PEACHAM, HENRY (c. 1643), English writer, was the son of Henry Peacham, curate of North Mimms, Hertford shire, and author of a book on rhetoric called the Garden of Rhetoric (1577). The elder Peacham became in 1597 rector of Leverton, Lincolnshire. The son was educated at Trinity college, Cambridge, where he graduated B.A. in 1594-95 and M.A. in 1598. He was for some time a schoolmaster at Wymondham, Norfolk, but settled in London in 1612, earning his living as tutor to young men preparing for the universities. His first book was Graphite (16o6), a treatise on pen and water-colour drawing, which, as The Gentleman's Exercise, passed through three editions. The years 1613-14 he spent abroad, part of the time as tutor to the three young sons of Thomas Howard (1585-1646), earl of Arundel, and partly on his own account. He travelled in Italy, France, West phalia and the Netherlands. The table of Sir John Ogle, English governor of Utrecht, was, he says, a "little academy," where he met soldiers and scholars of all nationalities. When he returned to London he was accused of libel on the king. The charge was, however, easily rebutted.
Peacham had many friends in London, among them Thomas Dowland the musician, Inigo Jones, and Edward Wright the mathematician. In 1622 appeared Peacham's magnum opus, the Compleat Gentleman. Enlarged editions appeared in 1626 and
1627. The 1627 edition was reprinted in 1634, and a third, with additional notes on blazonry by Thomas Blount (1617-79), ap peared in 1661. Peacham was a Cavalier, even an ardent polemist in the royal cause, but the central point of his book is a more or less Puritan sentiment of duty. In his later years Peacham was reduced to extreme poverty, and is said to have written children's books at a penny each. His last book was published in 1642, and it may be concluded that he died soon afterwards.