R. and Lucy Peacock

Lucy Peacock (fl. 1785-1817) was one of the early stars in England and America in the area of children’s literature, both in composing works of fiction for young and adolescent readers as well as works of historical interest designed more for instruction than delight. She shared a similar interest in both areas with Mary Hays and Elizabeth Coltman, but unlike those two dissenting women writers, Peacock also translated several important works from French into English (1796, 1797, 1802, and 1807), such as her Historical Grammar and A Chronological Abridgment of Universal History, both translations of works by Maturin Veyssière La Croze.  Her husband, R. Peacock, first appears on imprints as a bookseller in 1792, operating from 47 Parson’s Street, Ratcliff Highway. Within a year or so, he had moved his business to 259 Oxford Street, in central London, establishing in the same place the Juvenile Library, which would continue under R. and Lucy Peacock through 1807, though he appears to have remained connected with the Library a few more years until its closed sometime around 1810. Lucy Peacock was already an accomplished writer for young readers by 1792, having published four significant works of fiction by that year as well as significant contributions as an editor and writer for the Juvenile Magazine in 1788. She even appeared as one of the sellers for her 1786 work, The Rambles of Fancy, living with her husband at that time at 28 Warwick Street, Golden Square. Some of these early works were also sold by Lucy Peacock at the home or establishment of A. Perfetti, at No. 91, Wimpole-Street, a name that does not appear in any of the London Directories at that time. R. Peacock does not appear on any of those early imprints, nor does he appear as a stationer or bookseller in Lowndes’ 1786 London Directory, the 1791 Universal British Directory, or Boyle’s 1794 London Directory, but a Lewis Peacock does appear as a law stationer in Chancery Lane (vol. 1, part 2, p. 249). In Wakefield’s 1793 London Directory, Lewis Peacock is still in Chancery Lane but now Peacock’s Juvenile Library makes its first appearance in Oxford Street, though no names are associated with it (p. 237). In Holden’s 1805 London Directory (n.p.), there are two listings for Peacocks: R. and L. Peacock are now working together as law stationers at 9 Chancery Lane (the “L. Peacock” is Lewis Peacock, son of the “R.” Lewis, the husband of Lucy); and Mrs. [Lucy] Peacock, at the Juvenile Library, 259 Oxford Street, which suggests that by 1805 Lucy was operating the library by herself, with her husband and son working in Chancery Lane. She appears as “L. Peacock” and “Mrs. Peacock” on imprints from the Juvenile Library. R. Peacock does not appear in H. R. Plomer, et. al., ed., Dictionaries of the Printers and Booksellers who were at Work in England, Scotland and Ireland 1557-1775 (London: The Bibliographical Society, 1977), or D. F. McKenzie, Stationer’s Company Apprentices 1701 to 1800 (Oxford: Oxford Bibliographical Society, 1978). Short entries on Lewis, R., and Lucy Peacock can be found in Ian Maxted, The London Book Trades: A Preliminary Checklist of Members (Kent, UK: William Dawson, 1977), and online at Exeter Working Papers in Book History, at https://bookhistory.blogspot.com/2007/01/london-1775-1800-p-q.html.

Between 1785 and 1792, R. Peacock does not appear on any imprints. In 1792 and 1793, however, R. Peacock can be found on six imprints from 47 Parson’s Street, Ratcliff Highway, near Whitechapel. It may be that this R. Peacock is not the same as the one who joins in 1793 with Lewis Peacock (records show that he was his son) as a law stationer in Chancery Lane. The coincidence of two unrelated R. Peacocks appearing at the same time in London working in the print trade seems highly improbable. Since he was already married to Lucy Peacock by 1785, it makes sense that he moved into the book trade in 1792, most likely having an early career in some other field and possibly changing to the book trade as a result of his wife’s evident success by 1792 as a writer for young readers. If that is the case, then the R. Peacock of Ratcliff Highway was most likely a dissenter and probably a Particular Baptist, for of the six imprints on which he appears as “R. Peacock” in 1792-93, four were works by the celebrated Particular Baptist and High Calvinist minister at Carter Lane, John Gill (1697-1771) and one title was by the evangelical Calvinist Anglican minister, John Berridge. The sellers Peacock appears with on these imprints is a who’s who among the dissenting book trade at that time: William Button, Garnet Terry, Martha Gurney, Martha Lewis Trapp, James Mathews, John Parsons, William Ash, George Offor, and Dan Taylor. A title by Harriet English and sold by the Peacocks at the Juvenile Library in 1797 and 1799  were also sold by J. Hatchard, No. 173, Piccadilly, another seller who had strong Baptist connections. By the end of 1793, the Juvenile Library in Oxford Street had been opened, and R. Peacock no longer appears alone on imprints from the Ratcliff Highway location; instead, he seems to have confined himself to the new business with Lewis Peacock in Chancery Lane, with Lucy Peacock managing the Juvenile Library. She appears on imprints of the library as “Mrs. Peacock” beginning in 1793 and continuing into 1796, when the first imprint appears under the designation “R. and L. Peacock” at the Juvenile Library (the Chancery Lane address never appears on any of the Peacock’s imprints).  The last imprint bearing “R. and L. Peacock” appears in 1807; many of the imprints between 1796 and 1807 continued to use “Mrs. Peacock” and “L. Peacock,” with some imprints merely using “Peacock” and others “Peacock’s Juvenile Library.”