Alexander Peckover, 1st Baron Peckover

Who was Alexander Peckover, 1st Baron Peckover?

Alexander Peckover, 1st Baron Peckover FRGS, FSA, FLS, was a British quaker banker, philanthropist and collector of ancient manuscripts.

Peckover was born at Wisbech, Cambridgeshire, the son of Algernon Peckover, of Bank House, Wisbech, by Priscilla Alexander, daughter of Dykes Alexander, a banker, of Ipswich, Suffolk. He was educated at Grove House School, Tottenham, London. The Peckovers were a Quaker banking family and owners of the Peckover Bank, which later merged into Gurney, Peckover and Company, of which he was a partner between 1847 and 1894. In his retirement he devoted himself mainly to metereological studies and the collection of ancient manuscripts. He was a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, the Society of Antiquaries and the Linnean Society of London and a member of the Hakluyt Society and the British Numismatic Society. In 1893 he was appointed Lord-Lieutenant of Cambridgeshire, a post he held until 1906. The following year he was raised to the peerage as Baron Peckover, of Wisbech in the County of Cambridge.