User:Wicrro/Peat

Sir Robert Peat (c.1772–20 April 1837) was an Anglican clergyman and the first Grand Prior of the revived English Langue of the Order of the Saint John, which later became the Venerable Order of Saint John.

Early life
Peat was born in Hamsterley, County Durham, the son of John Peat, a watchmaker and silversmith, and Ann Heron, of the Herons of Chipchase Castle. He was admitted to Trinity College, Cambridge as a 'ten year man' on 20 April 1790 and received a doctorate of Divinity from the University of Glasgow that same year. On 21 November that year, the King of Poland conferred the Order of Saint Stanislaus upon him, for services rendered to that king by a relative of Peat. He was later permitted to accept and wear the Order in 1804. Title, Foreign, Court case etc.


 * Dr Clanny
 * Mr. Collins
 * Fellow of the Royal Medico-Botanical Society of London 1830 p544
 * 199th episode dedicated, erroneously as "first prior of the St John's Ambulance Society"
 * Mentioned with Mary Anne Clarke but not implicated
 * Married Lucy Clementina Davies and Francis Henry Davies
 * Chaplain of the Orange Lodge
 * Absent for 6 months without licence from Brentford 1822
 * Trial distributed Bibliographical catalogue of privately printed books, 1854, page 179

Marriage
On 6 November 1815, Peat married the eccentric and elderly kleptomaniac Jane Smith (a kinswoman of Maria Fitzherbert) of East Herrington at St. Michael's, Houghton-le-Spring.

Order of Saint John
Peat died at the vicarage of St Lawrence's in New Brentford on 20 April 1837 and his library was sold at Sotheby's on 23 and 24 June. On hearing the news, his wife is said to have "bought a new dress of bright yellow cotton, and a bonnet, a feather, and ribbons to match" and walked the streets of Sunderland celebrating his death.

Character
Samuel Wesley (in a letter to Vincent Novello dated 1824) called Peat "an old Acquaintance, & I may even say Friend of mine. He is the Parson of Brentford, a good Scholar, a very feeling Lover of Music, a Man of superior Manners, & what we think better than all these, his Heart is warm and sincere".

The Monthly chronicle of North-country lore and legend describes Peat as "a fine-looking little man, dressed in a coat and waistcoat that might have been made by a Stultz, a white necktie, knee breeches, and white silk stockings. He cut a good figure on horseback, being an expert rider." Richardson's The Borderer's table book (1846) describes him (from local papers) as "highly distinguished for his accomplished manners and gentle manly bearing, an excellent scholar, and a warm and devoted friend."

Thomas Fordyce Local records

However Benbow's ultra-radical, anti-clericalist pamphlet The crimes of the clergy (1823) accuses him of being "proud, tyrannical, and overbearing", arrogant and a liar.

Titles, honours and arms

 * Listed incorrectly as a KP and Bt
 * Debrett's 1809, page 1072 1815, page 1423 1820, page 1449