Modern English biography

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.