Francis Peck
Francis Peck (1692–1743) was an English priest of the Church of England and antiquary, best known for his Desiderata Curiosa (1732–1735).
Life[edit]
He was born in Stamford, Lincolnshire, England, the son of Robert, merchant, and baptised 4 May 1692. He may have attended Stamford School[1] before attending Charterhouse School, from where he was admitted to St John's College, Cambridge in 1709.[2] (Some have confused him with another Francis Peck, who was admitted to Trinity College, Cambridge in 1706.[3]
He was ordained as priest, 27 May 1716. After a curacy at King's Cliffe, Northamptonshire, he served as Rector of Goadby Marwood, Leicestershire, from 1723 until his death. He became a prebend of Lincoln in 1738.[3]
He wrote several books on history. In 1727 he published a history of Stamford called Academia Tertia Anglicana (Latin for 'the third English university' - a reference to the 14th-century Oxford schism in the town). He was elected to the Society of Antiquarians in 1732[4] and corresponded with many of the leading antiquaries and historians of the age; including Thomas Hearne, Browne Willis, Roger and Samuel Gale, and William Stukeley.