Endicott Peabody

The Reverend Endicott Peabody (May 31, 1857 – November 17, 1944) was the American Episcopal priest who founded the Groton School for Boys (known today simply as Groton School), in Groton, Massachusetts in 1884. Peabody also founded St. Andrew's Episcopal Church in Ayer, Massachusetts, in October 1889. Peabody served as headmaster at the school from 1884 until 1940 and also served as a trustee at Lawrence Academy at Groton. In 1926, Peabody founded Brooks School, which was named for 19th-century clergyman Phillips Brooks, a well-known preacher and resident of North Andover, Massachusetts. Peabody was the headmaster for Franklin D. Roosevelt's time at Groton, and he officiated at Franklin's marriage to Eleanor Roosevelt, as well as those of their children. A 1944 Time magazine article described him as "the most famed U.S. headmaster of his generation". Early life Peabody was born in Salem, Massachusetts on May 31, 1857, the son of Samuel Endicott Peabody and Marianne Cabot Lee (daughter of John Clarke Lee). His father was a Boston merchant and a partner in the London banking firm of J. S. Morgan and Company (later known as J.P. Morgan & Company). His first cousin was Alice Lee Roosevelt, first wife of American President Theodore Roosevelt. When Peabody was 13, the family moved to England. He prepared for university at Cheltenham College, a secondary school in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, finishing in 1876 at the age of 19. He was graduated from Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1880 with an LL.B. degree. He married his first cousin, Fannie Peabody, daughter of Francis and Helen (Bloodgood) Peabody of Salem, Massachusetts, on June 18, 1885, in Salem. His father, Samuel, and her father, Francis, were brothers. They had six children.