PEABODY, GEORGE, an American philanthropist; born in Danvers, Mass., in 1795. He was descended from an English family, and his parents being poor, George received but a scanty edu cation, becoming grocer's clerk at the age of 11. He became chief clerk, and, afterward, partner with his uncle, John Peabody, in Georgetown, D. C., in 1812. Not satisfied, however, with their busi ness relations, George left his uncle and joined partnership with Mr. Elisha Riggs in the drygoods business in Baltimore, in 1815. In 1837 he withdrew from the firm, and established himself as banker in London, where he amassed a fortune which enabled him to fully carry out his benevolent ideas. He was particularly devoted to promoting education. Com mencing with his native place of Dan vers, Mass., where he bestowed $270,000 for the cause of education, his purse was always open to assist the good work, not only in the land of his birth, but throughout the world. To the city of
Baltimore he donated for this purpose the sum of $1,400,000; to the Board of Trustees for the promotion of education in the South, he gave $3,500,000. In 1862 he established a Board of Trustees for the amelioration of the condition of the poor of London, to which he con tributed at various times tile amount of $2,500,000. After his decease, in 1869, his remains were, by command of Queen Victoria, temporarily interred in the royal vault in Westminster Abbey and, subsequently, conveyed with state by the British ship of war "Monarch," escorted by an American war-steamer, to the United States, to be finally deposited, amid imposing manifestations of inter national respect, at Danvers (now Pea, body), Mass., in March, 1870.