Walter Lewin

“ He became a man of wide information, and a clear and original thinker. In both politics and religion he was always radical. He shared actively in the chartist movement, and afterwards, for many years, until his death, was an energetic secularist. ”

“ PEACOCK, JOHN MACLEAY (1817–1877) , verse-writer, son of William Peacock, was born on 31 March 1817 at Kincardine, Perthshire, the seventh of eight children. While his family was young the father died, and the struggle for existence became severe. Peacock was sent to work at a very early age, first at a tobacco factory, and afterwards at some bleaching works. Ultimately he was apprenticed to boiler-making, and this became his trade. Commercial fluctuations, and a strong natural disposition to travel, took him in the course of his lifetime to many parts of the world. ”