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Provincial Archives of New Brunswick

Dictionary of Miramichi Biography

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PEABODY, FRANCIS (1760-1841)

PEABODY, FRANCIS, lumber and trading company head, shipbuilder, JP, and JCP; b. Boxford, Mass., 9 Nov 1760, s/o Francis Peabody Sr and Mary Brown; m. 1808, Mrs Lydia Brooker; d. Chatham, 4 Jul 1841.

Francis Peabody moved to Maugerville with his parents as a young child and grew up there. As an adult he lived in Saint John for a number of years. When he first came to the Miramichi it was as a visiting trader who supplied the inhabitants with their wants in return for salmon and other local products. In 1801 he bought property at the site of the future town of Chatham, and he took up residence there around 1804.

During the first two decades of the 19th century Peabody was "the most extensive and respectable merchant on the banks of the Miramichi." He was thought to be largely responsible for the "rise and progress" of Chatham, in particular, and was thus dubbed "Father of the Settlement." Alone and with partners, notably with his nephews Edward and Richard Simonds and his niece's husband Isaac Paley, he traded with merchandising firms in Great Britain and in property at home. For many years he had a sawmill on the Sabbies River. He owned the Chatham shipyard which later belonged to Joseph Russell and Joseph Cunard in succession, and he had at least five ocean-going vessels built there.

Peabody was appointed a justice of the peace in 1807, as well as a justice of the Inferior Court of Common Pleas. He was made a fireward when the Chatham Fire Company was formed in 1824. He was one of the committee of thirteen created in 1825 to provide relief to sufferers from the Miramichi Fire. Later he was an appointee to the Board of Health for the port. He was a supporter of both the Presbyterian and Anglican churches. To mark his seventy-seventh birthday his friends commissioned a portrait of him by the itinerant artist Albert Gallatin Hoit. One of the best known of Hoit's works, the portrait has undoubtedly enhanced Peabody's historical standing.

The Gleaner described Peabody as "a gentleman of the old school, upright, dignified, modest, and unassuming," and as "simple in his mode of life and altogether free from ostentation and pride." His wife survived him by two years. They had no children.

Sources

[b] Peabody Genealogy [m] official records [d] Gleaner 6 Jul 1841 / Cooney (H); DCB; Fraser (C); Gleaner 6 Oct 1829; Manny (Ships)

Notes

The Peabody Genealogy states that Peabody married a Miss Perley of London, England. The county marriage records show that he married Lydia Brooker, a widow, in 1808. This has led to the supposition that he was married twice, but the two items of information are not necessarily incompatible. His wife may have been Lydia Perley, the widow of a Mr Brooker. Joseph Gubbins referred to Mrs Peabody in 1813 as "an English gentlewoman," and her will included bequests for a sister and others in London, England.


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