Never judge a book by its cover
A telephone call from a colleague on the Lincolnshire Geoconservation Group was the starting point for the subject of this article. I was asked if I was interested in taking possession of a pair of books, two volumes of ‘Principles of Geology’ by Charles Lyell, the Scottish geologist whose aim was to explain former changes of the Earth’s surface by reference to present-day processes. First published between 1830 and 1833, it was also one of the first works to use the term ‘evolution’ in the context of biological speciation, the process of change in organisms through adaptation over time. A fact that may highlight the significance of these books is that they influenced a young Charles Darwin who, in 1831, was presented with a copy of the first volume by Robert Fitzroy, captain of HMS Beagle just before they set sail on the ship’s second voyage. Darwin received his copy of Volume 2 whilst in South America and communicated with Lyell sending him his thoughts on the formation of coral atolls.
With this in mind you will understand that I was more than keen to travel the short distance to Louth (visiting an important Pleistocene geological site on the way home!) to collect these important volumes. They are not in the best of condition and are the 12th and final edition. Volume 2 is particularly worse-for-wear and, in my opinion, a contender for the popular ‘Repair Shop’ television series. , On opening Volume 2 however, I was pleased to find the signature of a previous owner.
The signature was that of Adrian Peacock (pictured above) who had added his whereabouts at the time as ‘St. Johns’. Intrigued, I decided to find out what I could about the signatory and I was not to be disappointed, indeed I found, with little difficulty, plenty of information that I believe will interest many readers, particularly those who enjoy local history.
Peacock’s full name and title was the Reverend Edward Adrian Woodruffe-Peacock FLS FGS and was born 23 July 1858 at Bottesford Manor, Scunthorpe, the eldest son of Lucy Anne Wetherall (1823-1887) (pictured on the right) and farmer Edward Peacock (1831-1915) whose forebear, Thomas Peacock, following the enclosure of Bottesford in 1795, claimed ‘lordship of the manor’ for himself and his descendents. Lucy was the daughter of John Swift Wetherall (b.1799), a merchant sea captain, who had family connections with Jonathan Swift (1667-1745), author of ‘Gulliver’s Travels’ and Anglican cleric who became Dean of St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin. Lucy had been brought up as the only child of her father’s sister, Lucy Ousby, wife of the curate-in-charge of Kirton-in-Lindsey. She was well-educated and married Edward Peacock in Kirton-in- Lindsey in October 1853.
As well as being a farmer, Edward Peacock was a noted antiquary and historian which no doubt influenced his eldest son, Adrian, who in his childhood would have been surrounded by the books and specimens which occupied his father’s library in Bottesford Manor (see images below). An earlier Edward Peacock (1706-1758) had farmed in the Scotter/Northorpe area where he was an important dealer in flax before becoming one of the first to own land in Bottesford.
Bottesford Manor
Edward Peacock’s Bottesford Library
Adrian was educated, though there is a suggestion that he was a reluctant learner, first in Edinburgh Academy (1870-73) then St. Peter’s, York (1873) before private tuition in Lincolnshire until April 1877. He entered St. John’s College, Cambridge to study Mathematics, Classics, Science and Natural History, which is where he was at the time of signing his copy of ‘Principles of Geology’, but his studies were cut short by ill health and poverty. It would seem that the ‘family business’ in Bottesford was struggling so Adrian transferred to Bishop Hatfield’s (now Hatfield) College, Durham to study to become an Anglican clergyman (1879) no doubt to ensure that he ‘got a proper job’. The Bottesford farm was experiencing difficult times and the death of Lucy Peacock in 1887 started a downturn in the family finances.
Contributing factors included:
The cost of educating 7 children
Agriculture had entered a period of depression
Edward’s income from antiquarianism was a pittance
The farm was using unprofitable methods
The tenancies were impoverished
The upkeep of the Manor was demanding too great a capital
Together with Joseph Fowler of Winterton (1791-1882), a fellow antiquarian and associate, Edward was a founder member of the English Dialect Society (1874) along with Christopher Wordsworth, Bishop of Lincoln, who was the nephew of, yes you’ve guessed correctly, poet William Wordsworth. Clearly his ‘outside interests’ far outweighed his commitment to running the farm. A sad aside to the family saga is the decline by Edward of an offer from Fowler, who had progressed to become a qualified surgeon at St. Thomas’ Hospital, London, to move to Oxford and presumably take up employment. Instead he chose to move to Kirton Lindsey (see photo above) and in so doing deprived his very intelligent daughters, Florence (1855-1900) and Mabel (1856-1920), of active participation in mainstream academic life.
Adrian was ordained in 1881 and was appointed curate, first to Long Benton (Northumberland) then Barkingside (Essex) before returning to Long Benton. He then transferred to Harrington (Northants) before moving to Cadney-cum-Howsham in 1891. He married sometime before the move to Cadney where his first wife, Ellen May Burn (b.1860), gave birth to their son, Dennis Maximilian Cornelius (1891 – 1964). Sadly, Ellen died later that year. Adrian remarried and together they had three children.
His involvement with natural history certainly occupied much of his time thereafter. Cadney-cum-Howsham was a poor, sparsely populated parish and since Adrian had to visit his widely scattered parishioners on foot, he became by inclination and necessity a tremendous walker, which afforded him the opportunity to make regular observations and to record the natural changes occurring over a limited area. His profile in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography notes that his routes contained some of the best-observed and documented habitats in the country. He took a leading role in the formation of the Lincolnshire Naturalist’s Union (1893) and later became rector of Grayingham. He was an early exponent of an ecological approach to natural history recording and kept meticulous records. His first major contribution for the LNU was a compilation ‘A Critical Catalogue of Lincolnshire Plants: from all known sources’ which involved the collection and collation of thousands of individual botanical records. In 1895 he was elected Organising Secretary for the society, its president in 1905 and became a fellow of both the Linnaean Society (FLS) and the Geological Society of London (FGS) in 1895 election to both of which require learned peer recommendation. He was the prime mover in establishing a museum for Lincolnshire, his extensive herbarium forming an integral part of its original collections and the foundation of the city and county museum's herbarium.
A younger brother, Max (Figure 6), moved into Cadney with Adrian during the time that the family was selling off parts of Bottesford Manor. Adrian considered Max an intrusion. The latter was more practical than his brother, more interested in improving crop yields and livestock breeding than natural history and the recording of plant species. It will come as no surprise then that Adrian collaborated with his sisters, particularly Mabel, more than Max though the siblings worked together on a significant project, the ‘Peacock Lincolnshire Word Books (1884 – 1920). In the preface to the final volume there is reference to the ‘Peacock Lincolnshire Word Collection, 1884 – 1903’ compiled by Max and Mabel ‘with their brother E. Adrian Woodruffe-Peacock’ and they are described as ‘second generation dialectologists in direct succession to Edward Peacock, an antiquary of some note and the compiler of ‘A Glossary of Words used in the Wapentakes of Manley and Corringham, Lincolnshire’ (English Dialect Society, 1877, revised and enlarged 1889).
He published an article, ‘A fox-covert study’ in the Journal of Ecology, recently founded by botanist Arthur Tansley. The two eventually met on a field trip to Mildenhall in Suffolk and, surprisingly, since Tansley was an avowed atheist, became close friends. By this point Adrian had been working on a detailed study, ‘Rock-soil flora of Lincolnshire’, for many years, and Tansley, impressed, offered to contribute £300 towards its publication.Owing to poor health, Adrian was never able to make the necessary revisions and only a small section was ever published, the rest of the manuscript passing into the archives of Cambridge University Library.
In 1920, by now Rector of Grayingham, he suffered an emotional setback when his sister Mabel died. A combination of this, the pressures of his new appointment, and the disappointment of his magnum opus requiring so many revisions, saw his health break down. He died on the 3rd of February 1922 and his body lies in an unmarked grave beside his sister, Mabel.
And all of this from finding a signature inside the cover of an old book so, as my title suggests, don’t be put off by superficial appearance, investigate the contents. Spending a little time on researching what’s inside could be both valuable and of interest.
Further reading:
Seaward M.R.D. 2001. ‘E. Adrian Woodruffe-Peacock (1858-1922): a pioneer ecologist’. Archives of Natural History, Volume 28, Issue 1, pp. 59-69. ISSN 0260-9541 also available on line at https://doi.org/10.3366/anh.2001.28.1.59
The Peacock family archive is held at the North Lincolnshire Museum, Scunthorpe.