. _bur._ Starcross.
PEACOCK, JOHN MACLEAY (7 child of Wm. Peacock of Kincardine,
Perthshire). _b._ Kincardine 31 March 1817; a boiler-maker;
employed at Laird’s iron shipbuilding works at Birkenhead some
years; a chartist and secularist; a newsvendor; author of Poems
and songs 1864; Hours of reverie 1867. _d._ Glasgow 4 May 1877.
_Selections of verse_, _edited by W. Lewin_ (1880) _portrait_.
PEACOCK, MARK BEAUCHAMP. _b._ 1794 or 1795; solicitor in London
1819 to death; solicitor to the general post office 1825 to
death. _d._ Southwood, Highgate 19 June 1862.
PEACOCK, RICHARD (7 son of Ralph Peacock, superintendent of
mines, _d._ 1843). _b._ Swaledale, North Riding of Yorkshire
9 April 1820; apprentice to Fenton, Murray, and Jackson,
locomotive makers, Leeds 1834–8; locomotive superintendent Leeds
and Selby railway 1838–40; worked under sir David Gooch on Great
Western railway 1840–1; locomotive superintendent Manchester and
Sheffield railway 1841–54, and builder of the Gorton locomotive
depôt, Manchester; partner with Charles Beyer as locomotive
and machine tool makers at Gorton 1854, with works covering 14
acres; experimented on the blast pipe and locomotives; M.I.C.E.
1 May 1849; a founder of the Institution of Mechanical engineers
1847; M.P. Gorton 1885 to death. _d._ Gorton hall, Manchester 3
March 1889. _Min. of Proc. of Instit. C.E. xcvii_ 404–7 (1889);
_W. Smith’s Old Yorkshire ii_ 271–4 (1890) _portrait_; _Figaro 9
March 1889 p._ 9 _portrait_.
PEACOCK, THOMAS BEVILL (son of Thomas Peacock, merchant).
_b._ York 21 Dec. 1812; apprentice to J. Fothergill, surgeon,
Darlington 1828–33; studied at Univ. college, London, and at
St. George’s hospital 1833–5; M.R.C.S. 1835; L.S.A. 1835; went
two voyages to Ceylon 1835–6; house surgeon to the hospital at
Chester 1838–42; M.D. Edinb. 1842; L.R.C.P. 1844, F.R.C.P. 1850,
Croonian lecturer 1865; founded a dispensary in Liverpool st.
London, which became the City of London hospital for diseases of
the chest, physician to the hospital 1848; assistant physician
to St. Thomas’s hospital, London 1849, physician 1862, retired
1877; dean of the medical school, delivered lectures on medicine
to the nurses; a founder of the Pathological society of London
1846, secretary 1850, vice-president 1852–6, president 1865–6;
member Med. and Chir. soc. 1845, sec. 1855–6, referee 1857–65,
vice-president 1867; author of On the influenza or epidemic
catarrh fever of 1847–8, 1848; On malformations of the human
heart 1858, 2 ed. 1866; On French millstone makers’ phthisis
1862; On the prognosis in cases of valvular diseases of the
heart 1877; and of many papers in medical periodicals; gave his
preparations of cardiac diseases and malformations to Hunterian
museum. _d._ St. Thomas’s hospital, London 31 May 1882. _bur._
Friends’ ground at Tottenham. _St. Thomas’s hospital reports xi_
179–85 (1882); _Medico-Chirurgical transactions_ (1883) 20–3.
PEACOCK, THOMAS LOVE (only child of Samuel Peacock of St. Paul’s
church yard, London, glass merchant, _d._ 1788). _b._ Weymouth,
Dorset 18 Oct. 1785; secretary to sir H. R. Popham on board the
fleet before Flushing 1808–9; made the acquaintance of Shelley
at Nant Gwillt, North Wales 1812, Shelley’s executor 1822; clerk
in East India house 1819, assistant examiner of correspondence
1822, chief examiner 1836, retired on a pension March 1856;
author of The monks of St. Mark 1804; Palmyra 1806; The genius
of the Thames 1810, 3 ed. 1817; The philosophy of melancholy
1812; Sir Proteus. By P. M. O’Donovan, Esq. 1814; Headlong
hall 1816, anon.; Melincourt 1817, 2 ed. 1856; Rhododaphne, or
the Thessalian spell 1818; Nightmare abbey 1818; Maid Marian
1822, dramatised by Planche as an opera and produced at Covent
Garden 3 Dec. 1822; The misfortunes of Elphin 1829; Crotchet
Castle 1831, new ed. 1887; Paper money lyrics and other poems
1837; Gryll Grange 1861; and two translations, Gl’ingannati,
The deceived, a comedy performed at Siena 1851, and Ælia Laelia
Crispis 1862. _d._ Lower Halliford, near Shepperton, Middlesex
23 Jany. 1866. _bur._ new cemet. Shepperton. _Macmillan’s
Mag. liii_ 414–27 (1886); _Temple bar lxxx_ 35–52 (1887); _G.
B. Smith’s Poets and novelists_ (1875) 111–50; _T. H. Ward’s
English poets_, _2 ed. iv_ 417–26 (1883); _St. James’s mag.
Sept. 1875 pp._ 332, 600–10; _H. Cole’s Works of T. L. Peacock_,
3 _vols._ (1875), _memoir in i_, _xxv–lii portrait_; _R.
Garnett’s Works of T. L. Peacock_, 10 _vols._ (1891) _memoir in
x_ 7–43.
NOTE.--He married 20 March 1820 Jane Gryffydh, known as the
Caernarvonshire nymph and ‘the Beauty of Caernarvonshire,’ she is
celebrated by Shelley as the Snowdonian Antelope, and _d._ 1852. _W. M.
Rossetti’s Poetical works of P. B. Shelley ii_ 322 (1878), _in Letter
to Maria Gisborne line_ 240.
PEACOCKE, GEORGE JOHN. _b._ 3 April 1825; ensign 16 foot 8 July
1842, lieut. col. 18 Oct. 1859, placed on h.p. 2 July 1870;
A.A.G. North Britain 15 July 1871 to 31 Jany. 1876; lieut. col.
brigade depôt 12 April 1876, placed on retired list with hon.
rank of L.G. 1 Oct. 1882. _d._ 23 Lowndes sq. London 15 Dec.
1895.
PEAKE, THOMAS LADD (son of sir Henry Peake, surveyor of the
navy). _b._ 1785; entered navy 1798; served in Walcheren
expedition 1809; as first lieut. in the Victorious took part
in action with the Rivoli 21 Feb. 1812; special magistrate at
Cape of Good Hope 4 years; inspecting commander of coastguard 31
Aug. 1820 to 1825; captain 1 March 1822, retired 1 Oct. 1846,
rear-admiral 7 Oct. 1852, vice-admiral 28 Nov. 1857, admiral 27
April 1863. _d._ Cumberland st. London 19 Jany. 1865.
PEARCE, ELIZABETH. A popular serio-comic singer and dancer at
the principal London and provincial music halls many years;
created the famous songs Betsy Gay, Buy a broom, and When the
family are from home; retired some years before her death; _m._
Richard Arnold Burnett, map mounter; she _d._ 146 York road,
Waterloo road, London 24 Dec. 1890.
PEARCE, PAULIN HUGGETT (son of Edward Pearce of Ramsgate, _d._
25 Sept. 1851, aged 81, by Susannah his wife, who _d._ 19 May
1869, aged 92). _b._ Ramsgate 1809; a well known swimmer;
saved many lives and had medals from Royal humane soc. 1818
etc.; instrumental in saving lives of crew of the Colonist
at Barbadoes 1826; gave swimming exhibitions off Ramsgate
pier; author of The funeral of lord Nelson 1850; The duke of
Wellington’s grand funeral ode 1854; King Edward IV, a play
1868; King Richard I, a play 1868; Lord Nelson’s battles 1868;
A treatise and poem on swimming 1868; P. H. Pearce’s Tragedy
of the battle of Waterloo 1869; The infallible art of swimming
1869; The warrior’s swimming book 1869; Alexander the Great, a
play 1872; Godwin island, a play 1872; King Darius of Persia,
a play 1872; King Petri and the Black prince, a tragedy 1874;
Tippo Sahib, the sultan of Mysore, a poem 1876. _d._ 10 Harbour
st, Ramsgate 23 Nov. 1888. _bur._ St. Peter’s churchyard.
NOTE.--His brother Frederick Pearce was residing at Ramsgate 1894. His
brother Charles Pearce made a fortune as a boot maker at No. 10 Harbour
st. Ramsgate, was organist of St. Peter’s church 1846–91, _d._ 29 May
1891, aged 66.
PEARCE, THOMAS (youngest son of Francis Pearce, rector of
Hatford, Berks.) _b._ 1820; educ. Lincoln coll. Oxf, B.A. 1843,
M.A. 1848; C. of Golden hill, Staffs. 1845–7; C. of Highcliffe,
Hants. 1847–9; C. of Waterperry, Oxon. 1850–2; C. of Sparsholt,
Berks. 1852–3; V. of Morden, Wilts. 1853 to death; author of The
dog, with directions for his treatment and notices of the best
dogs of the day, by Idstone 1872; The Idstone papers, by Idstone
of the Field 1872, 2 ed. 1874; he wrote a considerable portion
of The dogs of the British islands edited by Stonehenge [John
Henry Walsh] 1867. _d._ Kempstone, Westcliffe, Bournemouth 24
Sept. 1885.
PEARCE, WALTER. _b._ 1854; educ. St. Mary’s hospital, Univ.
coll. London, and Rotunda hospital, Dublin; studied at school
of mines; B.Sc. univ of London 1874, M.R.C.S. 1881, M.B. and
B.S. 1885, M.D. 1886; L.R.C.P. 1886. M.R.C.P. 1886; took diploma
in Sanitary science 1887; took diploma in Mental medicine of
Medico-Psychological assoc. 1886; medical superintendent, then
assist. surgeon St. Mary’s hospital, London; acting surgeon of
the 20th Middlesex volunteers (Artists’ corps) 23 Aug. 1884;
resided 63 Montagu square, London. _shot himself_ in medical
staff room St. Mary’s hospital 15 May 1890. _Lancet 24 May 1890
p._ 1156.
PEARCE, WILLIAM. _b._ 1789; quartermaster 4 West India foot 26
Dec. 1805; lieut. 44 foot 21 Sept. 1810; captain 60 foot 15 Aug.
1813, major 25 Dec. 1825; placed on h.p. as lieut. col. 29 Aug.
1826; K.H. 1835. _d._ Ffowdgrech, Brecknockshire 5 Feb. 1871.
PEARCE, SIR WILLIAM, 1 Baronet (son of Joseph George Pearce of
Brompton, near Chatham). _b._ Brompton 8 Jany. 1833; apprenticed
in Chatham dockyard; superintended the building of the Achilles,
the first ironclad built in a royal yard 1861; surveyor of
Lloyd’s registry for the Clyde district 1863; general manager
of the works of Robert Napier and son 1864; shipbuilder with
Ure and Jameson, under style of John Elder and Co. 1869, his
partners retired in 1878; the business was turned into a limited
company under name of the Fairfield shipbuilding and engineering
company of which he was chairman 1885; built all the steamers
for the North German Lloyd’s and for the New Zealand shipping
company; built 11 stern-wheel vessels for service on the Nile
in 28 days 1884; chairman of the Guion steamship company and of
the Scottish oriental steamship company; M.P. Govan division of
Lanarkshire Dec. 1885 to death; created baronet 25 July 1887.
_d._ 119 Piccadilly, London 18 Dec. 1888. _bur._ Gillingham,
Kent 22 Dec., personal estate declared at £1,069,669. _R. F.
Gould’s History of freemasonry ii_ 409 (1884) _portrait_; _D.
Pollock’s Modern shipbuilding_ (1884) 30.
PEARCEY, MARY ELEANOR, taken name of Mary Eleanor Wheeler (dau.
of James Whitford Wheeler, a marine, _d._ 17 Aug. 1882). _b._
Ightham, Kent 26 March 1866; worked as a furrier in Cannon st.
Stepney; lived with Charles Pearcey about Nov. 1885 to Nov.
1888, and took his name; invited Phœbe Hogg to visit her at
2 Priory st. Kentish town 24 Oct. 1890, and then quarrelled
with her and fractured her head and cut her throat, conveyed
the body in a perambulator to Crossfield road, Eton avenue,
South Hampstead, where it was found on 25 Oct. as well as the
dead body of her young child; _executed_ Newgate 22 Dec. 1890.
_Central criminal court minutes of evidence cxiii_ 44–72 (1891);
_Times 27, 28, 29, 30, 31 Oct. 1890_, _1, 3, 18 Nov._, _6, 18,
20, 23, 24 Dec._; _Western Morning News 14 Nov. 1890 p._ 3;
_Illustrated police news 1, 8, 15, 22, 29 Dec. 1890_, _many
portraits_.
PEARD, JOHN WHITEHEAD (2 son of vice-admiral Shuldham Peard
1761–1832). _b._ Fowey, Cornwall, July 1811; educ. King’s
school, Ottery St. Mary, and Exeter college, Oxford, B.A.
1833, M.A. 1836, stroke of his college boat; student Inner
Temple 16 Nov. 1832, barrister 17 Nov. 1837; captain in Duke of
Cornwall’s Rangers 4 June 1853, displaced 24 Dec. 1861; joined
the forces of Garibaldi and organized and commanded a company of
revolving-rifle soldiers 1860, distinguished himself at battle
of Melazzo in Sicily 20 July 1860, raised to rank of colonel;
commanded the English legion in the advance to Naples, received
cross of the order of Valour from Victor Emmanuel; generally
known as Garibaldi’s Englishman; was visited by Garibaldi at
his seat Penquite on the Fowey river 25–7 April 1864; sheriff
of Cornwall 1869. _d._ Trenython, Par, Cornwall 21 Nov. 1880.
_bur._ Fowey cemet. 24 Nov. _Boase and Courtney’s Bibl. Cornub.
ii_ 439, _iii_ 1456 (1874–82); _Boase’s Collect. Cornub._
(1890) 690, 1018; _Sir C. Forbe’s Campaign of Garibaldi_ (1861)
94–9, 143, 200, 217–31; _Trollope’s What I remember ii_ 222–1
(1887–9); _Pycroft’s Oxford memories i_ 48–9, _ii_ 71 (1886);
_Sir F. H. Doyle’s Reminiscences_ (1886) 222–3; _I.L.N. 11 Aug.
1860 p._ 135 _portrait_; _Illust. times 9 Feb. 1861 p._ 83
_portrait_.
NOTE.--His name was never inserted in the Law List, this is a very
remarkable case.
PEARL, CORA, assumed name of Emma Elizabeth Crouch (one of the
16 children of Frederick William Nicholls Crouch, _b._ 31 July
1808, composer of Kathleen Mavourneen, who went to America in
1845). _b._ Caroline place, East Stonehouse, Devon 23 Feb. 1842;
educ. at Boulogne to 1855; seduced by an admirer in London and
thenceforth led a life of dissipation under the name of Cora
Pearl 1856; went to France with the returning Persigny embassy
March 1858; had a series of liaisons with persons connected with
the imperial court; large sums of money, diamonds and jewellery
passed through her hands; maintained an establishment in the
Rue de Chaillot, which was known as Les Petits Tuileries; kept
the finest horses and carriages of any one in Paris, crowds
assembled daily to see her in the Bois de Boulogne and ladies
imitated her dress and manners; appeared for 12 nights at Les
Bouffes Parisiens as Cupid in Offenbach’s opera Orphée aux
Enfers 1869; refused admission at the Grosvenor hotel, London
1870; converted her Paris residence into an ambulance during
the war and spent 25,000 francs on the wounded 1870; a son of
Pierre Louis Duval, founder of the Duval restaurants, spent
seventeen million francs on her 1870–1, after which she deserted
him and he attempted suicide; expelled by the police at various
times from France, Baden, Monte Carlo, Nice, Vichy and Rome;
blackmailed her acquaintances, to keep their names out of her
printed memoirs; often called La lune rousse in allusion to her
round face and red hair; her figure in marble was modelled by M.
Gallois in 1880. _d._ of cancer in squalid poverty in a small
room in the Rue de Bassano, Paris 8 July 1886. _Memoirs de Cora
Pearl_, _Paris_ (1886); _The memoirs of Cora Pearl_, _London_
(1886); _Folly’s Queens_, _New York_ (1882) 23–7; _Truth 15 July
1886 pp._ 105–6; _London Figaro 24 July 1886 p._ 6 _portrait_;
_Daily News 10 July 1886 p._ 5.
PEARS, STEUART ADOLPHUS (7 son of rev. James Pears, head-master
of Bath gram. sch.) _b._ Pirbright, Surrey 20 Nov. 1815; scholar
of C. C. coll. Oxf. 1832–6, fellow 1836, dean 1844–6; B.A. 1836,
M.A. 1839, B.D. 1846; tutor to lord Goderich 1838–42; sent
abroad by the Parker society to search the libraries of Zurich
and other places for correspondence relating to the English
reformation 1843; fellow and tutor of univ. of Durham 1846–7;
assistant master at Harrow 1847–54; head-master of Repton school
July 1854, resigned March 1874, raised the school from a local
grammar school of fifty boys to a first-grade public school of
nearly 300; R. of Childrey, Berkshire 1874 to death; translated
from the Latin The correspondence of sir Philip Sidney and
H. Languet 1845; author of Sermons 1851; Three lectures on
education 1859; Short sermons on the elements of christian truth
1861; Sundays at school, sermons in Repton school chapel 1870;
Sermons 1877. _d._ Childrey rectory 15 Dec. 1875.
PEARS, SIR THOMAS TOWNSEND (brother of preceding). _b._ 9 May
1809; lieut. Madras engineers 17 June 1825; commandant of
the Madras sappers and miners 1836; chief engineer with the
field force in Karnul 1839; commanding engineer with the army
in China under sir Hugh Gough 1841–2, was present at nearly
every action; consulting engineer for railways to government
of Madras 1851–7; lieut.-col. 20 June 1854, col. 16 Feb. 1856;
chief engineer in the public works’ department for Mysore 1857,
retired on a pension with honorary rank of M.G. 8 Feb. 1861;
military secretary at the India office, London 1861; organised
the arrangements for the Abyssinian expedition, retired 1877;
C.B. 24 Dec. 1842, K.C.B. 13 June 1871. _d._ Eton lodge, Upper
Richmond road, Putney 7 Oct. 1892. _bur._ Mortlake cemet. _H.
M. Vibart’s Madras engineers ii_ 133 _et seq._ (1883); _J.
Ouchterlony’s Chinese war_ (1844) 47 _et seq._; _Daily Graphic
12 Oct. 1892 p._ 8 _portrait_.
PEARSALL, ROBERT LUCAS (son of Richard Pearsall). _b._ Clifton
14 March 1795; barrister L.I. 1 June 1821, went the western
circuit 4 years; contributed to Blackwood’s and other magazines;
wrote a cantata Saul and the witch of Endor 1808; studied music
at Mayence 1825–9, and at Carlsruhe, Munich and Vienna 1830–6;
a member of Bristol madrigal society 1837; sold Willsbridge
house, Gloucs. 1837; purchased castle of Wartensee on the lake
of Constance 1837, resided there to his death; received into
the R.C. church and became known as R. L. de Pearsall; composed
many settings of psalms, madrigals, a requiem, etc.; composer
of Great God of love, an eight part madrigal 1840; The hardy
Norseman’s house of yore 1840; O, who will o’er the downs so
free 1853; The bishop of Mentz, a four part song 1863; 24 Choral
songs 1864; Sir Patrick Spens, a ballad dialogue in ten parts
1880; The sacred compositions of R. L. de Pearsall 1880; Lay a
garland, a madrigal 1883; his name is attached to upwards of 80
musical compositions 1840–83; published translations in English
verse of Faust and Wilhelm Tell. _d._ Wartensee castle 5 Aug.
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