Samuel Endicott Peabody

Peabody was born on April 19, 1825, in Salem, Massachusetts. He was a son of Col. Francis Peabody (1801–1867) and Martha (née Endicott) Peabody (1799–1891).^[1]

His paternal grandparents were Joseph Peabody and Elizabeth (née Smith) Peabody (a daughter of the Rev. Elias Smith and sister of Rev. Elias Smith). Through his mother, he was a direct descendant of Gov. John Endicott of the Massachusetts Bay Colony.^[2] His maternal grandparents were Samuel Endicott and Elizabeth (née Putnam) Endicott.^[3]

Peabody spent one year studying at Harvard College before becoming a merchant.^[2]

After Harvard, he organized the merchant firm of Curtis & Peabody, with offices on India Wharf. He also served as president of the Salem National Bank and was a director of many companies.^[2]

In 1875, Peabody was invited to become a partner in the London banking firm of J.S. Morgan & Co. that had been founded as George Peabody & Co. by a distant relative, George Peabody. He was responsible for helping to introduce American securities to British investors. During his first year as a partner, the firm "scored one of its greatest successes by the placing of the French loan. The Franco-Prussian War had just ended, France had been defeated, and the Rothschilds, the Barings and other firms, apprehensive of her future, refused to identify themselves with it. Events, however, sustained the braver, better judgment of Mr. Morgan and his partners. The loan was subscribed three or four times over, and the speedy recuperation of the republics helped to give its fiscal agent a reputation and standing which, with J. Pierpont Morgan as chief partner, the house conspicuously maintain[ed]."^[4]

Peabody lived in London from 1875 until his retirement in 1901, mostly at 97 Queen's Gate in South Kensington.^[3] Upon his return to America, he was elected a director of the American Loan and Trust Company.^[2]