Andrew Preston Peabody was an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 clergyman and author.

Born in Beverly, Massachusetts

Beverly, Massachusetts

Beverly is a city in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 39,343 on , which differs by no more than several hundred from the 39,862 obtained in the 2000 census. A resort, residential and manufacturing community on the North Shore, Beverly includes Beverly Farms and Prides...

, Peabody was descended from Lieut. Francis Peabody of St. Albans, who emigrated to Massachusetts

Massachusetts

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...

 in 1635. He learned to read before he was three years old, entered Harvard College

Harvard College

Harvard College, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is one of two schools within Harvard University granting undergraduate degrees...

 at the age of twelve, and graduated in 1826, the youngest graduate of Harvard with the single exception of Paul Dudley (class of 1690).

In 1833 Peabody became assistant pastor of the South Parish (Unitarian) of Portsmouth, New Hampshire

Portsmouth, New Hampshire

Portsmouth is a city in Rockingham County, New Hampshire in the United States. It is the largest city but only the fourth-largest community in the county, with a population of 21,233 at the 2010 census...

; the senior pastor died before Peabody had been preaching a month, and he succeeded to the charge of the church, which he held until 1860. In 1853 to 1863 he was proprietor and editor of the North American Review

North American Review

The North American Review was the first literary magazine in the United States. Founded in Boston in 1815 by journalist Nathan Hale and others, it was published continuously until 1940, when publication was suspended due to J. H. Smyth, who had purchased the magazine, being unmasked as a Japanese...

.

Peabody was preacher to Harvard University and the Plummer professor of Christian morals from 1860 to 1881, and was professor emeritus from 1881 until his death in Boston, Massachusetts, shortly before his 82nd birthday.

A bronze tablet dedicated to his memory is found in Appleton Chapel, Cambridge, Massachusetts

Cambridge, Massachusetts

Cambridge is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, in the Greater Boston area. It was named in honor of the University of Cambridge in England, an important center of the Puritan theology embraced by the town's founders. Cambridge is home to two of the world's most prominent...

. See the Memoir (Cambridge, 1896) by Edward J. Young.

Published work

In addition to brief memoirs and articles, Peabody wrote:

• Christianity the Religion of Nature (2 vol. ed., 1864)
• Lowell Institute Lectures; Reminiscences of European Travel (1868)
• A Manual of Moral Philosophy (1873)
• Christian Belief and Life (1875)
• Harvard Reminiscences (1888).

External links

• http://www.harvardsquarelibrary.org/UIA%20Online/13-8peabodyandrew.html
• http://www.harvardsquarelibrary.org/HVDpresidents/peabody.php Summary of his career, including acting president of Harvard