George Peabody
(1795-1869)

The American millionaire and philanthropist George Peabody was born at Danvers in Massachusetts in 1795, into a family of modest means. With only four years of formal education and no family connections, he achieved enormous international success as an investment banker in London. He was the first great modern philanthropist and one of the best-known world figures of the nineteenth century.

His formal schooling ended when he was apprenticed, at the age of eleven, to the owner of a general store. When his apprenticeship ended 4 years later, he set out to seek his fortune. By the age of 17, he was managing a store in Georgetown, D.C. At 20, he was a partner in a wholesale drygoods business, and by the time he was 22 he was worth more than $40,000.  For 20 years he conducted business in Baltimore, gradually developing into an international merchant and financier. After five business trips to Europe, in 1837 he decided to settle in London, where he established the banking house of George Peabody and Company, specializing in foreign exchange and American securities.

During Peabody's many years in London he accumulated enormous wealth, which, as he neared retirement, he started to give away. Through gifts and legacies he distributed approximately $9,000,000 to worthy causes in both his native country and the country of his residence. Many of his philanthropies concerned education.

In 1866, at the urging of his nephew, Peabody provided $150,000 to found Yale's Peabody Museum of Natural History, giving the same amount to Harvard to found the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology. In London, Peabody established the Peabody Donation Fund, which continues to this day to provide subsidized housing to the working class in London.

George Peabody died in London at 80 Eaton Square on 4 November 1869, leaving an estate valued at £400,000. With the approval of the Queen, his body received the rare honour of a temporary burial in Westminster Abbey, and then, according to instructions in his will, was brought home to America and buried in his hometown (renamed Peabody in his honour).  Prime Minister Gladstone arranged for his remains to be transported on the Monarch, the newest and largest ship in Her Majesty's Navy.