Author: Peacock, Thomas Love
Biography:
PEACOCK, Thomas Love (1785-1866: ODNB)
Best known to literary history as the author of clever fictions that satirize Romantic posturing and as the close friend and executor of P. B. Shelley (q.v.), Peacock began his writing career as a poet. He was born in Weymouth on 18 Oct. 1785 and baptised at the Scotch Kirk, London Wall, on 7 Jan. 1786, the son of a glass merchant, Samuel Peacock, and his wife Sarah Love. His parents lived apart and his father died in 1793: Peacock was raised by his mother and lovingly supported her to the day of her death in 1832. He had to leave school at twelve but taught himself effectively thereafter, becoming a good classicist and mastering French and Italian as well. He began work as a clerk in London and at the same time contributed to newspapers and magazines. A connection with the Hookham brothers, publishers, enabled him to leave his job for literature. He struggled at first: two letters of reference on his behalf to the RLF in 1812 and 1813 both hint at the risk of suicide. (The RLF granted £40 in all.) The Hookhams introduced him to Shelley late in 1812. Peacock became Shelley's confidant, adviser, and business agent until Shelley's death in 1822. From 1815 to 1819 Shelley was able to give him a regular income, and Peacock moved with his mother to Marlow on the Thames. There he wrote the first of his famous satiric fictions--Headlong Hall, Melincourt, and Nightmare Abbey. In 1819 he returned to London to join the EIC as an assistant examiner on a very good salary, serving as chief examiner from 1836 until he retired in 1856. Peacock had been romantically involved with several women before he finally married Jane Gryffydh (d 1851) in 1820; they had four children, only one of whom survived them, but they also had an adoptive daughter who was with Peacock to the end. The most significant of his publications after 1835 were contributions to Fraser's Magazine, notably his "Memoirs" of Shelley in 1858 and 1860. In 1823 he had bought a cottage for his mother on the Thames at Lower Halliford which he later expanded to accommodate his own family. There he spent most of his retirement and there he died peacefully in his sleep on 23 Jan. 1866. (ODNB 15 June 2020; findmypast.com 2 Feb. 2025; RLF #274) HJ
Other Names:
- T. L. Peacock
- Thomas Peacock