| Birth Date: | 19 April 1825 |
| Birth Place: | Salem, Massachusetts |
| Death Place: | Salem, Massachusetts |
| Education: | Harvard College |
| Employer: | J.S. Morgan & Co. |
| Children: | 5, including Endicott and Francis |
| Relations: | Malcolm E. Peabody (grandson) |
| Signature: | Signature of Samuel Endicott Peabody (1825–1909).png |
Samuel Endicott Peabody (April 19, 1825 – October 31, 1909) was an American merchant and banker who was a partner in the London banking firm of J.S. Morgan & Co.
Peabody was born on April 19, 1825, in Salem, Massachusetts. He was a son of Col. Francis Peabody (1801–1867) and Martha (Endicott) Peabody (1799–1891).[1]
His paternal grandparents were Joseph Peabody and Elizabeth (Smith) Peabody (a daughter of the Rev. Elias Smith and sister of Rev. Elias Smith). Through his mother, he was a direct descendant of Gov. John Endicott of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. His maternal grandparents were Samuel Endicott and Elizabeth (Putnam) Endicott.[2]
Peabody spent one year studying at Harvard College before becoming a merchant.
After Harvard, he organized the merchant firm of Curtis & Peabody, with offices on India Wharf. He also served as president of the Salem National Bank and was a director of many companies.
In 1875, Peabody was invited to become a partner in the London banking firm of J.S. Morgan & Co. that had been founded as George Peabody & Co. by a distant relative, George Peabody. He was responsible for helping to introduce American securities to British investors. During the first year of he was a partner, the firm "scored one of its greatest successes by the placing of the French loan. The Franco-Prussian War had just ended, France had been defeated, and the Rothschilds, the Barings and other firms, apprehensive of her future, refused to identify themselves with it. Events, however, sustained the braver, better judgment of Mr. Morgan and his partners. The loan was subscribed three or four times over, and the speedy recuperation of the republics helped to give its fiscal agent a reputation and standing which, with J. Pierpont Morgan as chief partner, the house conspicuously maintain[ed]."
Peabody lived in London from 1875 until his retirement in 1901, mostly at 97 Queen's Gate in South Kensington.[2] Upon his return to America, he was elected a director of the American Loan and Trust Company.
On November 23, 1848, Peabody was married to Marianne Cabot Lee (1828–1911), a daughter of John Clarke Lee and Harriet Paine (Rose) Lee. Together, they were the parents of five children:[2]
Peabody died at Kernwood, his home in Salem, on October 31, 1909.[8] [9] His estate was valued at $1,000,000.[10] His widow died in Salem in October 1911.[11]
Through his son Endicott, he was a grandfather of The Right Reverend Malcolm E. Peabody, Bishop of Central New York, and great-grandfather of Marietta Peabody Tree and Endicott Peabody, the 62nd Governor of Massachusetts.[12]