Endicott Peabody (educator)

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The Rev. Endicott Peabody (30 May 1857-20 January 1944) was the American Episcopal clergyman who founded Groton School for Boys (known today simply as Groton School), (in Groton, Massachusetts), in 1884. Peabody served as headmaster at Groton School from 1884 until 1940, and also served as a trustee at Lawrence Academy at Groton. Peabody was Franklin Delano Roosevelt's headmaster at Groton, and he officiated at FDR's marriage to Eleanor Roosevelt.

Endicott Peabody, son of S. Endicott and Marianne C. (Lee) Peabody, was born in Salem, Massachusetts. His great-grandfather was the distinguished Salem shipowner, Joseph Peabody, who made a fortune importing pepper from Sumatra and was one of the wealthiest men in the United States at the time of his death in 1844. His father, Samuel Endicott Peabody, 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). When Endicott 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 and her father were brothers. They had six children. The family is considered to be Boston Brahmin. Their grandchildren include Governor Endicott Peabody, Marietta Peabody Tree, and their great-grandchildren include author Frances FitzGerald, model Penelope Tree, and actress Kyra Sedgwick, wife of Kevin Bacon.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt said of Peabody, "As long as I live his influence will mean more to me than that of any other people next to my father and mother." (As quoted in Peabody's obituary in the New York Times, April 13, 1944.)